Culture has been a key talking point for the New England Patriots since Mike Vrabel’s arrival in January. The organization and its new head coach made a concerted effort to rebuild that particular aspect of the team after the underwhelming Jerod Mayo era, replacing several longtime leaders by bringing in a new group of tone-setters.
They and their head coach are in the spotlight this week. The Patriots, after all, are entering their Week 2 game against the Miami Dolphins off an uninspiring 20-13 opening day loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Vrabel knows that the nature of that defeat — an overall underwhelming effort from a team that might just have bought into the hype a bit — requires more than just a quick turnaround. It also requires the team’s leadership to step up.
In short, this week will be a first true test for the culture Vrabel wants to build.
“Now we’ll see where we’re at,” he said. “We’ll see what kind of football team we have, what kind of leaders we have, to be able to come back in here and get to work. I think that will be the true test. We always talk about culture and everything else. We’ll see where we’re at as a culture and as a team and if we have guys that want to work and stick together. It’ll be a big challenge to do that.”
As part of the Patriots’ culture shift, they replaced all six of their initial 2024 captains. With the exception of Hunter Henry, who already served as captain in 2023 and was named a stand-in last year, the new group consists entirely of first-timers (QB Drake Maye, CB Marcus Jones, S Brenden Schooler) or offseason additions (ED Harold Landry III, LB Robert Spillane).
How they and the rest of the team will handle the underwhelming defeat against Las Vegas, and steer the ship forward remains to be seen. As Drake Maye pointed out, however, they are well aware of the urgency that needs to be shown.
”There’s an urgency to not let this game bleed into the next,” the second-year quarterback explained. “We’ve got a chance with a division opponent. We’re going down there, and anytime you’re playing a division opponent, it matters. It means something. Bounce back and realize, at the same time learn from it. Learn from it as much as we can, but at the same time: it’s one game, and we’ve got to get back.”
As one of two offensive captain and the focal point of the Patriots’ rebuilding efforts, Maye is in a special position as a leader. The team requires him to look the part both on and of the field, a task the 23-year-old is not taking lightly.
“It’s a long season to get back at it and do what I need to do to play better on my end and help guys around me play better,” he said. “Then, from there, just lean into each other. I think that’s the big thing around here. We spend so much time together. Lean into each other and fix what we need to fix and learn from it. The goal is not to have it show up again.”
