Back in February, Mike Vrabel, fresh off reaching Super Bowl LX and winning NFL Coach of the Year, challenged his staff to bring him new ideas to keep building on the Patriots core schemes.
"We have to have fresh ideas for what we're doing in all three phases. That's been my direction to the staff is to go through and focus on what we can do to enhance the core concepts," Vrabel said. "I need to see some new ideas that maybe force us to push ourselves in a different direction. Not a wholesale change, but things that we feel like can help us that are also new."
As the defending AFC Champions, the Patriots don't need to reinvent themselves schematically. Vrabel is bringing back all three of his coordinators in OC Josh McDaniels, DC Zak Kuhr, and special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer, which isn't surprising given New England's success last season. Still, the game is always evolving. With a year's worth of tape on how the Pats went 14-3 and made a run to the Super Bowl, future opponents are studying the Patriots schemes to prep for 2026.
Along those same lines, studying MVP runner-up Drake Maye's film and how McDaniels called plays for his 23-year-old franchise quarterback was likely an offseason project for many teams. Teams are either trying to replicate McDaniels's process for their own young signal callers or are competing against the Patriots. According to QBs coach Ashton Grant, the Patriots coaching staff was forced to dive deep to find new ways to attack opponents for the upcoming season.
"Coach McDaniels does a good job of pointing us in the right direction of what we want to study, but it's fun because it sends us down rabbit holes," Grant said. "I found myself watching Division II football games and trying to figure out what guys are doing to be creative and does anything fit us? Is it worth bringing to the table? It definitely gets your creative juices flowing, but it's been a fun project this offseason and hopefully you guys see some of those things."
Speaking to reporters during the Patriots three-day mandatory minicamp, Vrabel spoke about the progress the coaching staff has made during the offseason to enhance New England's scheme in all three phases of the game.
"I appreciate what everybody brought to the table and the ideas that they had in all phases of first and second down, and things that we try to add on third down and really try to shore up the red zone. So, the spring is the time where you evaluate the stuff that you try to come up with and what it may look like or what the issues are. Then as you get closer to training camp, some of that may get pared down," Vrabel said.
Although the Patriots head coach hinted at smaller tweaks that might not be obvious from the outside looking in, it's still worth discussing what some of those new ideas could be. As many of you know, this is my favorite part of my job: making educated guesses at where the Patriots are headed, whether that's schematically or from a roster-building standpoint on the personnel side.
With that in mind, here are some possible innovations the Patriots could make to keep their scheme fresh on offense and defense heading into next season.
Offensive Innovations: Tempo, Bootlegs and Outside Zone, and More
As many folks have pointed out, the 2026 season will be the first time in college and the pros that Drake Maye has had the same offensive coordinator for consecutive seasons as a starter.
At North Carolina, Maye's offensive coordinator in his first season as the Tar Heels' starter was longtime college assistant Phil Longo, who then moved on to be the offensive coordinator at Wisconsin the following season. Longo was replaced by Chip Lindsey in Maye's final season in Chapel Hill. Lindsey changed Maye's footwork in his drop-backs, among other things, which led to an adjustment period for Maye.
With the Patriots, Alex Van Pelt was Maye's first offensive coordinator in the NFL. Van Pelt lasted one season in New England under former coach Jerod Mayo, with that duo getting replaced by Vrabel and McDaniels for Maye's second season. Like Vrabel, McDaniels's work with Maye was recognized by winning the NFL Assistant Coach of the Year award for the 2025 season. Having scheme continuity and one of the best offensive minds in the NFL still at his side will be huge for the Pats young quarterback.
"It's nice getting another year in the same offense. It's been the first time for me in maybe four years," Maye said. "It's great to have that and have an offensive mind of Coach McDaniels, and our offensive coaches are great. I'm really looking forward to that; you got to keep building."
One of the best things about being in the same offensive system for the second consecutive year is that Maye and many of his teammates won't be learning a new play-calling language. Each offense uses different verbiage for calling plays: routes (digit system vs. word/concept system), formations, and protection calls all differ system to system. Last season, the Patriots ranked 28th in seconds per play, averaging 28.6 seconds between plays. New England was also dead last in no-huddle usage, forgoing a huddle on just 2.4% of their offensive plays. Some of that stems from often playing with the lead, which negates the need for a no-huddle offense to preserve time while attempting a comeback.
Still, in theory, the Patriots should be able to play faster this season, which could keep defenses out of their "exotic" play calls that tripped up the Pats in the postseason, especially in Super Bowl LX. Offenses slow down for many reasons, but mainly to change personnel groupings, utilize pre-snap shifts and motion, or for younger quarterbacks to get some last-second pointers at the line of scrimmage.
However, the downside is that the defense can get into perfect play calls. By playing faster, the Patriots could force defenses to stay in the same personnel groupings, where they might be able to exploit a certain matchup, while also making defenses play simpler schemes. With Tom Brady, the Pats had a "NASCAR" package with one-word abbreviations for full play calls that would allow Brady to trap defenses. Brady could bark out one word and all 11 players would know their assignment on the play, leaving defenses scrambling.
Although warp-speed play callers such as Chip Kelly have mostly failed at the NFL level running their entire offense without huddling, mixing in some tempo could be a nice wrinkle for the Patriots.
