Sometimes the hardest phone calls cost the most money, but they buy back something priceless: belief. For Robert Kraft, owner, chairman, and CEO of the New England Patriots, watching his team stumble through back-to-back four-win seasons felt like watching a family heirloom collect dust. The decision to fire first-time head coach Jerod Mayo wasn’t just difficult; it was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his three decades of ownership. But one year and 14 wins later, waiters are thanking him at dinner.

“I’m very fond of Jerod. I would say that was one of the one or two hardest decisions,” Kraft admitted on The Quick Snap podcast. “It was very expensive, because it was not only [Mayo’s] contract but 25 other coaches—so it was the worst financial implication since we’ve owned the team.”

A year after taking a wrecking ball to the franchise and building it back up, Kraft still laments the emotional toll that came with the decision to let Mayo go. Jerod Mayo first helped the dynasty as their linebacker for his entire NFL career (2008 – 2015). Then he took up the mantle of an inside linebackers coach and continued to bring the team success. But 2024 was where it all went sideways. New England finished the season with just 4 wins for the second time in a row. And Kraft had to pull the trigger.

“But I’m a fan first, and I thought this just isn’t the right situation, and that’s on me,” Kraft went on. “Jerod’s a great guy, but I just didn’t want to go through a continuation of what happened. I really believed that hiring Mike [Vrabel] gave us a chance quickly to put the team where it was.”

For Kraft, this meant cutting ties with a man who gave his entire career to New England. And regardless of that history, regardless of the financial hit, wins mattered much more than legacy and balance sheets. After all, Kraft operated by a different calculus than most owners.

“The one thing my family and I understand is that we own this team, but it’s not like a traditional business,” Kraft said on the podcast. “I look at our family as custodians of a public asset.”

And as a “public asset,” the Patriots had gotten used to glory, from 2001 right up until the Bill Belichick dynasty crumbled. But 2025 brought Mike Vrabel at last. The former Tennessee Titans head coach didn’t just revive the Patriots; he rewrote the history books. His 14-3 regular season record marked the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2021 and the first AFC East title since 2019. More remarkably, Vrabel became the only coach since the AFL-NFL merger to win 10 straight games in his first season with a team that won five or fewer the previous year.

The Patriots didn’t just improve; they dominated. Their perfect 8-0 Road record made them the only team undefeated away from home in 2025. By Week 11, they’d already crossed their combined win total from the previous two seasons. The No. 2 seed in the AFC and a Wild Card playoff victory over the Los Angeles Chargers validated everything Kraft had gambled on.

But the metrics, impressive as they are, don’t quite capture what’s brewing in Foxborough again. The way Robert Kraft can measure this season now is to simply go out for dinner.

“I went to a restaurant that I’ve never gone to. A buddy of mine said come have dinner with me, I was solo, and all the waiters in this restaurant came over to me and thanked me,” Kraft remembered on the podcast. “They said, ‘You don’t understand the vibe it’s created, not just in our building but in our families and everything. Having the Patriots back, having something that we can rally around that’s real.’”

That energy, intangible yet undeniable, reminded Kraft why he mortgaged millions on a coaching change and validated it. And beyond Mike Vrabel, there’s another hero who has earned immense respect in Kraft’s eyes, a puzzle piece that had been missing from the Patriots’ frame ever since Tom Brady called it quits.

Drake Maye: the humble star rebuilding a dynasty

Behind every turnaround stands a catalyst, and for the New England Patriots, it’s second-year quarterback Drake Maye. The 23-year-old isn’t just an MVP frontrunner; he’s the culture carrier that Robert Kraft dreamed of.

“He’s a terrific young man, but the greatest quality of him, in at least my feelings, is his humility, and I think that comes from his parents and the family,” Kraft said on the podcast. “He’s got three older brothers who are good. Usually, the baby in the family is a little spoiled, but he has a humility that’s genuine. So it’s like putting family first; it’s putting team first.”

This humility of Drake Maye first caught the eye of Kraft during Maye’s rookie season last year. Despite his team going 4-13, his smile never wavered, and neither did his energy.

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“We had so many tough games, and I know he only played two-thirds of the games, but after every game, he would go around the locker room to the linemen and try to boost them up,” Kraft said. “It was genuine. So we’re really lucky, I think, because some of these young men in that position, especially [with] social media, people get so caught up with that, they forget what the basic fundamentals of how you build family, how you build a business, how you build relationships is the real stuff.”

And even now, after every victory, after every stadium chanting MVP, Maye still credits his success to his teammates. That’s the belief that Kraft gambled on. And Maye didn’t just have a great season this year; he actually rewrote the Patriots’ record book. He broke four Tom Brady franchise records en route to the playoffs.

First, his 72% completion rate shattered Brady’s 68.9% mark from the legendary 2007 season. Second, he posted 13 games with a 100+ passer rating, topping Brady’s 12 from his 2010 MVP campaign. That now ties Patrick Mahomes for second-most ever. Third, his 91.3% completion percentage against the Tennessee Titans broke Brady’s single-game franchise record of 88.5%. And the most impressive? Maye logged five games with 200+ yards, 2+ TDs, and a 135+ passer rating, more than Brady’s four in 2007. That’s dynasty stuff right there.

And now, the Patriots sit just one win away from the AFC Championship game, their resurgence complete. With a win against the Houston Texans, the Patriots will have officially matched their winning total from the last three seasons. That decision to fire Jerod Mayo? In retrospect, Robert Kraft’s expensive gamble didn’t just restore a franchise; it reignited a region’s passion and proved that sometimes the biggest turnarounds demand bold, costly choices.