PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
August 7, 2026
Q: We haven't seen Romeo Doubs the last two practices. I'm just curious if it's anything that might be longer term or—
MV: Nope, Romeo is back today. It was a personal thing, if he wants to address it. It's all very positive, but back and ready to work. And today, I know Stacey [James] mentioned to you a little bit about what the schedule would be, but I'll just clean it up. We have the second annual Blue-White scrimmage. We split the coaching staff up. We had a draft. Terrell Williams will be the head coach on the white team. The blue team will be led by Tony Dews. The offensive coordinators for the game will be Todd Downing and Ashton Grant, and then calling defense is going to be Scott Booker and Justin Hamilton. And then we split Jeremy Springer and Tom Quinn up. So, Stretch [John Streicher] and I will be the officials, if there's any issues there. But, we held a draft, and excited about just getting out there, playing, competing and putting them in the same situations that we've been here working through camp.
Q: How much of a grind has it been to this point with the extra padded practices, just kind of what you saw yesterday and —
MV: Grind? My body feels the same every day that I wake up, so I don't know what the grind is for me. I guess you'd have to ask the players. We try to put a good schedule together, one that allows them to get the work in that they need, and then try to find a way to recover the best that we can, but also continue on with the training camp installation and things that have to get covered this time of year. So, I mean, I think it's — everybody's doing the same thing all around the National Football League, in colleges and everything else. So, the grind is part of it. I had a coach tell me one time, "The grind is going to get to everybody sooner or later. Some guys it's sooner, and some guys it's later." So, the grind will get you eventually, but we hope that it doesn't happen anytime soon.
Q: We saw Will [Campbell] the last couple days with a brace on his left arm. Is he going to be limited in any way? Is that going to be a long-term thing?
MV: I think he'll be ready to go after the weekend. I don't know if he'll participate this morning.
Q: Brenden Schooler, we haven't asked you much about him. I know he's on the NFI. Is this a long-term thing, Mike, or –
MV: Well, I think it's hard to tell. I think it's one that we just want to be very cautious with. And he's got such a specific, unique role, and yes, he wants to be involved in defense and use those reps to improve what his number one role is on our football team, which is to be an elite special teams player, which he did last year. You'd see him out there playing safety because he wanted to practice open field tackling and all these things, which I think is great. And so, until he's back, I don't think there's any real reason to push that or force that issue. We want to make sure that he's healthy. So, still a large part of what we want to do and what we're planning on doing. I just don't think there's any reason to rush him back right now, until he's as close to 100% as he possibly can be.
Q: We know that Kyle Williams was an offseason award winner. What more does he have to do on the field to get more opportunities?
MV: Again, all these opportunities, and he'll continue to earn opportunities. I really, really know that Kyle is going to help us. His speed is going to help us. And I don't want to use this and get this to be overblown, and I'm going to use the word scheme or – He's got a skill set, right? We're going to find ways to get him the ball, and it may be outside of just the normal installation plays, but that's my responsibility, that's Josh [McDaniels]'s responsibility, that's Todd [Downings]'s, responsibility is to put him in those positions where we see the speed that showed up last year. And so, I know that he is going to be a large part of what we're going to do, and those opportunities will continue to come. His release skills, his speed, his vertical speed, those are all things that we have to continue to take advantage of as we progress. And it's a great room. It's a good competitive room. And by competing and getting out there every single day, those will by nature increase his opportunities.
Q: Mike, staying in that room and with the competition, you have seven fairly established guys. It looks to be a little bit of a crowded room. Do you ever have to consider that the uncertainty facing these guys could just be affecting their daily performance and things like that?
MV: Well, I think that uncertainty in professional sports, it's a large part of what you have to deal with. And we ask them and try to help them not focus on what things that they can't control. Focus on trying to come in every day, compete, figure out what they need to do to get better, take the coaching from yesterday, not make the same mistakes twice, figure out what their role is, and then usually everything kind of takes care of itself after that. This isn't the first time that a team's had good depth at a position. I can go back to when I played here and showed up and there was eight linebackers that had all started for teams the previous year, and nobody asked a whole lot of questions. It was just practice your ass off and earn a role.
Q: With Will being limited yesterday, Marcus Bryant stepped in and was playing the left tackle spot. What are you seeing from him through training camp?
MV: Same improvement that we've seen from a lot of the first to second-year players, and that's been really good. Everybody can't win an offseason award. Marcus was here a lot. Marcus got stronger. He's a very long levered offensive tackle, but really moved a lot of weight and got stronger for a guy that is tall and has got long legs, long arms, and still be able to move a lot of weight and get stronger. And I think that that's showed up. I think it showed up in the run game, and again, I just get excited about guys that have improved and are continuing to improve, and I can't lose sight of that. I can't get frustrated about whatever, throwing interceptions in two-minute drill or giving up a big play on defense. Yes, I can be frustrated, but I also have to have the ability to look at all these guys that have improved and know that that's going to pay dividends when we get going.
Q: Khalil Jacobs has seemed to have a pretty good summer. What have you learned about him? What have you seen from him?
