Patriots 3-14 to 14-3 turnaround: How Drake Maye's Year 2 jump compares to 1999 Peyton Manning

It was hard to envision the Patriots competing for the top seed in the AFC heading into the 2025 season. After all, they posted a 4-13 record in 2024, tied for the fourth-worst mark in the league.

There were hints of excitement. Drake Maye flashed his potential in bursts, while Christian Gonzalez and Hunter Henry each had solid seasons. Still, a momentous turnaround didn’t seem likely, even with Mike Vrabel returning to the site of some of his greatest triumphs.

One year later, life is good in Foxborough, Mass. New England is one of football’s finest teams, having recorded more wins than most in 2025. The Lombardi Trophy beckons, and the Patriots seem as strong a candidate as any to lift it.

Here’s a look at New England’s historic turnaround in 2025.

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Patriots turnaround 2024 to 2025

The Patriots struggled through a miserable 2024 campaign, winning just three games under Jerod Mayo. The first season of the post-Bill Belichick era proved challenging for Mayo, the former first-team All-Pro linebacker handpicked by Belichick to lead the team.

Mayo initially handed the reins of the Patriots’ offense to Jacoby Brissett, a surprising choice given Drake Maye’s standout preseason. New England claimed an opening-day win over the Bengals but dropped their next six games, with Brissett failing to surpass 170 yards in any of his first five starts. Maye took over in Week 6 and performed admirably, posting 243 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions in a 41-21 loss to the Texans.

Maye remained the starter for the rest of the season, finding success in limited minutes and earning a Pro Bowl nod as a replacement for Josh Allen.

Despite Maye’s strong play, the losses mounted. The Patriots finished with just four wins, hampered by an underperforming roster. Following New England’s final game, owner Robert Kraft relieved Mayo of his duties, calling it “one of the hardest decisions” he ever had to make and citing the team’s lack of improvement as the reason for the move.

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The Athletic's Chad Graff reported that Mayo was felled by issues with media and some of his players. The first-year boss reportedly attempted to employ a player-friendly approach to management only to see his efforts to chum with the team dissipate after he labeled it as "soft." He also walked back comments expressing disappointment with former offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.

Not everyone was pleased with Mayo's sacking. Former teammate Rob Gronkowski expressed dismay over New England's decision.

"If you judge a coach by their first year, that's really not appropriate," Gronkowski said.

The Patriots' front office worked quickly to fill Mayo's position, seeking another former New England linebacker to lead their corps: Vrabel. The former Titans coach was hired one week after Mayo's sacking. He listed his familiarity with his former franchise and Maye's potential as reason why he jumped at the chance of wearing the headset in New England.

"I came here because of the familiarity. I came here because of Drake," Vrabel said in November, per NBC Sports Boston. "I knew what he would be, and it was important for me to come here. And that's someone I wanted to coach. And so building a program is about that. It's about putting great people around your really good players. That's what Drake is for us."

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The move worked a treat for coach, player and franchise alike. The Patriots posted a glistening 14-3 record in the regular season, capturing their first divisional title since Tom Brady left. Maye emerged as an MVP frontrunner, while Vrabel is likely to draw Coach of the Year consideration.

New England was aided by a .391 strength-of-schedule mark, by far the worst in football. Its regular-season displays were impressive, but perhaps not quite indicative of a side that would compete for the No. 1 seed until the final week of the year. Nevertheless, the campaign was a noteworthy one for the New Englanders, who posted the sixth-best record in franchise history in 2025.

Patriots record by year

Brady's departure at the end of the 2019 season brought about a freeze of sorts for the Patriots, who posted just one postseason appearance without him prior to 2025. Here's a look at how they have fared over the years.

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Peyton Manning-Colts 1998 season to 1999

New England's turnaround is the joint-best in league history. The side it is level with? The 1999 Colts, who posted an identical 10-win improvement from their 1998 display.

Much like the Patriots, Indianapolis was led by a second-year hurler of its own in Peyton Manning. The former No. 1 overall pick led the league in interceptions as a rookie. His sophomore season proved more successful, though; Manning eclipsed the 4,000-yard mark and tossed 26 touchdowns en route to a second-place finish in MVP voting. He was one of numerous players to stand out in 1999. Future Hall of Famer Edgerrin James led the league in rushing as a rookie, while Marvin Harrison was the sport's finest receiver. All of that amounted to a 13-3 regular season record, the joint-second-best mark in football.

What is the best single-season turnaround?

In terms of regular-season records, the 2025 Patriots, 1999 Colts, and 2008 Dolphins are the only teams to improve by 10 wins in a single season. Neither Indianapolis nor Miami captured the ultimate prize at the end of their remarkable campaigns. Can New England buck the trend this season? Only time will tell.