Tom Brady admits what everyone fears is now true about the Patriots

The New England Patriots' 2025 season is wrapped. Under Mike Vrabel's tutelage and MVP candidate, Drake Maye's on-field heroics and leadership, the Patriots have gone from AFC East doormats to champions in one year. Now, their former dynastic quarterback, Tom Brady, has recognized that emergence and ranked them second in his final power rankings.

Brady is as astute an NFL analyst as there is. He pulls no punches and takes no prisoners. TB12's recognition of Vrabel's and his team's achievement is an endorsement that cannot be overestimated. Vrabel is the NFL's Coach of the Year.

Meanwhile, Maye, the successor to Brady's mantle as the engineer of the Patriots' offense, has also made waves in his second season, amounting to a tsunami of achievements. The second-year player shredded any thoughts of a sophomore slump and put up a magnificent season, putting him smack dab in the running for MVP with Matthew Stafford of the Rams.

The Patriots emergence rests largely on Mike Vrabel's shoulders

When Mike Vrabel was hired in mid-January, it was as enlightened a decision as Robert Kraft had made in years. Then he allowed him and returning GM Eliot Wolf to assemble the parts needed to take Maye to the top of the AFC East.

That roster has made an impression on the NFL much faster than anyone anticipated, which has led Tom Brady to rank his former team in a lofty position for his final power rankings of the regular season.

The Patriots may be one-and-done in the playoffs. No matter, the 2025 season has been a revelation, and nothing can take away from the achievements of their two most essential actors: Head Coach and roster rebuilder Mike Vrabel and quarterback Drake Maye.

Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye have shocked the 2025 NFL

First, Vrabel showed the Tennessee Titans the folly of letting him go after one poor season. It was a mistake made in Foxborough heaven. While Vrabel was scorned in the 2024 offseason, it presented an opportunity for Kraft to right a wrong of the previous offseason and finally get the right man in place in Vrabel in 2025. The team has never looked back,

Vrabel engineered one of, if not the best, offseasons ever in the Patriots' long history. It was a tour de force in every respect. First, he aced free agency by bringing in numerous new starters to replace those who didn't measure up on both sides of the ball.

Then he conducted a masterful draft that delivered not only contributors but starters, including two immediate starters on the offensive line. Then, to top things off, in undrafted free agency, he signed a few possible future stars, including wide receiver Efton Chism III, a Julian Edelman clone, and superb pass-catching running back Lan Larison. His entire offseason grade was A+.

With an NFL-capable offensive line and four new receivers, Maye was ready to build on a very good and Pro Bowl rookie season, and he raised his game to stratospheric levels. Maye left even the most optimistic predictions in the dust as he conducted a passing season that placed him smack dab in the MVP picture.

He passed for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns against only eight interceptions, and other jaw-dropping stats. He capped off all that statistical brilliance by passing for an astronomical 72 percent completion rate, besting his primary MVP opponent, Stafford (who passed for a 65 percent rate) by a whopping seven percentage points.

Vrabel and Maye, along with a now very capable (if not fully rebuilt) NFL roster, had a brilliant 2025 season. It may end soon or carry on, perhaps even to equal the unexpected and unlikely 2001 Lombardi Trophy-winning team.

Regardless, the 2025 New England Patriots were a rousing success, and no one can take that away from them.