Next Stop, Playoffs? 17 Games, 17 Subplots For Patriots' 2025 Schedule

Next stop, playoffs? 17 games, 17 subplots for Patriots' 2025 schedule originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Schedule’s out. How’s it gonna go? We’ll let ya know. Right now.

As is tradition, here are 17 subplots for all 17 games on the Patriots’ 2025 schedule.

Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 7 vs. Las Vegas Raiders (1 p.m. ET)

This will be endlessly billed as a “revenge game” because of the myriad connections between Patriots and Raiders luminaries.

Raiders part-owner Tom Brady was actually once a sixth-round pick of the Patriots! Then you have the Pete Carroll, Josh McDaniels, Jakobi Meyers, Bobby Spillane, etc., personnel overlap. So it does qualify. But it won’t come close to cracking the great Revenge/Reunion Games in Boston sports history.

(A brief aside … The most memorable for me off the top of my head: Carlton Fisk as a White Sox ripping homers on Opening Day at Fenway, all the Roger Clemens games — especially his bombardment in the 1999 ALCS — and ALLLLL the Tuna Bowls, especially Tuna Bowl I.)

A more pertinent subplot, though, is what McDaniels is going to unveil with Drake Maye in Year 2. The Patriots will play it close to the vest during training camp and the preseason. But going against his former team with Maye at his disposal, McDaniels will relish outcoaching Carroll and going against defensive coordinator Patrick Graham (a McDaniels hire who’s survived in Vegas). That’s gonna be some good stuff.

Most pertinent: Which of these two teams — who were both cheeks last year — gets off on the right foot? This kinda has to be a New England win.

Patriots vault to 1-0.

Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 14 at Miami Dolphins (1 p.m. ET)

They still haven’t beaten Tua Tagovailoa. The lil’ lefty is 7-0 against New England. He went 6-0 against Bill Belichick’s Patriots and chewed up Jerod Mayo’s in his one appearance against the Patriots in 2024 (317 yards, four TDs, no picks). It’s lunacy.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins are 47-37 this decade. The Patriots are 33-50. Didja think it was gonna go that way when the Patriots were toying with the Dolphins in a 43-0 win AT Miami back in 2019, with Brady throwing to Antonio Brown and people wondering if this 2019 team was more stacked than ’07? Me neither.

But here we are. A reasonable chance to get to 2-0. Not likely. Reasonable, though.

Patriots drop to 1-1.

Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 21 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (1 p.m. ET)

Our crunchy, dollar-store philosopher hasn’t yet finished smelling his own farts and deigned to sign with the Steelers, but we will presume Aaron Rodgers will be the quarterback when the Steelers visit Gillette. I’m feeling it’s a 1-1 Patriots team.

Pittsburgh added DK Metcalf, Darius Slay and Mason Graham while evicting George Pickens from the house. They’re better than the Patriots, a fact my respected colleague Phil Perry refused to accept on our schedule release pod.

Also, the Patriots have three home wins the past two years, and one of those was Joe Milton’s Final Roundup. Until further notice, the Patriots suck at home.

So they rappel to 1-2.

Week 4: Sunday, Sept. 28 vs. Carolina Panthers (1 p.m. ET)

Closing the first month of the season with an equally downtrodden Panthers team at home should — SHOULD — be one you could put in the W column.

The Panthers were the worst defense in the league last year. They made some adds to improve with signings and free agency, but the biggest fish they had on their line wriggled off to the Patriots. That was Milton Williams.

Bryce Young is heading into his third year. It’s not been pleasant for him so far. Carolina got him Tetairoa McMillan in the first round. My guess is McMillan winds up on the Island of Broken Wide Receiver Dreams with N’Keal Harry, Laquon Treadwell and Kevin White.

Patriots win. Patriots emerge at 2-2.

Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 5 at Buffalo Bills (8:20 p.m. ET)

This shows the league’s faith in the Patriots’ possible improvement. A SNF game. While half their season used to be in prime time (it seemed), the Patriots’ recent appearances have been slim and occasionally flexed away from. (I maintain that the 2022 Patriots-Raiders game belonged in primetime for the sheer chaotic drama that unfolded, but that was the first flexing indignity the Patriots suffered.)

This will be a good game for the nation to lay eyes on the once-proud franchise and see if it’s got some glow left in its embers while taking on the Bills. Since it usually takes at least a month for teams to figure out who they are and how they’ll play, the Patriots should be forming a personality.

I don’t know if they’re going to shock the world — I predict they’ll be eight-point dogs — but they’ll be pesky in dropping to 2-3.

Week 6: Sunday, Oct. 12 at New Orleans Saints (4:25 p.m. ET)

This is the first of four winnable games. And it’s the third winnable of the first six. The stage is set, my friends, and the Saints may be Tanking for Arch or Fanning for Manning or something like that. They certainly aren’t expecting rookie Tyler Shough to be the answer for first-year head coach Kellen Moore.

So, there’s every reason to expect a win as I look at this game five months before it’s played.

Patriots wander to 3-3.

Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 19 at Tennessee Titans (1 p.m. ET)

It’s the Mike Vrabel Revenge Game, and the Patriots have a better football team than the Titans and Brian Callahan, the man Tennessee picked to replace Vrabel.

By this time, one would expect rookie No. 1 pick Cam Ward to be under center. He might have been the seventh quarterback taken if he were in the 2024 draft, so the Patriots have the QB edge with Maye.

The Patriots also lost to Tennessee in overtime last year at Gillette after tying the game on Maye’s last-second touchdown pass. I’m still pissed they didn’t go for two. Anyway. Revenge gained.

Patriots sashay to 4-3.

