I'll be honest: it's been kinda weird to read about all this Patriots' optimism recently. It certainly beats reading literally anything about the Mac Jones era.
But now that Mike Vrabel is running things up in Foxboro, a return to the top (ish) of the AFC East doesn't seem that unlikely. Fine, a return to second in the AFC East doesn't seem that unlikely. If you squint hard enough, there's almost certainly a world where the Pats end next season in a better spot than either the Jets or the Dolphins, and there's even better news: Sports Illustrated has officially given us permission to quietly predict a playoff berth. They didn't, but you can! The world's your east coast oyster.
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In their new list of 100 NFL Predictions – which is, in my opinion, 95 too many predictions for late-May – Sports Illustrated hit us with a Patriots' prediction that is almost two great outcomes for the price of one. We'll call it 1.5 great outcomes for the price of one. Either way, we're still getting value on random offseason predictions based on nothing at all, which is how you know things are looking up.
SI's Mike Vrabel prediction will get you so stoked for Patriots football
Prediction: Mike Vrabel will win Coach of the Year (and …)
"The Patriots will nearly sneak into the playoffs as a seven-seed but miss the postseason. While the AFC, particularly in the West, feels ruthless at the moment, there is still an opening for a grimy and competitive Patriots team to finish second in the East behind Buffalo. I make this prediction in full awareness of what was likely the worst prediction I’ve ever made, also in this space, when I projected a God-awful Patriots team to win the AFC East in 2023."
Frankly, I would have preferred the playoff one. All Coach of the Year really gets you is a firm handshake, a fancy social media graphic, and unrealistic expectations going forward. And maybe those expectations aren't necessarily unsurprising – especially in New England – but this feels like a consolation prize for when the Pats lose that final home game of the year against Miami for the right to play in Houston at 1pm on Wild Card Saturday. Besides, 'barely failing to make the playoffs as a seven-seed' is way more Dolphin-coded.