FOXBOROUGH — Patriots safety Kyle Dugger missed the franchise’s glory days. He was drafted in 2020, two seasons after the last Super Bowl win. He never played with Tom Brady. He has never won a playoff game.
Yet Dugger is suddenly the old guy in the locker room. Beginning his sixth NFL season, Dugger is the longest-tenured Patriot, along with fellow 2020 draftees Mike Onwenu and Anfernee Jennings.
“Yeah, they’ve been telling me,” Dugger said Tuesday with a smile. “It happened fast, I would say.”
New coach Mike Vrabel has been holding a liquidation sale in Foxborough: Everyone connected to Jerod Mayo and Bill Belichick must go.
Of the 88 players on the Patriots’ roster, 40 are new since mid-March — 14 veterans and 26 rookies. The lineup projects to have at least 10 new starters from last year, likely more. The players are practically wearing name tags in voluntary offseason practices.
“At this stage, we’re still in, ‘Let’s get to know each other,’ ” new backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs said Tuesday. “The leadership opportunities will come, but it’s really cool to see the guys step up there and be able to share a little about themselves in team meetings or other interpersonal opportunities.”
Most notably, the Patriots’ leadership structure from 2024 has been decimated. Five of the six captains from Week 1 are no longer with the organization — Jacoby Brissett, Ja’Whaun Bentley, Deatrich Wise, David Andrews, and Joe Cardona. Two-time Super Bowl winner Jonathan Jones wasn’t re-signed. Matthew Slater also left the organization after 16 years as a player and one as a coach.
One by one they have been whacked, like the “Goodfellas” mobsters involved in the Lufthansa heist.
Safety Jabrill Peppers plus two captains named midseason (Hunter Henry, Dugger) are still with the Patriots, but they shouldn’t get too comfortable. All three are probably still here only because their contracts are close to fully guaranteed in 2025. None has guaranteed money past this coming season.
A high rate of turnover is to be expected when an NFL team hires a new coach, and it’s not like the Patriots had too many parts worth saving from a team that went 4-13 each of the last two years.
But Vrabel seems to be making a point with some of his roster moves: The past is history. This is Vrabel’s team now.
In moving on from Jones, Wise, Andrews, Brissett, and Cardona, the Patriots have completely severed ties with the dynasty (outside of Vrabel, of course, and Josh McDaniels). They were the last five players who had won a Super Bowl with the Patriots. All were discarded this offseason with a swiftness and ruthlessness that would make Belichick proud.
When Brissett, Jones, and Wise weren’t re-signed, you could argue it was about football. Brissett was only brought in last year because he was a favorite of the previous coaching staff. Jones is getting up in age, entering his 10th season. Wise was never a big sack producer and probably doesn’t fit the Patriots’ new scheme. All three found jobs quickly, though — Jones and Wise with the Commanders, and Brissett with the Cardinals.
Releasing Andrews, though, was curious. Andrews wants to play, knows McDaniels’s offense well, and has been a leader and captain since Brady left. Andrews could have helped Drake Maye learn the new system and mentored first-round pick Will Campbell. Andrews could have taught his new teammates about the maniacal work ethic of Brady and Julian Edelman and Dont’a Hightower, and how to navigate the highs and lows of a long season.
“When you think of a veteran and a leader, I think that’s kind of the standard I learned from David Andrews,” Maye said. “The thing about David is he did things outside — took me to dinner, paid for a massage. He just does things that are bigger than football. I think that’s the stuff you carry with you for the rest of your career.”
Yes, Andrews is an aging player with 10 years of experience. And yes, this offseason he’s rehabbing a shoulder injury. But the Patriots didn’t replace Andrews with a significant upgrade — they signed Garrett Bradbury, a seven-year veteran who was just released by the Vikings for subpar performance. Swapping Andrews for Bradbury seems less about football, more about replacing a key voice from the Belichick and Mayo days.
That point was particularly driven home last week with the release of Cardona, who had been the Patriots’ long snapper since 2015. Cardona’s days were clearly numbered when the Patriots drafted Julian Ashby in the seventh round. But there was no need to swap out long snappers other than for Vrabel to make a statement. Cardona was doing just fine as a long snapper, nailing all of his snaps last year and even forcing a key fumble in the win over the Bengals. But Cardona got caught up in Hurricane Vrabel.
“These are difficult decisions, players that have been here for a while and made great contributions to the football team before I was here,” Vrabel said a month ago at the NFL owners’ meetings. “There will be plenty of opportunities for guys to lead and create a new identity for us and this football team moving forward.”
In clearing out the leadership council, Vrabel has created the opening for “his” guys to take over, such as free agent signees Milton Williams and Robert Spillane, and even Campbell, the rookie.
That is especially true for Maye, the exciting young quarterback entering his second season. The Patriots put Maye in a tricky spot last year, drafting him No. 3 overall and anointing him as the future of the franchise, but asking him to play a secondary role to Brissett in the offseason and training camp. Maye found it difficult to try to establish himself as a leader while also showing deference and respect to Brissett.
“Obviously it comes with the position, [but] I like to hopefully call myself this year a leader and I think I’m working toward that,” Maye said last week. “Hopefully it comes natural.”
The Patriots still have experienced veterans in the locker room — Morgan Moses (12 years), Stefon Diggs (11), Mack Hollins (nine), and Harold Landry (eight). But most of the veterans don’t have any experience in Foxborough, which seems to be the point.
“You can see he’s trying to install a new identity,” Maye said, “and I think we’re building toward that, and just working and just trusting in his ways.”
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.