Week 8: Sunday, Oct. 26 vs. Cleveland Browns (1 p.m. ET)

Every year with the out-of-division, last-place rotation of Browns-Titans-Jaguars, right? Anyway, Cleveland is a train wreck.

They have the likable, 52-year-old Joe Flacco at quarterback until the hue and cry to “PUT IN SHEH-DOOOOORRRRRRRRR!!!” becomes too much for Jimmy Haslam to bear and Shedeur Sanders gets fed to the NFL.

As often happens with young, raw players on bad teams, it looks even worse than it really is, and Sanders spends more time picking himself off the turf or trying to make tackles than generating first downs.

As luck has it, the Patriots are the first team to get a crack at Sheduer.

Patriots shuffle to 5-3.

Week 9: Sunday, Nov. 2 vs. Atlanta Falcons (1 p.m. ET)

Here’s a good checkpoint game, too. Nobody’s going to confuse the Falcons for an elite team. But they won twice as many games as the Patriots last year. They’re also operating with a second-year quarterback in Michael Penix Jr.

They didn’t really do a blessed thing in free agency because of cap constraints. They drafted two possible impact defensive players in Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr., but their yield won’t come too early.

In other words, this is a game the Patriots ought to win. So — even though I know at some point they’re going to lose one they shouldn’t — I’ll give this a W.

Patriots slither to 6-3.

Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 9 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1 p.m. ET)

By now, the Patriots are the toast of the AFC. Or at the very least, they’ve risen to minor curiosity and a “team to be taken somewhat seriously.”

Blessedly, they only have daunting opponents every four weeks or so, and here’s one that’s at least semi-daunting. The Bucs closed 2024 winning six of their last seven. They made sure not to lose Chris Godwin to the Patriots. They have the always-amusing-to-watch Baker Mayfield in place. So it’s a fun game.

I think we have to let go of the Brady-as-a-Buc storyline as kindling for imagined agitation with Tampa; he would have gone anywhere appealing at that point. So, we’ll settle for Stefon Diggs vs. Godwin. Did the Patriots dumb into a gold mine with Diggs?

Patriots bumble to 6-4.

Week 11: Thursday, Nov. 13 vs. New York Jets (8:15 p.m. ET)

Thursday Night Football vs. the Jets. This is kind of a long-standing tradition by now.

I can only remember amusing matchups like the Butt Fumble, the Sam Darnold “seeing ghosts” game and Brady losing his GODDUM MIND in 2013 throwing to the slapped-together wideout room. But it’s always kinda fun.

This is a game the Patriots want to get because the schedule’s going to get marginally tougher after Thanksgiving. They do.

Patriots waddle to 7-4.

Week 12: Sunday, Nov. 23 at Cincinnati Bengals (1 p.m. ET)

Big revenge game for Cincy, which HUMILIATINGLY lost to the Patriots in the opener last year and missed the playoffs while going 9-8. Other than that, I’m running out of subplots.

The Patriots are six-point dogs going in. They lose, but cover.

Patriots slink to 7-5.

Week 13: Monday, Dec. 1 vs. New York Giants (8:15 p.m. ET)

We got ourselves a Monday Night Football tilt to kick off December. By this time, Russell Wilson/Jameis Winston have either gotten the G-Men hanging around the outskirts of contention with the team’s improved defense, or the Jaxson Dart Era is upon us.

I’m going with the former. There is too much talent sprinkled around the Giants roster for them to be as bad as they’ve been.

This will be the first time since Super Bowl 42 that Mike Vrabel, as a member of the Patriots, has been across the field from Big Blue. So there’s your hook. Unfortunately!!! A stunning and much lamented upset heading into the bye week, as the Patriots — as five-point favorites — are toppled while Will Campbell has a down day against the Giants fleet of pass-rushers.

Patriots limp to 7-6 and enter the bye with some nasty games coming up.

Week 14: BYE

Week 15: Sunday, Dec. 14 vs. Buffalo Bills (1 p.m. ET)

Now there’s a little adversity windstorm blowing through Foxboro with two straight losses and two upper-echelon teams on the docket. Can they stop it from becoming a WINTER CYCLONE OF MAMMOTH PROPORTIONS??? They can and they do.

You drop one you weren’t supposed to against the Giants? You follow that by being prepped and ready coming out of the bye against a Bills team that played Cincy the week before. Cue the first emergence of the “Are the Patriots a legit threat?” conversation.

Patriots catapult to 8-6.

Week 16: Sunday, Dec. 21 at Baltimore Ravens (1 p.m. ET)

The dreaded winter solstice game. Also the second of back-to-back games against AFC elite (and the first time the Patriots have had back-to-back games against top-tier teams.)

In moments like these, it’s worth remembering that the Patriots have been one of the worst teams in the league for three seasons running and the Ravens are one of the best. That doesn’t flip overnight.

Patriots get torn asunder. 8-7.

Week 17: Sunday, Dec. 28 at New York Jets (1 p.m. ET)

By all measures, the Patriots’ season is by now a rousing success.

They matched their combined win total of the previous two seasons. They are right in the Wild Card mix. The stadium is full. Maye is a Pro Bowler. Keion White has 11 sacks. Harold Landry has nine. DeMario Douglas has 97 catches entering the final two games.

Life is good. And the Jets are not terribly interested in winning, since they need their next QB.

Patriots bound to 9-7.

Week 18: TBD vs. Miami Dolphins (TBD)

Win and you’re in for both teams. The Patriots still haven’t beaten Tua. Beating Miami here and getting into the playoffs would exorcise the ghosts (somewhat) of the past five seasons when the team simply couldn’t solve a B-minus quarterback.

Finally, the Patriots crack the code. They poleaxe Miami. Somewhere, DeVante Parker shrugs.

Patriots prance into the playoffs at 10-7.