PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL

PRESS CONFERENCE
May 27, 2026

Q: As you look to evaluate your group of receivers, do you feel there's room to add a top receiver if the opportunity presents itself, perhaps even in the coming week?

MV: Again, we always – and when I say we, that includes Eliot [Wolf], Ryan [Cowden] and Stretch [John Streicher], the coaching staff. We want to continue to improve the roster every opportunity that we get. And when those opportunities arise – I don't know, I know that the guys that we have here are working extremely hard. I would say that yesterday's first OTA was much better than last year's. I have to take the coaches' opinion because I didn't go back and watch last year's first day. But I felt like yesterday was really positive. It was good to see Romeo [Doubs] out there. It was good to see some of the new faces, some of the young guys. It was good to see Kyle Williams get some opportunities, and Chiz [Efton Chism III]. So again, we're going to look to strengthen the roster wherever we can, but it was also a great day to see guys that maybe didn't get as many opportunities last year, especially Romeo, who wasn't on our team.

Q: Mike, the last time we talked to you, you apologized for the distraction. You talked about the team being one of the things you were apologizing to. How do you feel like you've been able to mitigate, if not completely erase, that distraction?

MV: Again, we all have to deal with things outside of here. My focus, and obviously the excitement that I have for coaching, is what is most important right now. This is a great opportunity. The spring, we don't have to worry about opponents. Our schedule is pretty much the same. The players just have a routine, and each and every day in the spring is similar. But it's just about teaching. It's about teaching these guys the scheme. We talked about having some enhancements offensively, defensively and special teams, stuff that we did well, but that we'll have to either dress up or modify slightly. That's what the spring time is about. That's really all we know, is being able to coach these guys and to teach them, help them do their job. This is the time in the spring where they can focus on not only conditioning, but all the details that are going to help them. That's really all I know and that's really all I want to be able to do.

Q: Mike, is everybody here for this?

MV: Yeah, I think that's always an important question, and I know you guys probably brought your binoculars. I'll try to save you the binoculars and I'll give you a heads up on who won't be here today. But the spring, you guys know, is voluntary. There's a small mini camp that is mandatory. I'm familiar with that, just with my time as a player and what that is. We would love to have everybody here, but that's not the reality. That's not the reality in the NFL. There won't be 100% participation or attendance at practice. And let me just say this, the guys that aren't here or guys that aren't at practice, everybody's got a different practice plan. We've talked about that. But the communication has been great for whatever reason that guys aren't at practice. Carlton [Davis III], [Kayshon] Boutte, [Mack] Hollins, Gonzo [Christian Gonzalez], Gabe [Jacas], and then I would say you may not – [Harold] Landry [III] won't be at practice, Kyle Dixon. That's pretty much the guys that won't be at practice.

Q: I was just going to follow up. You mentioned Gonzo, and it's just interesting on Gonzo because he's eligible for an extension for the first time. How much of his spring participation has been impacted by that dynamic of the contract?

MV: Again, those are personal choices for players. I would say that I value the communication that I've had personally. I know that our defensive coaches have had conversations with Christian. Again, I wish that they were all here so that we can coach them. But the ones that are here, that's where our focus will be, and we'll pour everything that we have into those players. I know that his professionalism and being ready to go, or whatever personal choice some guys have during the spring, I'm confident that they'll all be ready.

Q: When we spoke to you last, you were talking about the balance of family and football. How would you describe how that process has been going?

