After a 2-1 preseason, the 2025 New England Patriots won 14 regular-season games, three of four playoff games, and once rode a 10-game winning streak. Simply put, this team won a lot of games.
However, every season is a different story, and while aspirations are the same in Foxborough, the context may have changed. Other teams have a year's worth of film, the schedule has changed, and they've had quite an eventful offseason, so to speak.
Considering that, Bleacher Report analyst Brad Ganon identified the three issues that could stand in the Patriots' way of another trip to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, they can't control all those variables.
The Patriots can prove the doubters wrong in 2026
"If the team can overcome a distracting offseason, survive a much more challenging schedule and again stay remarkably healthy, the Patriots could make a return trip to the Super Bowl," Gagnon wrote.
Mike Vrabel and his staff should focus on what they can control. Handling distractions and the outside noise will be paramount to staying locked in, especially given how eager everybody will be to bring up the off-the-field stuff if they struggle early on.
The Patriots didn't always do a good job avoiding unnecessary distractions around Vrabel's well-documented saga with Dianna Russini. We won't dig into the details; that's not our place, but anyone who thinks that discourse won't come back to haunt this team if they get off to a slow start would be naive.
As for injuries, that's, unfortunately, beyond anyone's control. Of course, the Patriots can — and will — always manage their players' workloads and err on the side of caution with every ailment, but that's just an unfortunate part of the job.
If anything, the only thing they can do is not rest on their laurels and attack every major injury with a subsequent move. Injuries are always a part of the equation, but this team can still do something about them, at least to a degree.
That leaves us with the only external roadblock: A tougher schedule. The Patriots didn't choose their opponents last season, and they clearly don't have a say in who they'll beat in the following 18 weeks, either.
A lot has been said about the Patriots' favorable road to the Super Bowl last season, and there's no point in honoring that debate with more letters and dots. It is what it is, and no team wins 17 out of 21 games just because of the schedule.
The Patriots can only beat whoever is in front of them, and not acknowledging their strong roster, solid coaching staff, rising-star quarterback, and proficient execution in all three phases of the game last season is flat-out hating.
All teams face different challenges to reach the mountaintop, and it's not like the Patriots will be the first team to dominate with an easy schedule and then have to play a first-place schedule the following season.
Analysts, pundits, beat writers, and even fans can write and talk all they want during the offseason. At the end of the day, everything that has been said or written will be meaningless once they put the pads on and stomp on the gridiron.
Will they return to the big game? We shall see.
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