Who’d have thought it? After years of turmoil following Tom Brady’s 2019 departure, the AFC once again runs through Foxborough following one of the most spectacular returns to power in NFL history. Just 12 months ago, the New England Patriots were in crisis mode, rock bottom of the AFC East after a second straight 4-13 season and third consecutive year without playoff football. Fast forward to now, and the Pats are suddenly divisional champions, with a stunning 14-3 season – their best in nine years – helping them to the conference’s number two seed.
Patriots Return to the Summit
And online betting sites think it could get even better. Online NFL betting odds for week 18 made the Patriots a whopping 13.5-point favorite for their end-of-season clash with the Miami Dolphins. And while they didn’t manage to cover, they did secure the win, punching their tickets to the forefront of everyone’s mind as a genuine Super Bowl contender. The bookies make New England a +550 third-favorite to leave Santa Clara with what would be a record-breaking eighth Lombardi trophy.
But how did this fall and subsequent rise come to fruition? The greatest dynasty in NFL history didn’t gracefully sail into the sunset—it had a full-blown meltdown, plummeting to the doldrums of the NFL. By the time Bill Belichick walked out the door after a 4-13 catastrophe in 2023, Tom Brady had been gone three years, the roster looked like a practice squad audition, and Robert Kraft faced a reality he’d successfully avoided for his entire ownership tenure: starting over from scratch.
They had faked rebuilds in the years since Brady left for Tampa Bay —plug in a veteran receiver here, draft a defensive back there, pray Mac Jones turns into something he isn’t—but what Kraft orchestrated after Belichick’s departure felt different. Here’s why.
He Finally Pulled the Plug on Belichick
Kraft spent three decades building his reputation on loyalty—almost pathologically so—which made the inevitable Belichick divorce an agonizing one that neither party wanted, but both knew had to happen. By 2023, Foxborough finally admitted that the 71-year-old coach had become a dinosaur in the modern game, and without Brady consistently bailing him out, he became a shell of the man who dominated the playoff picture for the better part of two decades.
25 years ago today, Bill Belichick was introduced as the Pats HC 🐐pic.twitter.com/R4usePcDcn
— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) January 27, 2025
Three straight seasons without playoff football. Four wins in Year 24. At some point, even unconditional love requires an intervention.
People around the league will tell you Kraft gave Belichick essentially blank-check authority after Brady left—a make-good for choosing the coach over the quarterback in that 2020 standoff nobody wants to talk about, honestly. That grace period bought Belichick three years to prove he could build a contender from rubble. Instead, he took the Patriots to depths that no one thought possible for the greatest dynasty in history.
He Blew Up Belichick’s One-Man Dictatorship
For two decades, Belichick ran personnel like a medieval king—no checks, no balances, no dissenting voices allowed within 50 yards of a draft board. It worked brilliantly when Brady was covering for every questionable second-round pick, but without him? You got a roster that couldn’t score 14 points.
Kraft’s first post-Belichick move was structural demolition: elevate Eliot Wolf to executive vice president of player personnel. The 43-year-old held actual power, but instead of throwing his weight around, he opted for the collaborative approach—analytics-friendly, transparent hierarchy, willingness to listen to people who aren’t him. He represented everything Belichick’s final years weren’t.
Kraft reinforced Wolf by bringing in Alonzo Highsmith as senior personnel executive, reuniting a duo who’d worked together in Green Bay and Cleveland. Then came the organizational depth: four internal promotions, five external hires, suddenly a front office that looked like every other competent NFL franchise, instead of one cranky coach and a Gmail account.
He Bet the House on Drake Maye
Holding the third overall pick in 2024 after a 4-13 mortification, the Patriots faced the most consequential decision since choosing Brady in the sixth round 24 years earlier. Kraft called it the most anticipated draft of his ownership tenure, which wasn’t hyperbole—this was franchise-altering pressure condensed into one selection. And considering how they blew the Mac Jones pick years prior, the pressure was on to get it right the second time around.
In the end, they settled on Drake Maye, the 6-foot-4 North Carolina gunslinger who’d thrown for over 8,000 yards and 63 touchdowns in two seasons with the Tar Heels. But here’s what struck the experts regarding the pick: Kraft didn’t get cute. He didn’t trade down to accumulate compensatory capital. He didn’t overthink himself into taking the “safer” prospect or the hometown kid or whatever narrative the Boston sports-talk ecosystem was manufacturing that week. He identified the best available quarterback and pulled the trigger. Revolutionary stuff, right? Except, for the Patriots, who’ve spent the post-Brady years talking themselves into Cam Newton’s corpse, Mac Jones’ ceiling, and Bailey Zappe’s “scrappiness,” it actually was revolutionary.
Maye signed his four-year, $36.64 million fully guaranteed rookie deal and initially backed up Jacoby Brissett—organizational patience instead of throwing him into the wood chipper immediately. Smart. Measured. The kind of developmental plan you’d expect from a franchise that hadn’t completely lost its institutional memory.
Throughout 2025, Maye has proven himself worthy of being Brady’s long-term replacement. He has thrown for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns this year, delivering one highlight reel play after another. Not only did he lead the Patriots back into contention, but he is now a +450 second-favorite for the MVP award behind the Rams’ Matthew Stafford. If he brings the Lombardi back to Foxborough, the single biggest question hanging over Kraft’s entire rebuild will have been answered.