MV: Really good. I appreciate that my family is great. I love Jen [Vrabel], I love the boys, I love my personal friends. This spring is focused on the coaching staff, the players more importantly than the coaching staff. But seeing the coaches in the second year, how smooth the conversations are, "Hey, we love this play. How do we make it better?" And then these guys, they go out and they find ways to make it better, we have conversations, and then we decide on a few things that we're going to try to enhance the things that we did last year. The unique thing about the players is there are 44 new players to our spring football. In spring football, what you'll see today is not necessarily what you guys will see at training camp. We have certain rules. We have specific rules. They don't have pads on. They just have a helmet. So again, it's what we call a passing camp. You're going to see D-linemen that are going to maybe rush, and you're going to be like, "Well, he stopped." That's because we've asked them to stop. We've asked them to get off, make a move, and then just wait until the ball's thrown, and hopefully they run out of the stack. But the offensive linemen have to take a set. They have to punch. They have to stay inside out, but then also we're not trying to take a guy over into the quarterback, obviously ever, or into another lineman. The DBs can't really – they have to avoid contact, where in training camp those bang-bang plays, they can have contact. So, we're trying to teach the rookies those spring NFL rules, but then also those new players that came from other teams how we practice in the spring and the efficiency in which we move from drill to drill. So, there'll even be a jog-through. We put the runs in at the end of practice that we're trying to install, and you'll be like, "Why do they look like they're going slow motion?" That's because it's a jog-through. I don't want to run the football without pads on. I don't think that's very productive. And the other thing is, I try to explain to them that we're going to need to have different tempos of practice throughout the season. We play on Thursdays. There's not going to be much practice from a Sunday to a Thursday. We have two Thursday games. As the season wears on, we're going to need different tempos, and this is part of that process.

Q: Mike, you lead the room daily. How have you felt the players have responded to your –

MV: Not every day, Mike [Giardi]. Some of your sources probably aren't as good. I don't have a team meeting every single day in the spring.

Q: Almost every day? Close to?

MV: Sometimes. Most of the time.

Q: Regardless, you're in front of the room. How have you felt the players have responded to your leadership because it was such a critical point last year? What's your feeling?

MV: I don't want to speak for the players. I feel great. I feel like I'm trying to give them the information that is going to help them do their job. I've talked about this as far as the importance of the balance between their own success, which leads to great things for them and the people that they care about, but then also trying to manage that with the team. That's a fine balance of the dynamic that we wage in this business of professional sports. I try to do that each day. The team meeting today, we watched practice clips. We watched the ones that I felt were good, even the positive ones, and then the ones that we need to focus on, and those weren't even mistakes. Some of them were a guy, one or two extra steps into the middle of the pocket or to the rush, or just little things on how we want to practice and receivers turning and trying to get a block, which was so critical to a lot of our X plays last year. It was just something simple as a guy, Pop [DeMario] Douglas or Austin Hooper, turning and getting a block in Buffalo in a critical game on Sunday night that let [Stefon] Diggs go all the way to the 5-yard line. Or Kyle Williams blocking for Rhamondre [Stevenson] after a check-down, backed up in the end zone against the Chargers that went for 50 yards and really swung the game in our favor from being backed up. All those little plays that I can show them from the season, those all start in the spring. We can't just say, "Hey, it's September, let's start trying to practice our identity."

Q: Do you anticipate having to miss football activities again for the rest of spring?

MV: I can only tell you I'm going to be there today. I can't tell you anything other than I'm going to be out there today in full force. And I mean that because who knows what's going to come up? Anything could happen. So, I'm going to focus on today and the excitement that we've had and that we've built so far, the conditioning that we've tried to incorporate into our practices, the weightlifting and all the things that are critical.

Q: Mike, I'm curious with Kyle Williams. He emphasized that he'd put on some weight this offseason and that this year one to year two jump is going to be, in his words, a very big deal. What have you seen from him in this offseason?

MV: We always try to give players the things that they've done well and the things that they can try to enhance and their areas of focus. Kyle's strength and his ability to manage as a speed player has improved, and he's really talking to the strength coaches. He's embraced that idea of lifting and how critical that is for all players, but especially a younger one as a receiver. You saw him really have some great flashes last year. The other thing that's really critical with receivers is once they can know more than one position, it really opens up their opportunities in what they can do as opposed to just being a one-position player. Kyle's now – you'll see him at different places today.

Q: Mike, we have not talked to you since before the draft, so I'm going to try to narrow this down. Your thoughts on Day 3 when you weren't there. Whether you regret that, not being there, and Eliot said you were not in contact, but also what's the plan for, and your thoughts on, Caleb Lomu and Gabe Jacas?

MV: They moved around, they made some trades, and this draft was pretty unique. I don't know if it's really been talked about, but the volume of players in the draft wasn't what it normally is, and we saw a lot of players that went back to school that probably could have come out. I would imagine that it's the NIL and their ability to go back and play for being compensated in college. So, the numbers were down, and so the number of players in that pool was down. I just felt like that was interesting. We moved around. Excited about the players that we got. Studied most of them. They knew my affinity for some of the players that we took. And then, admittedly, I don't know if I'm going to know the 300th player in every draft. I was excited we had Behren [Morton] here on a visit. We had Karon [Prunty] here on a visit. Studied Dametrious [Crownover], who just had a son. Studied him just because Texas A&M had so many draft-worthy players. Very familiar with most of those guys. And then Caleb, really, one, learning the pro game, learning our system, and some of the things that you see in college is not that they can't do it; it's just that they're not being coached to do it. And there's a lot of different ways to coach football and what you believe. Some of the techniques are different, and I think he's really embraced those. He's been an unbelievably coachable player. He's young, he's big, he's athletic, and he's willing to learn. He's excited about learning. So, where he plays, we want to end up with the five best linemen. I think he's going to have the ability to play both sides. I can report that he'll be on the right today. He might get some snaps on the left. But you guys know how this goes. We played 10 linemen last year. We're going to have to have five good ones that can protect Drake [Maye], as well as a swing tackle. We're going to have to have somebody that goes inside, and then we're going to have to have somebody that pulls it as the backup center. That's a long-winded answer about where Caleb's at, but I'm excited about where he's at. Where he's going to eventually be, I don't think I can answer that right now.

Q: Mike, what's your communication like with Kayshon Boutte, and what are your expectations for him heading into this offseason?

MV: Really, the offseason, I think, is over. We're onto really just the preseason. That's what we have to look at it as. I have a great amount of respect for Kayshon, and watching him mature and grow through the entire time that we spent together, that's a credit to Kayshon, that's a credit to Todd Downing. And just the communication is, "Hey, how are you doing? One, you're working hard?" And he said, "Yeah, I like where I'm working out at." "Okay. We'll be here ready to coach you when you're here." That's been very positive, and I would imagine that he would pick up where he left off and grow on the season that he had last year.

Q: You mentioned that Christian Gonzalez isn't going to be practicing today. Is he with the team right now?

MV: Again, I'm not going to get into specifics about everybody's whereabouts. I love the communication that I've had with everybody. So again, whenever he's out on the practice field, we'll be able to coach him. You guys will be able to see him, and you guys will be able to report on him.

Q: Khyiris Tonga was such an important piece of your defensive front last year. It seemed like there weren't any veterans added to replace him. Is that a spot where you'd like to see a Cory Durden or a young player step up?

MV: I think Cory already did. I think he proved that. And again, nobody was happier for Tonga than me personally, in what he was able to do for us. And that's the beauty of professional sports. He came here, we wanted him back, he got a better offer, and that's what he had to do. That's what he should have done. So, I'm going to support him and his family. But we also are excited. Lenny T, Leonard Taylor [III], worked with us. Eric Gregory worked with us. These guys are proving that they want to be there. Josh Farmer is back healthy. But Cory, I think, probably coming out of last year, would be that on paper. Again, there'll be a competition in training camp. But I think that's a good group. The lines of scrimmage are critical. To the question about Caleb and our offensive line, but we talk about our defensive line and our offensive linemen, they have to be our identity soldiers and the warriors that carry the message in the way that they play. When big dudes run and hit people, you can make an impact on the game. You saw a lot of those guys that came out of the stack that made plays. Cory was one of them. Milt [Milton Williams]. On and on and on. That's what they're going to be practicing today, hopefully you guys see that, and hopefully they're just not running into anybody when they come out of the stack.

Q: Mike, thoughts on the schedule, specifically the challenge of the Seattle opener?

MV: Playing in Seattle, playing the Seahawks, the defending Super Bowl champions, that would be a tough game when and wherever we played it. But I think that we'll eventually be ready for the challenge. We're clearly not ready for it yet. I don't think anybody is. But that's what we'll build to. We'll have to, so many different times, handle the environment, and that'll test us early. That'll be something that we'll focus on through training camp. Excited about the rest of the schedule. We'll have to play in the heat. We'll have to play in Munich. We'll have to play on Thursday night with a short turnaround. We'll have long breaks. There'll have to be some creativity. Going 13 days between games is somewhat unique. We had that a couple of times maybe with short turnarounds, with long breaks. It'll be all of our jobs to make sure that the players are ready when and where we play. Thank you.