The New England Patriots were a Caste Football favorite for most of Tom Brady's tenure. The team was excellent every year, featuring greats like Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola, Danny Woodhead, Chris Hogan, Julian Edelman, Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Rob Ninkovich, and Rex Burkhead. Once Brady left, the once-heralded Bill Belichick went full Caste-whore, turning the team into a dumpster-fire loser. After Belichick was fired, the inexperienced Jerod Mayo was hired, and the team hit further rock bottom. It was theorized here that owner Robert Kraft—most known for his massage parlor scandals and running propaganda campaigns like "Stand Up to Jewish Hate"—felt guilty for winning with such White-leaning teams for two decades and had to atone.
This was eventually rectified by the firing of Mayo and the return of Mike Vrabel. In his first year back, Vrabel turned the team from 4–13 to 13–4 and a Super Bowl appearance in one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in history. Instead of riding high into 2026, Vrabel got busted for a lengthy affair with an NFL team "reporterette" who was trading insider access for her own form of "inside access", if you catch my drift. If that controversy wasn't enough, Kraft is now in the headlines for banning the rapper Macklemore from his stadium for his "antisemitism" in advocating for the Palestinians. This has grown legs, with countless artists pulling out of their tours at the stadium, effectively highlighting the power wealthy Jews have to stifle speech they dislike. Thanks to this episode, many people have learned that Kraft maintains a large team at Gillette Stadium acting as a "command center," monitoring billions of social media posts for anything remotely critical of Jews or considered offensive to their sensitivities. One has to wonder if these off-field shenanigans will affect the on-field results. Without further ramblings, here are the 2026 Patriots.
Total White Athletes on the 53: 13
Total White Starters: 5
Offense
QB - Drake Maye, Tommy DeVito, Behren Morton
TE - Hunter Henry, Eli Raridon, Tanner Arkin
WR - Efton Chism III
LT - Will Campbell
C - Ben Brown
RG - Greg Van Roten
RT - Caleb Lomu
Defense
ILB - Robert Spillane
Special Teams
P - Mitch Wishnowsky
Injured Reserve - Bryce Baringer (P), Brenden Schooler (S/ST)
Practice Squad - Lan Larison (RB), Kyle Dixon (WR), Tanner Conner (TE), Jake Kubas (OL), Lorenz Metz (T), Riley Wilson (LB)
Some players have shuffled in and out but the team remains the same demographic totals as last year - 13 and 5. It could bump to 14 when Schooler returns.
Drake Maye, the 3rd overall pick in the 2024 draft, delivered one of the most stunning breakout seasons in recent NFL memory in 2025 — leading the league in both completion percentage (72%) and passer rating while throwing for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns, and just 8 interceptions, en route to finishing runner-up in NFL MVP voting and leading New England all the way to Super Bowl LX. The season earned him the 2025 NFL Most Improved Player of the Year award, the Bert Bell Award, Second-team All-Pro honors, and his second straight Pro Bowl selection. Entering 2026 with the assumption of an upgraded arsenal (headlined by a trade for A.J. Brown and the addition of Romeo Doubs), expectations have never been higher — but the season has opened rockier than anticipated, with a Week 1 three-interception loss to Seattle and an uneven Week 2 performance as well. Will Maye bounce back and build on his breakout season or will he regress in year 3 under the weight of these expectations?
Backing him up is Touchdown Tommy DeVito, who the Giants were foolish to cut last year as he's a much better player that cartoon character Winston. At 28, he's the "old man" at the position now and should perform just fine if Maye were to miss any time. Behren Morton was drafted in the 7th round out of Texas Tech and showed well in camp and preseason. He earn a roster spot vs NE trying to sneak him onto the practice squad and losing him.
Hunter Henry, entering his 11th NFL season and 6th with New England, remains the unquestioned centerpiece of the TE room — he's posted 40-plus catches in five straight seasons (one shy of Ben Coates' franchise record) and finished second on the team in targets, catches, and receiving yards behind only Stefon Diggs in 2025, en route to a career-high 768 yards. At 31, his dependability and leadership remain undiminished, with the room behind him young and inexperienced. Third-round rookie Eli Raridon of Notre Dame — a physically imposing 6'7", 251-lb target with real athletic upside — looks increasingly like the heir apparent whenever Henry's tenure in New England comes to a close. UDFA Tanner Arkin out of Illinois performed well enough to earn a spot too.
