Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel make the Patriots super again

Billy Heyen

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Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel make the Patriots super again image

For two consecutive seasons, the New England Patriots went 4-13.

It was a far cry from the glory days of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. But last year, they entered Drake Maye into the equation, the second of those two 4-13 campaigns serving as a learning season for the rookie quarterback.

This season, they added Mike Vrabel as the new head coach.

And now the Patriots were a 14-3 team in the regular season, and they're going to the Super Bowl.

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Maye clinched it with a brilliantly executed play-action bootleg run for a first down in the snowfall in Denver:

What a play. What a player. What a team.

The Patriots may annoy everyone else in the NFL with this quick return to relevance. They got six Super Bowl rings with Brady and Belichick. Couldn't they suffer a little longer?

But just as they did in the sixth round so long ago, this time it was the No. 3 pick that they got right with Maye.

At times, he looks like Josh Allen.

In other moments, he looks like entirely his own guy, with a ceiling that only he will truly determine.

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With a motivational, sturdy head coach alongside him, Maye just may have a brilliant NFL future ahead.

No one saw this coming so soon, though. A trip to the Super Bowl in year two? After a 4-13 season?

Maye is the kind of dude who inspires belief, though. Vrabel brings belief of his own to the table.

And together, in two weeks, they'll take the field at the Super Bowl. No one would count them out now.

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