Moments after New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye completed the most important 7-yard run of his career, after stretching the ball past the first down marker in Denver, securing New England’s stunning rebuild just six years after the NFL’s greatest dynasty had died, the first text arrived.
The texter is a lifelong Dolphins fan and close friend living 15 minutes from downtown Boston. Yes, life sometimes can be cruel.
“most fraudulent super bowl contender in recent history????” it read.
He explained:
“I mean easiest regular season schedule i can remember, barely beat an o-line-less chargers, fumbled more than CJ struggles and got bailed out by a blizzard against a bo nix-less denver.”
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My question to him:
Would you take a fraudulent Super Bowl for the Dolphins?
“that’s different.”
The frustration continued:
“patriots can’t go from brady to drake maye, it’s unfathomable. they need to suffer in NFL hell for 50 years like the rest of us.”
I pointed out how the hardest thing for everyone has to be watching this franchise’s 20-year dynasty come to an end and seeing them back in six years.
Especially the Miami Dolphins.
“i can confirm that is the hardest thing for everyone else.”
Patriots back in Super Bowl 6 years after end of dynasty
Yes, the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl six years after Tom Brady’s final game in New England and just two years after Bill Belichick’s messy departure.
And, yes, this franchise has accomplished something the Dolphins have been trying to figure out for a quarter century.
And it’s not just the Dolphins. A lot of other teams have to be wondering how this can happen, including the Bills, who appeared poised to become the next Patriots.
Buffalo, to its credit, was the team in the division that took advantage of the Patriots’ nearly two-decade reign ending.
But winning five consecutive division titles and falling short every year before the Super Bowl can only heighten that frustration.
And what do the Dolphins and Bills have in common? Both fired their coach following the 2025 season. The same season the Patriots returned to the top of the AFC East.
But so, too, did New England a year ago. That’s where the similarities end, especially when it comes to New England and Miami.
The Patriots were far from flawless in this rebuild. Two big mistakes stand out among many.
Their first attempt at finding Brady’s successor was drafting Mac Jones in the first round in 2021. And their first attempt at finding Belichick’s successor as coach was promoting Jerod Mayo, and Belichick’s successor as general manager was promoting Eliot Wolf.
Two of the three were complete failures. So they moved quickly, trading Jones and firing Mayo. And now have hit on a GM/coach/QB combination in Wolf (a 43-year-old University of Miami graduate), Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye that is the foundation of this dramatic turnaround.
Former Bills center Mitch Morse is embracing the hate.
“I can’t stand the Patriots but you can’t dispute this team has something special with Mike Vrabel,” Morse said on the NFL Network.
The antithesis to Patriots owner Robert Kraft is his Miami counterpart, Stephen Ross.
When Ross bought the Dolphins in 2009 the franchise had one playoff appearance in the previous seven seasons and no wins in the postseason since 2000.
It would get worse.
Ross may not have drafted Tua Tagovailoa, but he hired the man who targeted Tagovailoa as a franchise quarterback, drafted him ahead of Justin Herbert and then extended him for more than $212 million, $167 million guaranteed.
The same man who hired Adam Gase, Brian Flores and Mike McDaniel. The man who also drafted Charles Harris, Noah Igbinoghene, Liam Eichenberg, Cam Smith. The man who could not find a quality backup quarterback, build an offensive line and ignored the lack of talent in the secondary.
The man who has this team in cap hell.
Those, and other decisions by former GM Chris Grier — who was fired (or as the Dolphins put it, “mutually part ways”) on Halloween — has Miami looking at another difficult reset and extending its drought without a postseason victory well beyond the league-record 25 years, as it stands now.
Grier was given a decade to fix this.
Ross has been given more time than that to fix this.
Both failed.
Patriots were aggressive turning 4-win team into Super Bowl contender
The Patriots have proven one aggressive off season can turn a 4-win team into a Super Bowl participant.
Do not expect the Dolphins — coming off a seven-win season — successfully copying that blueprint.
New England had its franchise quarterback secured. Miami will need at least two years to either draft or sign a quarterback capable of leading this turnaround.
New England had more than $120 million in cap space entering 2025 (and currently has $42.7 million this offseason, 11th most). The Dolphins currently have the fourth-worst cap situation in the league being $16.6 million over.
New England did not have two players who combined for a dead cap hit of $127 million as Tua and Tyreek Hill will for the Dolphins this offseason.
New England had unprecedented success not only in free agency, but in the 2025 draft with all 11 draftees having contributed this year, including includes several starters. In addition, three undrafted rookies are on the Super Bowl roster.
Now, it’s up to new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan, and new coach Jeff Hafley, to find a way to lead Dolphins fans out of “NFL hell.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Patriots’ Super Bowl return leaves Dolphins, NFL rivals in ‘hell’
Reporting by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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