The Patriots are not just lacking out on the field these days.

Beyond the evident flaws put on display by a rebuilding roster in 2024, New England’s reputation across the NFL has taken a hit over the years due to the team’s lackluster facilities, a dearth of investment in several areas of football operations, and a generally archaic approach when compared to the rest of the league.

Several of those shortcomings were put on display last week by the NFLPA’s annual report card, with New England getting torched in the anonymous players poll over issues like the team’s travel resources and ownership. 

The Patriots ranked 31st out of 32 NFL teams as part of the 2025 report cards. That stands as the latest extended slide by the organization, with New England ranking 24th in the league in 2023 report cards before dropping to 29th in 2024. 

And while back-to-back 4-13 seasons are a sign of an NFL franchise in a state of transition, NFL insider Albert Breer noted on NBC Sports Boston Tuesday that the Patriots’ issues run far deeper than the growing pains that come from a roster rebuild.

New England hasn’t made itself an appealing destination, thanks to evident dysfunction put on display by ownership over the past year. 

That sentiment is upheld by the team’s decision to hire Jerod Mayo as head coach, the lack of resources provided to him during the disastrous 2024 season, and an understaffed football department not equipped to compete with the rest of the NFL. 

“They are so far behind the rest of the league in so many different ways,” Breer said on Arbella Early Edition on Tuesday. “Everybody who comes here and sees it for themselves is like, ‘Where’s all the people? Where’s this department? Where’s that department?’ Bill (Belichick) did so much for so long that they were able to get away with being very, very small.”

While New England was able to shun larger analytic departments and other areas of football ops during Belichick’s 24-year run as head coach, that lack of investment is no longer tenable — not when the franchise is no longer buoyed by the presence of Belichick and Tom Brady to keep the operation afloat. 

“It’s gonna take time to build that out,” Breer said. “That’s why, when I look at it and I hear people say, ‘You add these free agents and then it’ll just be fixed,’ no, they’ve got a long way to go as far as building that organization out and building the football operation out to catch up with where the Niners are, the Rams are, the Ravens are, the Eagles are. The most forward-thinking organizations in the league are so far beyond them from a staff standpoint.”

Fellow Patriots insider Phil Perry added on NBC Sports Boston that New England only just started to incorporate some of the best practices utilized by the rest of the league during Mayo’s lone season as head coach. 

“Even from a technology standpoint, from some of the things I’ve heard, they are behind the rest of the NFL,” Perry said. “They are starting to creep back — last year they added the virtual reality technology so that the quarterbacks could get the additional reps they needed — that was new, that needed investment.

“But when it comes to some of the technology in terms of how the playbook comes together and how the coaches can teach their players — there are little things like that where they still have room to grow.”

While Mike Vrabel and his new staff will primarily be tasked with helping Drake Maye and this Patriots roster take another step forward in 2025, Breer stressed that the onus will fall on Vrabel to convince Patriots owner Robert Kraft to invest more in the overall franchise beyond the players on the field. 

“Mike … Eliot [Wolf], they know how far they have to go,” Breer said. “Now, the good news is, I do think Mike’s got some juice with ownership to get some of that stuff built out, and they’ve already brought in a player development person to help start to build out that department. But make no mistake about it: This is an archaic organization that needs updating.

“I think they had a group last year that didn’t have the juice to get a lot of the changes that were needed pulled off, and now I think they’ve got some guys coming in who might have a little bit more sway with ownership to get them to open the pocketbooks.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.