Secret to Patriots’ Super Bowl revival has been brutally fired twice and turned Drake Maye into new Tom Brady

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick used to get all the headlines.

In 2026, the New England Patriots‘ Super Bowl revival has been linked to Mike Vrabel, Robert Kraft and Drake Maye.

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Offensive coordinator is hidden link between Patriots QBs

But none of those above big names have coached both Brady and Maye hour after hour and day after day.

Only Josh McDaniels guided Brady to his first NFL MVP award in 2007, then returned to the Patriots for the third time and turned Maye into a leading MVP candidate 19 years later.

Throw in that McDaniels has been brutally fired twice as as NFL head coach (Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders) and started his career working for college football legend Nick Saban at Michigan State, and it’s time to give a 49-year-old from Ohio a new level of respect.

Vrabel has remade the Patriots in his old New England image.

He also was smart enough to bring back a six-time Super Bowl winner once trusted by Belichick and Brady with the Patriots’ biggest football secrets.

Of course, McDaniels passed the credit back to New England’s $13.8 billion owner when asked how the Patriots are back in the big game, while other NFL franchises make the Super Bowl then quietly fade away.

“Robert understands that any successful organization, company, business is about the people that you have in it,” McDaniels told reporters, including talkSPORT, on Monday during Super Bowl media night at the San Jose Convention Center.

“He’s done a tremendous job of obviously helping put all those people together over many, many years. And so this year, just being a part of this group and having an opportunity to be around Mike and the people that Mike’s brought in here.

“It all stems from somewhere and it’s top-down, and he (Kraft) does a great job of making decisions that are tough and having patience when it’s time to be patient.

“Any success that any team has in this league is usually a result of having an incredible number of really good people pulling in the same direction and following the same vision.”

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McDaniels spent the 2024 season reconnecting with the sport after being sacked by the Raiders in November 2023.

Bad fallout in Vegas led to another New England reunion

He lost his way in Denver from 2009-10, players celebrated when Las Vegas moved on from him after a 9-16 combined record, and it’s fair to wonder whether the longtime offensive coordinator will ever be an NFL head coach again.

But that doesn’t matter during Super Bowl week, especially after McDaniels was in Maye’s ear while the former No. 3 overall draft pick completed a league-high 72 percent of his passes for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns and a 113.5 passer rating this season.

McDaniels set record after record with Brady, and is now in his 14th season working within New England’s system.

His newest QB is one win away from also being a world champion.

“There’s so many things that he (Maye) does at an accelerated rate based on his age,” McDaniels said.

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“He’s 23-years-old but he’s wise beyond his years. He learns, he knows how to prepare well. He’s smart. He’s a great leader. He’s very authentic with his teammates and certainly all the physical attributes that we’ve all seen all year long.”

While podiums for Vrabel and Maye were swarmed on Monday — and Kraft watched NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s interview from the front row — McDaniels started his media session in the far back of a darkened convention center.

McDaniels going for seven Super Bowl ring

The Patriots OC sat at a table with one reporter for an extended period, then found a group waiting for him to stand up and growing in size.

How are the Patriots back in the Super Bowl so quickly?

Because Kraft realized he got it wrong with his first Belichick replacement, then turned to the gritty and fiery Vrabel.

And because New England hired McDaniels for the third time, at the same time that Maye needed an OC with true Super Bowl pedigree.

“He (Maye) loves the game,” McDaniels said.

“He wants to be good at every aspect of it. That’s a great trait to have as a young player. It’s also great for a coach to have an opportunity to work with guys that really want to be good in all those different areas.

“Playing quarterback in the National Football League, there’s really no shortcut to be being good at that position. You got to do a lot of things well. So he’s embraced all of them, still working hard at it, love his enthusiasm every day, and he’s got a bright future.”

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