Efton Chism III continues the Patriots rich tradition of having excellent White slot receivers who can get open with ease and catch everything thrown his way. Of course entering the league undrafted is also a common feature. Efton has the current problem of being WR6 when everyone's healthy. Zero offensive snaps in week 1 telling that story. However, week 2 showed some promise with 18% of the offensive snaps at WR. It would be a wonderful development if he could carve out a roll, but unfortunately Demario Douglas is ahead of him and has shown some talent over his career. Maybe its another year of wait and see.
Will Campbell, the No. 4 overall pick in 2025, returns for his second season firmly entrenched as the starting left tackle — but his rookie postseason was a rough one, bearing the brunt of criticism from the (((media))) after Drake Maye was sacked six times and hit eleven more in New England's 29-13 Super Bowl LX loss to Seattle. Campbell has elite skills but was playing with torn knee ligament that mostly was lost in reporting. Fair or not, it directly shaped the offseason: the Patriots traded up three spots in Round 1 to grab Utah's Caleb Lomu at 28th overall, a 6'6", 313-lb tackle who didn't allow a single sack in 2025 and is already drawing praise for his athleticism and quick-set footwork in pass protection. NE front office has been clear that Campbell remains the left tackle, Lomu — who played left tackle in college but is being cross-trained at multiple spots this spring — projects as the long-term heir apparent on the right side, expected to sit behind 35-year-old Morgan Moses for a year before eventually taking over at right tackle. Veteran Greg Van Roten is starting due to a sumo injury, so yay for the small bump in starters.
Rounding out the offense intrigue requires looking at the practice squad. Lan Larison built a standout career at UC Davis, earning Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2023 and two-time First-team FCS All-American selections, culminating in a 1,101-yard, 13-touchdown senior season. He was primed for a roster spot in 2025 until a injury wiped away his season. This year he competed for the 3rd spot and we were hopefully he'd land one. However, at the 11th hour the Pats traded for some scrub from Arizona (maybe a special teams standout?). That bumped Lan to the practice squad but not all hope is lost as he was already elevated in week 1 catching a couple passes and returning kickoffs. Henderson is talented but injury prone, while Stevenson is a fumbling machine and frankly all-around overrated. I can foresee many scenarios where Lan is needed this year and may eventually land on the 53 roster after exhausting his 3 "standard elevations".
Kyle Dixon is the other name to know and he's had quite the unusual path to the NFL. Choosing college baseball over football and spending five years as a bullpen pitcher before returning to the sport in 2024 at NAIA's Culver-Stockton College. In just two seasons there, he exploded for 143 catches, 2,394 yards, and 24 touchdowns, prompting the Patriots to sign him as a UDFA on a historically large deal ($252,500 guaranteed, third-largest in team history). He backed it up in the preseason, catching all 8 targets in the finale for 71 yards, but was still released at final cuts due to roster numbers. He's a name worth watching given his production and the staff's clear belief in him.
After becoming one of the league's most productive linebackers in Las Vegas — setting the Raiders' single-season tackle record with 158 stops in 2024 (3rd-most in the NFL) and adding 3 interceptions in 2023 — Robert Spillane signed a three-year, $33 million deal with the Patriots in 2025, quickly establishing himself as a defensive anchor and culture-setter for Vrabel's rebuild. He battled through a foot/ankle injury late in the year but still played a key role in the run to the Super Bowl. Entering 2026, he's expected to reclaim his role as an elite run-stopping, tackling machine and defensive leader. Don't be surprised if he's among the league leaders again. After Robert, that's it for White men. Unless you consider the beige Christian Ellis an honorary White or you consider Pro Bowl special teams ace Brenden Schooler an actual defensive player (we know he can perform but the coaches clearly don't).
A quick glance at special teams shows a rare "diverse" 2 of 3 non-Whites. A "smart" way for a team to also displace Whites from NFL paychecks if that is the goal. So overall you could do worse than the Patriots but this is still a far cry from their CF glory days.
