While it’s true that the New England Patriots have reached into the team’s past to secure the franchise’s future, the arrival of Mike Vrabel does so in more ways than Robert Kraft might want to believe. It wasn’t long ago that the franchise freed himself from the Bill Belichick regimepartly to get a hand on the steering wheel again.

Despite all conclusions to the contrary, Belichick was emperor in Foxborough until he left; the body of water to which all canals led. As owner, Kraft enjoyed the benefits of this arrangement and was ultimately disappointed by the disappointments that came with it. Even though Belichick was the owner of the team, it must have felt like he was truly more powerful than the person signing his checks.

And so it was with the hiring of Jerod Mayo last offseason It was an attempt to make New England seem like something different: A franchise that thrives on offspring and new ideas. Much to the delight of every bingo card maker, corporate jargon included talk of collaboration, transparency, and all the other meaningless words a boss might say in a meeting no one wants to attend.

Fast forward just a few months –Months!– and Kraft has dismantled his pet project to reclaim the familiar embrace of a true strong man who wants operations to look, sound and feel a certain way. Don’t call it Belichick Lite. It’s more like cutting McDonald’s out of your diet to make more time for Burger King.

This isn’t a knock on Vrabel, to be clear. As I noticed it again and againhis personality was something of a saving grace in Cleveland a year ago. The coaches he worked with loved his energy, passion and humility; He’s the type of guy who remembers birthdays and weddings… that kind of person. But there’s also the fact that the Tennessee Titans got rid of him after his tenure as head coach from 2018 to 2023 – the owners there were also looking for that fleeting idea of ​​cooperation, unity and togetherness – there had to be some Belichick flavor in Be flexible. There had to be a desire for control and, over time, a growing contempt for anyone who saw it differently.

Unless the Chicago Bears can find their footing again the Ben Johnson competitionNew England is unlikely to lose the battle for appearance in this carousel. Vrabel is and should be is considered a home run rental. He was a combination of the best and most proven prospects on the market this cycle. Just based on how much the Patriots’ roster can improve from its current state in an offseason, it’s not hard to imagine Vrabel also pulling off the biggest win-loss turnaround in the league.

But I wonder what it will ultimately cost Kraft and the rest of the team’s decision-makers for the freedom they’ve enjoyed for the better part of a season and an offseason.

To be clear, Vrabel isn’t going to come in wearing a sleeveless shirt and mutter in front of everyone while he plans a covert investigation into the effectiveness of sleep chambers (like his predecessor once did). I can imagine that in public he will achieve Kraft’s ideal middle ground between interpersonal finesse and private toughness. As a person he is completely different. Friends say he has a great but undeniably good sense of humor. He’s a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.

But does Kraft really assume behind the scenes that the mood will be so different organizationally? Again, perhaps no one will ever go as far as Belichick, but the best of his students appreciate the value of being so educated, so prepared, and so in control that there is no kink in the message, because everything and each derivative is a man. It will see Different in principle, but if Vrabel succeeds and continues to legitimize the hire, there will likely be moments where it seems as if Kraft never left Belichick.

And if that’s the case, how will we see the end of the Belichick era? Because to me, this attitude from Vrabel seems to be a kind of tacit admission that what had power wasn’t so bad after all, and that what he wanted might just be a fleeting pipe dream. For me, this makes Kraft seem admirably human. From time to time, we all lose touch with the things in life that we should value. Then you scratch and scratch to get them back.

This came at a high price. Kraft derailed the coaching career of a longtime Patriot and had to endure the embarrassment of his quotes about Mayo and the bizarre process that led to Kraft hand-selecting him and resurfacing. Several reputations were affected.

Of course, there’s no place like home. Vrabel, who appeared as a top prospect in about a half-dozen other cities this offseason, reminded Kraft of that.