Lawrence Guy always believed that the New England Patriots would make it to the playoffs, but he never expected them to get back to the Super Bowl so quickly.
Yet, like stunned NFL fans around the world, the Patriots‘ former defensive tackle watched his former team knock off the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans and Denver Broncos to win the AFC and punch their ticket on one of the most improbable Super Bowl runs in recent memory.
“Naw, I thought they were going to make the wild-card, that’s about it,” Guy told Patriots Wire in an exclusive interview. “Like, I knew they were going to the playoffs. They were going to get into the wild-card in the playoffs. They were going to look way better than they did the year before. It was going to be a better team because they had the talent. They needed to get it all together and get it rolling. …They surprised all of us. If somebody said [they thought they were going to the Super Bowl], they are lying to you.”
Keep in mind, the Patriots had only won four games the previous season. The former Tom Brady-led team that was widely viewed as the greatest dynasty in the history of sports surpassed the New York Jets as the worst team in the AFC East. It was a nightmare scenario that made Elm Street look like Disneyland.
Guy had a rare front-row seat to the last remnants of success from the Patriots’ dynasty before the inevitable end in 2019. He watched as Brady engineered a game-winning drive to outduel Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2018 AFC Championship. The veteran also contributed to one of the greatest defensive efforts in Super Bowl history, when the Patriots held Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams’ explosive offense to only three points.
He stood under the pouring confetti for the franchise’s sixth Super Bowl victory, not for a second thinking it might be the last. The following year, the Patriots got bounced in the wild-card round of the playoffs by head coach Mike Vrabel and the Tennessee Titans. Brady left for Tampa Bay in the offseason, and Bill Belichick was fired as head coach after four more seasons.
Nearly two decades later, the dynasty was over.
“Much didn’t change towards the end. It’s just the way the dice rolled,” Guy claimed. “You can’t stay that dominant for so long without having down years. We were just having our down years when I was there. The last three years were down years. It’s like we could have took a play here, a play there, a call here, a call there —it would have changed everything. But it’s understanding it happens. It’s the National Football League. All you can do is press forward and keep moving.”
And that’s exactly what the Patriots did after moving on from Belichick.
They promoted one of the legendary coach’s youngest and brightest defensive pupils, former Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo, as the team’s new head coach. There was initial excitement with Mayo’s coronation coinciding with the team using the No. 3 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft on North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. That excitement was magnified when the Mayo-led Patriots went on the road and upset Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 of the regular season with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback.
It looked like the Patriots were back.
And then the NFL gods waved their mighty hand like a Marvel Infinity Gauntlet with the reality stone and revealed the truth about the new-look Patriots. They went on to lose 13 of their next 16 games that year, which ultimately prompted owner Robert Kraft to fire Mayo at the end of the season and bring in Vrabel.
“Jerod was put in a situation where he was just put in, when he took over. You can’t take nothing away from that season,” Guy said. “They went out there, they played those games, they fought, they coached—they did everything. That was just a learning experience from a coaching aspect and an ownership aspect.”
Mayo was a first-time head coach taking over for a rebuilding football team. It was a train wreck that should have been seen coming miles away. Even Kraft admitted to putting Mayo in an “untenable” situation. He opted to make the tough decision, which ultimately proved to be the right move, by replacing Mayo with Vrabel.
Watching from afar, Guy knew that Vrabel’s experience, along with the all-star staff he brought on board, would be a game-changer for the Patriots. They quickly went from being the perennial punchline team in the NFL to an opponent teams had to take seriously.
“We all talk about the offseason. …You can’t win a Super Bowl in the offseason. We can say that. You can lose a Super Bowl in the offseason,” said Guy. “I seen Mike came in there and was like, ‘We won’t lose this Super Bowl in the offseason. We’re going to work. We’re going to put in the hours in that classroom. We’re going to put in the hours in developing our players. We’re going to put in the hours of developing that communication with each other and that relationship because if you have no chemistry, you have no team.’ I think that’s what he did when he came in. He built in that chemistry.”
