The NFL announced its schedule for the upcoming season on Wednesday.
All 20 games for the New England Patriots in the 2025 NFL preseason and regular season have been announced for Mike Vrabel’s first year as the team’s head coach.
The Patriots will play six games in their division, four games each against opponents from the AFC North and NFC South, and select opponents from the AFC South, AFC West, and NFC East based on last year’s record in the regular season, plus games against the Washington Commanders, Minnesota Vikings, and New York Giants in the preseason.
Two decades in the making
On September 8, 2005, the New England Patriots celebrated their third Super Bowl in four seasons in front of the visiting Oakland Raiders. Tom Brady threw for over 300 yards and tossed two touchdowns, and Mike Vrabel registered a sack as the Patriots opened the season with a 30-20 victory. Patriots starting quarterback had just celebrated his third birthday.
Almost exactly two decades later, the 2025 Patriots will open their campaign against the Las Vegas Raiders. This time, Mike Vrabel will be the head coach for the Patriots while Tom Brady is a partial owner of the Raiders.
Worlds apart
The Patriots will have a 16-week gap between meetings with the division rival Miami Dolphins. After facing off in the second week of the season, the teams will not see one another again until Week 18. The teams had a similar spread in 2022, meeting in Weeks 1 and 17.
With the first game happening in Miami in mid-September and the second happening in Foxboro in the first week of the new year, their weather forecasts could not be more different. According to Weather Underground, the average temperature in Miami on September 14 is almost 84 degrees. The average in Foxboro for January 4? Below 29 degrees. That makes for a 55-degree difference for the two games.
Not used to seeing you in the daylight
When the Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers meet on Sunday, September 21 at Gillette Stadium, it will be the first time the two teams have met for an early afternoon game at the stadium… ever. The last time the Patriots were the home team for a 1 p.m. start against the Steelers was December 8, 1974. The teams also met in Foxboro at 12:30pm on January 5, 1997 in the AFC Divisional Round as the stadium filled with fog.
The two teams have met seven times at Gillette Stadium. Three of those contests were in the late afternoon slot on Sunday. Three of those were primetime season openers with the Patriots raising banners, once each on Monday night (2002), Thursday night (2015), and Sunday night (2019). The remaining meeting was in the 2016 AFC Championship Game that kicked off at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Hit the road, Jack
For the first time since 2020, the Patriots will play three consecutive road games. For the first time since 2017, they will play three consecutive road games in three different stadiums.
During the 2020 season, New England played back-to-back games in Los Angeles against the Chargers and Rams before traveling to Miami to tackle the Dolphins. The first two took place just five days apart with the Rams hosting the team on a Thursday night.
In 2017, the team spent early December on the road with trips to Buffalo, Miami, and Pittsburgh all in a row.
The 2025 team will begin October on the road, traveling to Buffalo for a Sunday night tilt before trips to New Orleans and Tennessee. Perhaps the proximity of those two cities gives the team an opportunity to stay on the road between games to build chemistry.
Bye, Bye, Bye
For the third time in five seasons, the New England Patriots have a Week 14 bye. These repeated December byes do prove a quality opportunity for some Christmas shopping if you’re looking for an opportunity, while it’ll leave the Patriots with just four games between the week off and the end of the regular season.
The team has gotten a week off in Week 10 or later in eight of last nine seasons, with the exception being a scheduled Week 6 bye in 2020 that was moved up to Week 5 following a Covid-19 outbreak on the team.
Rivalries opportunities
The NFL revealed a new series of uniforms in their Rivalries series last month, with the Patriots among eight teams to debut the series this season. Teams will be given new uniforms to be worn in home games against a divisional opponent.
Two dates on New England’s calendar stand out as ones where Patriots fans might see them. With the Bills hosting the team on Sunday Night Football in early October, that provides an opportunity for them to debut their set in primetime. The Patriots host the Jets on Thursday Night Football in November, which could also allow the Pats to break out theirs under the lights.
Penultimate pals
Since the NFL began scheduling games against divisional opponents for the final week of the season in 2010, the Patriots have yet to play the New York Jets on the road in that game. In fact, the Patriots have not capped a season in the Meadowlands since 2007, and that was when they faced the Giants. New England’s last finale against the Jets in their stadium was in the 1998 season.
However, since then, the two teams have been frequent partners for the second to last game in each season. The Patriots and Jets have met in the penultimate game of the regular season five times since 1998, including a three-year stretch from 2003 to 2005 and then again in 2014 and 2015. New England is 4-1 in these games, losing in overtime in 2015.
The best, back-to-back
Coming out of their bye week, the Patriots are scheduled to play consecutive games against the last two MVP winners. The team will host 2024 MVP winner Josh Allen in Week 15 before visiting two-time MVP Lamar Jackson in Week 16.
The last time the Patriots played back-to-back games against MVP winners was in 2022 when the team hosted Lamar Jackson before visiting four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau Field in what became Bailey Zappe’s first start.
An unlikely trio
From Week 7 to Week 9 this season, the Patriots will face the New Orleans Saints, Tennessee Titans, and Cleveland Browns. This collection of teams has little in common except for the fact that, the last time the Patriots played all three in the same season, they also faced them consecutively. Behind rookie quarterback Mac Jones, the 2021 Patriots blew out the Browns before grinding out a road win on Thursday Night Football in Atlanta and defeating an undermanned Titans team in Foxboro.
Preseason matinee
When the Patriots kick off Week 2 of the preseason at Minnesota, they’ll play an afternoon preseason game for the first time since 2000. New England kicked that one off at home at 4 p.m. before falling 31-21.
To find another early afternoon preseason game, you have to go back to 1997. The Patriots hosted the Denver Broncos at 1 p.m on Sunday, August 17, 1997 during Week 3 of the preseason. The Patriots won that one, also by a score of 31-21.