Heading into the third season without Bill Belichick on the sideline, there isn't much to say about the Patriots' former head coach anymore, except to point to some of the dynasty's more stellar or frustrating moments over two decades.
Why is that? Because most felt it was time to move on, with a new face calling the shots and bringing the team to new success. Robert Kraft believed that it could be Jerod Mayo, but after one year, he decided it was Mike Vrabel's turn, and he led the Patriots to a Super Bowl in his first season.
That set expectations incredibly high for 2026, particularly for Drake Maye, and so far, they haven't lived up to what most believed would be another impressive year, despite the tougher schedule.
They fell to a new low against the Jaguars on Sunday, with everything going wrong and Maye looking like a bottom-tier quarterback, making it a game most would rather forget quickly.
It's one of those games teams need to use as motivation to improve and never let it happen again, and that's where the Patriots are now. That puts Mike Vrabel at the head of the table to move things in the right direction, and he might want to dig into an old Belichick trick that made a point to the roster when things looked bad.
Typically, Patriots fans don't want to see much Belichick-era tactics for the current team. But one instance could help this team turn the page, and Vrabel can't pass it up.
Mike Vrabel might want to bring back a lesson from 2001 that Bill Belichick instilled in the Patriots
Going all the way back to the 2001 season, the Patriots might have won a Super Bowl that year, but it didn't always look that way.
In fact, they started 1-3, and their loss to the Dolphins pushed Belichick over the edge. He decided it was time not only to send a message to the roster, but to ceremonially bury the football, having players kick dirt over it to bury the game and forget it for the rest of the season.
As we know, they went on to win 10 of their remaining games, ending the year with an 11-5 record, and winning Super Bowl XXXVI against the "Greatest Show on Turf," the St. Louis Rams.
Clearly, his decision to have that visual of getting rid of their worst performance and putting it behind them worked in all the right ways, and it could be something Vrabel considered to do with the Patriots this year.
He could bury the game tape, or he could look to when Belichick infamously did something else during the 2008 season, as told by backup quarterback-turned-starter Matt Cassel.
Or... he could try a different Belichick tactic that worked in 2008
Similarly, after losing in brutal fashion to the Dolphins in Week 3, Belichick took the players to the practice field, dug a hole, and "buried the game film." It was another moment he hoped would motivate the team to get back on track, which would be incredibly difficult with Tom Brady sidelined by an ACL injury, but the head coach knew what had worked in the past.
They were coming off a devastating Super Bowl loss to the Giants after their first undefeated season of the modern era, and it was important that they capitalized on the top-tier roster they still had.
Belichick did what he believed he had to do to get them on the right page, and the Patriots finished 11-5 that season. They might have missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker, but that doesn't negate what Belichick did to motivate the team.
It could motivate the current Patriots team, especially Maye, who might not want to watch this game back for any reason, even to learn from it.
Regardless, Vrabel has to do something to get the team back on track and locked in for the rest of the season. The schedule isn't getting any easier, and they're creating more problems for themselves than their opponents are.
So if they can stop shooting themselves in the foot, then they should have a good chance moving forward.
At this point, they should try anything, even if it isn't something Belichick did. Vrabel needs to get control and make something happen. That's really the only way that the 2026 season has any hope left for the Patriots.
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