Most importantly, he brought back the legendary quarterback whisperer, Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. By pairing McDaniels with Maye, Vrabel gave the second-year quarterback the tools to quickly ascend to the top of the ranks as one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL. In only one season, the former UNC standout placed second in the NFL’s MVP voting behind Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.
He also helped lead the Patriots back to the Super Bowl for the first time since Brady was under center in New England.
“I think Josh has done a great job with [Maye] as a quarterback,” said Guy. “The development from Year 1 when he came in and took over midseason to when he’s like, ‘I’m the starter here.’ Building that relationship with his wide receivers, understanding that communication, the steps, the routine, the offensive linemen—you can just see his confidence building and building.”
The promising young quarterback who showed flashes of potential during his rookie season morphed into Drake “Drake Maye” Maye. A tongue-twisting nickname, rare poise in the pocket, wheels on the move and a rocket launcher disguised as a throwing arm—Maye has it all.
The Patriots have upgraded the receiving corps around him by trading for three-time All-Pro wide receiver A.J. Brown, along with signing emerging veteran Romeo Doubs in free agency. They also fortified the same offensive line that turned Maye into a crash test dummy at Super Bowl LX. Both units should be significantly improved for the 2026 season.
With that said, Guy still views the Patriots as a defensive team first and foremost. It’s a good thing, too, considering they had one of the best defensive units last season.
“Let’s just be honest, New England is a defensive team. We got the history of New England, and we know who was there at the ship. We get that. It’s a defensive team. It’s always been built on defense,” said Guy. “The goal is keep the score under 30, and you can win the game. We’re always built on defense. I feel like the fact that those players are coming back is going to be huge.
“…The trick for this defense coming in this year is can they recover from the Super Bowl? Because that’s the hardest thing to do when you’re playing that style of defense. It’s fast, it’s loud, it’s hard-hitting. Can you recover from what just occurred?”
We won’t have to wait long to find out how the Patriots respond to the Super Bowl LX loss, with the team slated to rematch the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1 of the regular season.
Despite the offense committing three turnovers and barely moving the ball, the Patriots’ defense mostly held the Seahawks in check, including limiting reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba to four catches for 27 yards.
If the defense continues to play at a high level and the offense lives up to the hype, there’s no reason to think that the Patriots won’t continue to contend with the other top teams in the AFC. Guy wouldn’t give a Super Bowl prediction, but he does see New England going back to the playoffs next season.
It all starts with the Week 1 match against the Seahawks, which Guy believes is more important than the Patriots are probably willing to say publicly.
“I will say what exactly they’re going to say in the meeting, ‘This is not the Super Bowl. This is not. …Don’t think about [it].’ That’s what they always tell you. Like, ‘That game is past us. It’s a new season.’ That’s what the players get told,” said Guy. “The coaches are like, ‘What could we have done differently in this Super Bowl?’ When I got to New England, we played Atlanta again. They were like, ‘What can we do differently in the game.’ We’re game-planning from that previous year, technically.
“…When coaches go watch film, it’s like, ‘I wish I could have done this better.’ Not just only players doing it, but coaches do it too. ‘Can I do this better? Can I call this better?’ Don’t let nobody lie to you. It’s going to happen. They’re going to go in there, they’re going to call the plays that they think they should have called. …It’s going to be exciting. The players are going to be like, ‘Look, we should have won this game. We can go out there and show [people] that we could have won that game.’ So they’ve got that energy level going in.”
While the Patriots continue the good fight on the football field, Guy will be watching his former team as a retired veteran from the game. He has his own fight on his hands, which is the continued running of the Lawrence Guy Family Foundation.
The former NFL defender recently hosted a baby event in the neonatal ICU at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, where at least 35 mothers were presented with flowers and bears on Mother’s Day.
And the work doesn’t stop there.
“We still go and do the baby bash that we just did in New England last year,” said Guy. “That’s coming up again this year, in the near future. …It’s just making sure we stay true to…when people retire, we kind of forget and think we’re retired, and everything just stops. I told my wife years ago, when we started our foundation, when I’m done playing, the foundation can’t stop. We’ve got to continue on the mission that we’ve been doing.”
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This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: SB champ Lawrence Guy talks Patriots, Drake Maye, and dynasty end
