After steamrolling the New York Giants on Monday night, the New England Patriots have now won 10 straight games following a 1-2 start to the 2025 season. Drake Maye has been a catalyst for much of the Patriots success and is now the odds-on favorite to win MVP, but he isn’t the only Patriot in line to earn an award come season’s end.
New England head coach Mike Vrabel is now the betting favorite to win the NFL’s Coach of the Year award, according to Fan Duel. At -195, it would take a serious downturn for Vrabel to get overtaken by the next closest candidates in the Bears’ Ben Johnson (+250) or the Seahawks‘ Mike Macdonald (+650).
Vrabel started the season in a cluster of coaches who were betting favorites to win the award, along with Johnson, Jonathan Gannon of the Arizona Cardinals, and Liam Coen of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Vrabel has taken a Patriots team that went 4-13 last season and turned them into a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
He won the award back in 2021 in his fourth season with the Tennessee Titans. He finished the season 12-5, though the Titans were ousted in the first round of the playoffs.
“He’s Got My Vote;” Drake Maye Instills Confidence in Vrabel
Pats QB Drake Maye was asked about Vrabel’s candidacy for the Coach of the Year award following New England’s 33-15 win over the Giants on Monday night.
“He’s worried about each and every week, and that stuff will come,” Maye said.”He’s got my vote, he’s got a lot of people’s vote. He has everybody’s vote in this organization, in that locker room and I’m sure across the league.”
Vrabel played over 200 games in the NFL as a linebacker with the Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his knowledge and leadership has clearly stemmed from that experience. He’s been labeled as both a “player’s coach” and a “hard-ass,” which is a tough line to walk but if you can get it down right, it makes for a great coach.
That’s what New England has in Vrabel, and it’s shown on both sides of the ball, though he seems to have had more of a direct correlation with the defensive success as OC Josh McDaniels has transformed Maye and the offense.
Although New England made some splashes in free agency on the defensive side by signing Milton Williams, Carlton Davis, and Robert Spillane, the unit as a whole has seamlessly meshed due in large part to Vrabel’s coaching and scheming.
Patriots Reclaim No. 1 Seed in AFC With Win Over Giants
By virtue of having played one more game than the Denver Broncos, New England took back it’s spot atop the AFC playoff picture with the win over New York on Monday night. With a bye week coming up while Denver takes on the Las Vegas Raiders, it’s likely the Patriots will find themselves back in a tie with the Broncos come week 15.
The No. 1 seed is still the Patriots to lose, though. Denver’s final four games will be against Green Bay, Jacksonville, Kansas City, and the LA Chargers; all teams currently in the playoffs or just on the outside in the Chiefs case.
Meanwhile, New England will finish the season with two tough games against Buffalo and Baltimore, but then two very winnable games against the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins.
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