MV: Well, he loves football, one, I can just tell you. I mean, since he's walked in here, he loves football. He's here a lot. He was here in the offseason, through the mini camps early, staying late. He stays late. I see him here all the time. He loves just kind of when you put the ball down to play. When you get to the team periods, you kind of notice his play speed, and I think that's a great thing to say. He came here on a visit, and I was trying to just give him a hard time about his 40, and he was like, "Oh, that was the timing." I'm like, "Thirty-two teams timed your 40 wrong." Just giving him a hard time. But to his credit, he plays a lot faster than whatever his 40 was. I don't even know what it was, but he has a play speed about him, and sometimes he knows where he's going, and sometimes he doesn't, but he still kind of goes pretty quick wherever he decides to go.
Q: Mike, we asked about Will, Romeo, Brenden. Any update on Carlton [Davis III]?
MV: CD will be out probably till the end of next week. I don't anticipate seeing him with the joint practices with the Colts or available for that game, but staying engaged, and this is why you love to develop young coaches on your staff. So, let's say, for example, Justin [Hamilton]'s meeting with the corners in the morning as they get ready for practice, and we know that CD's not going to be up for that day of practice. Kevin Richardson can take him into the mobile classroom and go through a specific script and plays and cater to exactly the things that CD needs, so that again, he can stay engaged while he's not in. I've always told you, it's hard to be out dealing with something and then install new installations going in, but you're not getting to rep it physically. So, we're trying to just keep him engaged, and he is, and I'm excited that we have good young coaches that can do that while the other coaches are taking the rest of the group.
Q: I'm curious, the scrimmage today. Who was the second pick in the draft?
MV: Don't know. You'd have to ask Stretch [John Streicher]. He's the commissioner of the draft.
Q: Two picks in, you can't remember?
MV: You're assuming that Drake [Maye] was the first pick? Okay. So, T [Terrell Williams] won the coin toss. T took Drake and got Jared [Wilson]. So that was one stipulation, that Jared traveled with Drake, and then Chiz [Efton Chism III] and Mack [Hollins] had to be on the same team, too. Those are the only two stipulations for the draft. I think he took— and then Tony [Dews] got the next two position groups. I think it was probably Gonzo [Christian Gonzalez] and A.J. [Brown], I think. Don't quote me on it, but I think that's what it was. And so then once we pick a player, we wipe out that position so that we can kind of fill the team, and then Tony got the the next pick. So, I think it was those two, I think.
Q: Talking about Coach T [Terrell Williams], now he's serving as the assistant head coach. How has his day-to-day responsibility changed?
MV: Well, he's really taken control of that front seven, and it's something that's critical to our defense, the way that we want to play, the style that we want to play and making sure that when we pressure, when we run games, when we're in different fronts. So, that's kind of really being able to bring Clint [McMillan]'s guys and Smitty [Mike Smith]'s guys together so that everybody's seeing it the same way and that we're coordinating how we want to rush and the way that we want to rush. So, I think that's one way. Still continuing to support Zak [Kuhr] and the defensive staff and then continue to support me as I try to reach guys. I've always said he's got a really special quality of being able to reach a lot of different players, whether that's on defense or offense. And he's already made bonds with guys like Caleb Lomu and Eli [Raridon] and just he's seen a lot of football in this league and been around a lot of different players. I see him spend a lot of time with guys. I always like that. When guys that have experience on one side of the ball and they have the capability of doing it, of reaching players on the other side of the ball that maybe his position goes against, and they can tell him the things that they're doing well or any things to be able to encourage them.
Q: With Efton [Chism III] and Mack [Hollins], what about their relationship is so special, and how do you feel like it helps Efton to have that veteran presence?
MV: I mean, it's unbelievable. I mean, you come in there, and they're in the pool, the rehab pool, and they're playing like pool games. It's like summer camp. They're throwing stuff and got goggles on, and they swim down and pick up things on the bottom of the pool. They study all the time. They work out. They train. They compete. They push each other. It's a really cool thing to see. A guy that had been in this league a long time, played with a couple different teams and a kid from Western Washington, a small school, and they come together, and I think they both help each other.
Q: Mike, you've said really good things about really all the receivers that you have in camp, and you've got seven of them in that room. Can you envision a scenario where you would break camp keeping all seven of them?
MV: Sure. Yeah. All we have to do is figure out the best way to keep guys that are going to help us win, that have roles on this team and that help us win. And that's our job, that's me, Eliot [Wolf], Ryan [Cowden] and Stretch [John Streicher], and everybody's job is to try to find ways to keep the guys that give us the best chance to win however that may be.
Q: One of your former teammates is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend. I was wondering if you had a favorite Adam Vinatieri story, and then maybe kind of talk about his legacy across the NFL.
MV: Well, I think the favorite story is he showed up one offseason with a yellow Lamborghini or Ferrari or something, and we crushed him. And I think he took it back and then got a normal color. But the kick in the snow, if you were there, you were on that field, to be able to think that could somehow be done. I struggled to run on that field that day, and he was able to make the kick that he made. And it was always just – any time we got into those situations, we knew if we can just get it to the 35-yard line that we were going to win the football game. And so, for him to be able to do that in the biggest moments was a pleasure to – He trained hard, he had a routine, engaged with — He wasn't off. He wasn't the lonely kicker, wasn't by himself. He was a part of the football team.
Q: Richard [Seymour] has been inducted, Ty [Law] has been inducted, now Adam [Vinatieri]. How special is it to see those teammates get honored?
MV: Well, I think when you have success as a team, I think everybody gets celebrated, and rightfully so. So, to be able to have spent time with all those players as teammates, people and former players and be excited to see them this season, hopefully as many that can come back for the 25-year anniversary of that 2001 team, that'll be something that I'm looking forward to.
