The 2025 NFL preseason is in the books. Now all that's left is to finalize rosters and get ready for some football. The New England Patriots and all other NFL teams have to get their rosters down to 53 men by August 26. Not all these players will necessarily stick, but most will.
New Head Coach Mike Vrabel will pare his squad down to 53 and begin to get them ready for the September 7 showdown with another new head coach of his team, Pete Carroll, and the Las Vegas Raiders at Gillette Stadium.
Vrabel has conducted a massive overhaul of one of the NFL's worst rosters and, by all accounts, has made it NFL-ready. How that plays out is subject to conjecture. Yet, Vrabel has brought in better playmakers, and his coaching pedigree is almost as good as it gets for a younger NFL coach.
Analyst is bullish on Mike Vrabel and is optimistic about the 2025 Patriots
One top NFL analyst, former Patriot Damien Woody, expects good things from the Patriots for one very good reason: their coach.
"I'm bullish on the New England Patriots..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 20, 2025
They've got Mike Vrabel in the building and he's one of the best head coaches that we have in the game..
Don't be surprised if you see the Patriots in the playoffs this year" ~ @damienwoody #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/q4RmnTExr2
That's a high compliment from Woody for a team that was last in the AFC East in 2024 for the second straight year. It also even muffed the first pick in the draft by winning a meaningless last game of the season against the Bills.
Why Damien Woody may just be right about the Patriots and the playoffs
Woody centered his positive comments around the Head Coach, Mike Vrabel. He'll get little argument that Vrabel is not only a massive upgrade over 2024 but also is indeed one of the top coaches in the NFL. He has the 2021 Coach of the Year Award to support that contention.
Yet, as Woody well knows, Vrabel won't throw a pass or catch another touchdown pass in 2025. That's where Vrabel, the de facto general manager, entered the picture. Vrabel conducted a masterpiece of an offseason, as good or better than any Patriots offseason in years.
Vrabel bolstered his offense with multiple additions to the worst two units on the team, the offensive line and the wide receivers. Both are greatly improved. On defense, he added quality to all three plus levels: the defensive line, the edges, the linebacking crew, and the defensive backfield. The defense is stacked with playmakers for 2025. It had few last season.
And of course, Vrabel has the key piece to any winning and playoff-contending NFL team, a top quarterback. He now has a second-year Drake Maye, who, with a far better supporting cast, is poised to explode onto the NFL scene. All that adds up to solid comments by Woody about the Patriots' Head Coach and the team's playoff potential. Now we'll see what happens. After all, that's why they play the games.