Another adjustment the Patriots offense could make relates to their run and play-action pass sequencing, with personnel chief Eliot Wolf hinting at emphasizing pass protection and running more bootlegs for Maye, where his athleticism can shine as a thrower and runner on the move.
New England is building an athletic offensive line rather than a mauling unit. Free-agent addition Alijah Vera-Tucker (9.79 RAS) and first-rounder Caleb Lomu (9.90 RAS) join elite athletes Will Campbell and Jared Wilson as long-term building blocks. Lomu might not start as a rookie, and RG Mike Onwenu remains as a road-grader, but the long-term direction is clear. Plus, FB Reggie Gilliam profiles as a more dynamic mover than an old-school fullback like James Develin or Jakob Johnson from the Pats of the past.
In 2025, the Patriots ranked ninth in the NFL in designed rollout rate (9.4%). The Pats efficiency on movement plays produced the ninth-best EPA per play in the regular season (+0.25), but that plummeted to -0.58 EPA per play against better defenses in the playoffs. From this perspective, a possible explanation for the inconsistent results was that they only ran outside zone on 17.2% of their run plays (26th in the NFL).
To run effective bootlegs, the opponent needs to respect the threat of the play-action fake. If you don't feature outside zone or the stretch play, it's harder to get the defensive line to bite. As a result, the backside end, who is the defender the offense is trying to get to take the cheese, wasn't biting on the play-fakes designed to get Maye on the move. On nine postseason bootlegs, Maye was under pressure 44.4% of the time and sacked twice. If the Patriots had a more effective boot-game in the playoffs, maybe they could've protected their offensive line better, which ran through a gauntlet of elite pass rushes.
Defensive Innovations: Increased Dime and Robber Coverage Usage
Moving over to the defense, the Patriots found a formula under play-caller Zak Kuhr that led to a dominant run through the AFC playoffs last season.
New England's increased man coverage and blitz rates led to three-straight dominant defensive performances to reach Super Bowl LX. The defense wasn't as sharp vs. Seattle in the Super Bowl, but leaning into its strength in the secondary with All-Pro CB Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis III, and NCB Marcus Jones winning 1-on-1 matchups in coverage certainly worked. That said, there are some ways the Pats could potentially make it easier on their cornerback trio.
As the Super Bowl champs, the copycat nature of the NFL might point to Seattle's usage of six defensive backs (dime) as the latest schematic innovation. The Seahawks were able to keep a lid on offenses while sending pressure from various places by playing the seventh-highest rate of dime defense (15.7%). Other trend-setters on defense, such as the Rams (32.4%), Ravens (23.8%), and Chargers (23.3%) were also among the league leaders in dime usage.
Some of that is because they had the personnel to be effective in three-safety packages. Safeties such as Seattle's Nick Emmanwori, Los Angeles's Derwin James, and Ravens star Kyle Hamilton are hybrids who can play closer to the line of scrimmage. Still, dime packages give the defense more flexibility to use extra "free" defenders to either provide help in coverage or join the pass rush, which can be difficult to account for offensively.
Last season, the Patriots played only 42 total snaps or 4.3% in dime (21st in the NFL). The Pats were primarily a three-corner nickel defense (68.3%) and didn't feature a "big" nickel defender. Because they mostly played five defensive backs, at least four DBs had coverage assignments when New England played man coverage. Since there are usually five eligible receivers, the Pats would cover the three receivers with corners, a safety on the tight end, and then the linebackers would occupy the running back either by covering them or blitzing.
Mostly, New England's man coverages would be "man-free" schemes, a form of Cover-1. In man-free, the only true help defender is the post-safety playing over the top in the deep-middle, leaving the corners without help at the sticks. The Pats then blitzed on 43.7% of their Cover-1 snaps and would sometimes play with a low-hole defender from the linebacker level, who lurks for underneath crossers or spies the quarterback. But, again, there's no intermediate help at the second level of the defense.
Here's a rep of the Patriots playing man-free in their playoff win over the Texans. This time, they send the nickel (Jones) and MIKE (Spillane) on a blitz, leaving their four man-coverage defenders with post-safety help. The blitz speeds up Texans QB C.J. Stroud, leading to an errant throw that's tipped into the air for a pick – that's the advantage of adding defenders into the rush. However, an accurate throw would've had the coverage beat because Gonzalez doesn't have intermediate help on the in-breaking route over the middle.
By putting an extra defensive back on the field, it might be easier for the Patriots to feature more "robber" coverages where they have an added help defender at the sticks. Two defenders who could allow the Patriots to play more three-safety packages are Dell Pettus and newcomer Mike Brown. The Pats projected starting safety tandem is All-Pro veteran Kevin Byard and second-year S Craig Woodson, who is building on a terrific postseason as a rookie. Pettus was the Pats primary third safety last year, while Brown (6-1, 218) has the body type to play in the slot or box and has made a strong first impression this spring.
During their highly successful first season under head coach Mike Vrabel, the Patriots laid a strong foundation for the kind of schemes they want to run. That said, coaches and players alike need to keep finding ways to improve every year in the NFL. The Pats head coach wanted fresh ideas brought to the table from an X's and O's perspective, so it'll be fascinating to see the Patriots new wrinkles this season.
DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer
