Patriots 2025 Season in Review

Drake Maye finished the season as the most accurate quarterback in football against expectation — plus 9.1 percent over what he was supposed to complete. Number one in the league. Here's how a second-year quarterback turned into the most efficient passer in football, how a two-headed backfield ran for over 2000 yards, and the one defensive number that explains why the Super Bowl slipped away. 14 three. AFC East champs. Two seed in the AFC. Three playoff wins to get to Glendale — and then a 29 to 13 loss to Seattle in the Super Bowl. The Patriots smashed all year. They just got muffed on the biggest stage.

Let's set the table. The offense posted +160.9 total expected points added — how much every snap pushed New England's scoring chances above league average — number one in football. The defense came in at −45.5 expected points added allowed, and remember, big negative on defense is good — that ranked eleventh. They converted 43.6 percent of their third downs, sixth in the league, and finished drives: 67.5 percent of their scoring drives ended in touchdowns, not field goals. And the variance read was steady. Outside of the Week One stumble against the Raiders and the Week Three loss to Pittsburgh, this team won 12 in a row, scored at least 24 points in 15 of 17 games, and lost just one regular season game after October. Not a boom-or-bust roster. A floor team that kept raising its ceiling.

Now let's talk about the passing offense — the number one passing attack in the league. +158.3 expected points added through the air on 551 attempts, +0.29 per dropback. Maye threw for 4394 yards and 31 touchdowns against eight interceptions, completing 72 percent of his throws against an expected completion percentage of 62.8. Said simply — he was completing nine percent more passes than he was supposed to, every single week. Stefon Diggs was the lead target with 85 catches for 10 13 four scores, the kind of veteran possession threat that lets a young quarterback play on schedule. The one wart: 48 sacks allowed at a 7.8 percent sack rate. Protection was a soft spot — but Maye's processing covered for it most weeks. The defining throw came in Week 10 in Tampa, third quarter, Patriots 14 Bucs seven — Maye dropped one in the bucket short right to Kyle Williams, who took it 72 yards for the touchdown, a +5.73 expected points play. That's the offense in miniature: accuracy and explosive finish.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. 2195 rushing yards, 129.1 a game, 4.4 a carry, sixth in the league. But the expected points number tells the truth — −14.4 on the ground for the season, nineteenth in football. Translation: a lot of yards, not always in the right spots. The two-back rotation carried it. TreVeyon Henderson took the bigger workload — 180 carries for 911 yards, nine touchdowns, 5.1 a clip, and +149 rushing yards over expected on the season. Boom-or-bust on the ground: 85 explosive plays on offense, but stretches where the run game was just collecting four-yard gains on first down.

Next up, the pass defense — and this is where the season gets quietly impressive. The Patriots allowed −32.1 expected points added through the air and gave up just 206.6 passing yards a game — 60 ninth percentile against the pass. But here's the catch: they only got home for 35 sacks all season, 20 sixth in the league. The pass rush did not consistently win one-on-ones. What saved the unit was opportunism — 19 total takeaways including 10 interceptions, and the secondary made big plays in big spots. The one that mattered most came in Week Five in Buffalo, third quarter, Bills down three at the Patriots' own 19 — Josh Allen tried to fit one to Khalil Shakir over the middle and Marcus Jones jumped it in the red zone, a −3.72 expected points swing that flipped the game. Patriots won 23 to 20. That's the pass defense's identity: you'll move the ball, but they'll take it from you when it matters.

And the run defense — tighter story here. They allowed 102.1 rushing yards a game and posted −13.5 expected points added against the run, slightly better than league average, 50 sixth percentile. They gave up just 11 rushing touchdowns all season — the number that matters most. When offenses got to the red zone, the Patriots made them throw it. The front held its ground week to week with very little variance. Steady floor, low ceiling — and combined with the takeaway-heavy secondary, enough to win 14 regular season games.