Patriots Get Refreshing News as 2025 NFL Preseason Gets Underway

After dismal, back-to-back seasons finishing at 4-13, the New England Patriots appear set to come in from wilderness in the 2025 season with a new coach, a revamped roster, a whole new coaching staff and quarterback Drake Maye, 2024’s No. 3 overall draft pick, entering a sophomore season widely predicted to be his breakout year.

Good feelings and optimism surround the Patriots for the first time at least since 2021 when, behind rookie quarterback Mac Jones, the Patriots ended up at 10-7 and edged into the playoffs in the final AFC Wild Card spot.

That season remains the only one with a winning record and playoff appearance for New England since 2019, the final season in New England for legendary quarterback Tom Brady.

New Report Contains More Good News For Patriots

The positive vibes for the Patriots only got better with the release of a new report by Sportsbook Review — a report which contains some very welcome news for new coach Mike Vrabel and, especially, the Patriots players.

What’s so great for New England in the report? Sportsbook Review, for the first time, has developed what it calls a “proprietary formula” for rating the degree to which fatigue will affect each NFL team’s performance. The Patriots will be, according to the report, one of the least fatigue-affected teams in the league.

The concept, at least to some football fans, may seem like an odd one to explore. NFL players are young, wealthy, and in top physical condition with access to the highest level of health care, treatment and workout facilities. Why should they get fatigued?

But if fans feel that way, the NFL itself does not. Numerous teams have contracted with outside firms to conduct studies and apply their findings in the relatively new field of “fatigue science,” a discipline pioneered by the U.S. Army which spends millions to assess fatigue levels of soldiers and determine who can be assigned to dangerous and difficult missions.

Applying ‘Fatigue Science’ to NFL Teams

“We studied the science behind player performance and built a proprietary data-driven formula to measure the total and weekly fatigue for each team based on the 2025 NFL schedule,” wrote Sportsbook Review‘s C. Jackson Cowart.

The firm’s formula goes beyond simple strength of schedule assessments to take into account such factors as altitude changes from game to game, circadian misalignment — meaning time shifts that affect the internal “body clock” — and road weariness, the toll it takes on an individual “to live out of suitcases and hotels, and that’s only magnified by extended road trips.”

Patriots Will Be Second-Freshest Team as Season Goes On

The good news for the Patriots — New England is rated as facing the second-least fatiguing season of all NFL teams in 2025, with an index rating of 60.1. Only the Carolina Panthers will get through the season with less fatigue, with a rating of 58.2.

“There’s nothing that especially jumps out about the Patriots’ schedule, but the lack of extreme fatigue – just one game each on short rest, with a rest disadvantage, and with a fatigue score of 10 or more – and favorable travel schedule help produce the second-easiest slate of the 2025 season,” Coward wrote. “If New England can hold its own through a Week 14 bye, it could have the juice for a nice run beyond that.”

The team with the most fatiguing schedule of 2025? The Los Angeles Rams, who compile a fatigue index rating of 105.09, thanks in part to the 17,652 travel miles on their schedule. Only their fellow Angelenos, the Chargers, travel more miles with 18,563. But the Chargers’ overall fatigue rating is 102.56, second to the Rams.