FOXBORO — By now, Joshua Dobbs knows blind trust is part of the job.

He is, after all, on his 10th team.

You show up, listen to the head coach, share in his messaging and execute his plays. Whether you are a true believer or not is immaterial for a time. But whether you ultimately succeed depends on that belief being sustained by real, tangible results.

Often, by winning.

In New England, the coach is a returned champion who is two wins away from returning the Patriots to their former glory. The first win must come Sunday in Denver, a place the Patriots have never survived in the playoffs. But what’s making a little history for a team whose faith Mike Vrabel has rewarded time and time again?

The belief Vrabel has inspired around Foxboro is reminiscent of the faith that defined the first Patriots team he played for, a long-shot champion that launched a dynasty. Like the 2001 team, these Pats thought they could contend long before anyone else did, then became the contenders they believed themselves to be. But enough about the past.

Ghosts are not pushing the Patriots now. It’s a coach who has developed and reinforced his culture outside of the win column, like last week when he stopped preparing for the franchise’s biggest game in years to visit with a receiver who didn’t play a snap in the divisional round against Houston.

Dobbs remembered walking into the facility that morning, the day Trent Sherfield signed to the practice squad. Sherfield was settling into a corner of the locker room around 7 a.m. Dobbs looked over and saw the receiver had company. It was their head coach, standing and chatting with Sherfield just to get to know him a little better.

“Obviously this year, we’ve had the results to back up that blind belief, which makes it easy to come together. But I think Vrabes does a tremendous job of creating a relationship with guys in the football environment and non-football environment. And it’s not just something that’s in passing, but genuine,” Dobbs said. “Whether they’re on the practice squad or the active roster, he’s breaking bread with them.”

Dobbs remembers the first time Vrabel did this with him. It was the end of a trying, injury-riddled 2022 season in Tennessee, where Dobbs had signed to start the final two games of the Titans’ playoff push. He sat down for breakfast in the team cafeteria, a rare moment of quiet at a time when Dobbs was in constant motion learning a new offense, set of teammates and organization.

New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel celebrates with quarterback Drake Maye after a touchdown during an NFL game against the Buffalo Bills. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)

But moments after taking his first bite, Vrabel pulled up a chair. Time slowed. Vrabel wanted to connect with Dobbs before really coaching him.

“(Vrabel) does all the little things, so that even when it takes a moment of blind belief, you’re like, ‘I’ll do anything that this guy says because I know he truly cares for me and wants us as a team to succeed,’ ” Dobbs said.

During some of his first team meetings last spring, Vrabel set football aside entirely so he could build trust with players and between players, the connective tissue of any winning culture. He introduced various team-building exercises and a new tradition called the four H’s, where players are asked to share personal insights into their hometowns, heroes, heartbreaks and hopes. Vrabel went first.

His vulnerability struck Brenden Schooler who, between college and the NFL, has now heard six different head coaches talk about culture and core values and building a team. But not until Vrabel had Schooler ever seen a head coach quite like this.

“There are a lot of programs that I’ve been a part of coming up through college, high school, all that stuff, where they talk about, ‘Do it for the man next to you.’ But you don’t know the man next to you,” Schooler said.

“After that (meeting), you’re like, ‘All right, this is for real.’ He just set the tone.”

“I was ready to run through that wall,” added DeMario Douglas.

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Then, football hit full-time. Training camp brought grueling practices. Vrabel would jump into drills and levy harsh critiques around more meetings like those they had in the spring. His sarcasm stung almost daily, but the winning followed weekly.

And every day, win or loss, good day or bad, Vrabel maintained the same disposition, honesty and care; a consistency that grew the trust he had established in the spring, well before players even put on pads.

“He just keeps answering the call, and being kind of the leader and the coach that you want to play for,” said Pats center Garrett Bradbury. “Everyone knows who he is. He’s pretty black and white. There’s a lot of unknowns from a player’s perspective. Like, what are my coach’s intentions? Who are they? What do they think of me? And you know where you stand here, which is unique in the NFL and has been refreshing, for sure.”

Where the Patriots stand now is near the end of a path Vrabel began to light before anyone else could see it.

A path no other team in the conference, besides Denver, has walked.

A path that leads back to the place he once knew so well: the Super Bowl.

Or, as a true believer might call it, the Promised Land.