Super Bowl 2026: We just got done with a Patriots dynasty, are we in for another?

SAN FRANCISCO - When the New England Patriots went 4-13 in consecutive seasons, plenty of NFL fans were good with it.

They won too much over two decades with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. People were ready to be done with them (though they just shifted their hate to the Kansas City Chiefs). When the Patriots bottomed out at the end of the Belichick era, and then again for Jerod Mayo's one season as head coach, the dynasty wasn't just dead but it was deep into the rearview mirror.

Well, guess what? The Patriots are back in the Super Bowl. And it is possible this isn't their last one of this era.

The Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. They went 14-3 with an MVP-level quarterback in Drake Maye, who is in just his second season, and an NFL Coach of the Year in Mike Vrabel. And they have a lot of young players all around the roster, including a heavy dose of rookies contributing.

We want to start our own dynasty," Patriots cornerback Marcus Jones said this week. We're part of an organization that had one for a minute. But there are different guys on the field, and different faces in the building."

Another Patriots dynasty? Everyone just got over the last one.

We're taking it one game at a time, and we're glad to be here," Jones said. But the journey isn't over."

Patriots back in the Super Bowl

The uniforms are the same, Robert Kraft still owns the team, Josh McDaniels is back in the Super Bowl as the team's offensive coordinator, but this is mostly an entirely new Patriots era. Not one player who played in the Patriots' most recent Super Bowl, which was seven years ago, is on the current roster.

That's because the roster had to be turned over. It was in disrepair at the end of the Belichick era, and then New England had a great offseason with a top free-agent haul and also a fantastic draft class. Many of the free agents who were signed were still at an age in which they can be factors for more than one year, like 26-year-old defensive tackle Milton Williams.

New England had the 11th-youngest roster in the NFL as the regular season started, according to Philly Voice, but that doesn't tell the whole story. The Patriots had a lot of rookies play significant roles this season. Among all NFL teams, they had the second-most games played by rookies this past season, at 174, according to NFL researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno. Rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson will make history as the first duo of rookies to start on the same offensive line in a Super Bowl. And the contributions of the rookie class doesn't count Maye, who will be the second-youngest quarterback to ever start a Super Bowl. Only Dan Marino was younger.

The foundation of the roster is very young. In other words, this doesn't seem to be a one-year anomaly.

We've got a lot of young, hungry talent," said defensive tackle Christian Barmore, who at age 26 is another big contributor to New England's success. Hungry is a dangerous word because the guys want to win. I see a lot of guys, looking them in the eye, that want to win."

Can the Patriots sustain this success?

Just because a young team makes a Super Bowl doesn't mean another is guaranteed. Most Super Bowl teams don't make it back within a few years. Think back to what we were saying about the Philadelphia Eagles about a year ago.

There will be factors working against the Patriots. They played the NFL's easiest schedule, and that will get harder. The Buffalo Bills are still a very good team in the AFC East. Any number of factors could push the Patriots off the tracks. It happens all the time.

But a franchise that became synonymous with domination this century is in really good shape for the next few years, at least. It's a team that is used to winning by now.

As far as being with the Patriots, I understood the standard the second I signed here," Patriots outside linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson said. Just being across the building, seeing the Super Bowl rings and monumental moments on the wall, and the great guys that still come back in the building and speak to us and express their experience being a part of the Patriots, I knew the standard and we expected nothing less going through the journey."

Maye's ascension doesn't seem to be a fluke, and he will keep the Patriots' window open for a while. The Patriots are coming off a fantastic offseason under the combination of Vrabel and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf, and New England is in pretty good cap position for another offseason. That's what happens when you have an elite quarterback on a rookie deal.

Just as soon as the Patriots fell close to the bottom of the NFL, they rose back up again.

I said, one day it's going to be better," said Barmore, who was drafted by the Patriots in 2021. And that moment is here."