PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
October 24, 2025
Q: Any roster news for us?
MV: No, just one player, Kyle Dugger, will be questionable. But other than that, pretty quiet.
Q: Did you do a lot of pre-draft work on [Quinshon] Judkins, and how do you see him as a pro?
MV: Well, I think the only thing that matters is what we've seen of him as a pro. Physical runner, good vision, runs hard, breaks a lot of tackles and he's really doing a good job for him.
Q: In the same vein, on Mason Graham?
MV: Disruptive young player, very athletic, very good scheme fit for them, doesn't stay blocked long, really active, good flexibility, good athleticism for a guy that size. Being that big, and being able to be athletic, move and stay on your feet. He does a nice job of not staying blocked very long.
Q: I'm sure you already had a strong base knowledge, but how much did last year with the Browns teach you about offense in general?
MV: Yeah, I learned a lot. I learned as far as just different schemes or different techniques. Working with Tommy [Rees] and Kevin [Stefanski], or Chad O'Shea about third downs. Everybody's got things that they believe in about coaching. I think that's the biggest thing, is that it's what you believe and it's what you can get the players to believe in. There's a lot of different ways to do things. A lot of different ways to run zone, to have a six-man protection or anything like that. It's having a belief in something, but then also getting the players to believe in it. There were things that they did that, obviously, I liked or that was new for me from my experience of being in Tennessee or being around different offenses.
Q: What would you say are the core offensive, philosophical differences between the West Coast and what you guys are doing there?
MV: I'm just really focused on Cleveland and not differences or philosophic. We run a lot of different plays. You look around the league, and there's a lot of plays that are similar. They're called something different. They've got different wrinkles to it. What I believe in is fundamentals of blocking, tackling, protecting the quarterback, catching the ball, breaking tackles, ball security. Plays are plays, it's about the players.
Q: Yesterday, Jeremy Springer highlighted Kyle Williams and just his abilities to learn special teams a little bit more. What have you seen from him in that area?
MV: Working as a returner, he's catching the ball. He's worked as gunner. Sometimes you get those receivers that have good releases at the line of scrimmage or have some speed, some balance or contact courage with guys – that's sometimes a pretty tough position out there as a gunner or you like it as a plus-50 to go down there. He's been working some of that and understanding those details or being a corner on the – he's very willing. That's the thing, as long as they're willing, we'll coach them and teach them. Chiz [Efton Chism III] was on, he's been as a receiver, been on a kickoff team for us and he's done some of those things. So, whether it's Chiz, Kyle or any young player.
Q: Your safety depth has been tested a little bit here in the last two, three weeks. How pleased have you been with that depth chart?
MV: I'm confident in everybody that's at that position to go in there, be ready to go, to execute, understand and prepare as a starter each and every week. I think that that's hard to do. Maybe if you haven't had some action or talking about somebody that's on the practice squad at different positions that we've had that we've called up. Try to get everybody on the roster each and every day and each and every week to prepare as a starter. Just knowing that you could get called up, things could happen, and so we try to do that every position.
Q: Your pass rush numbers in terms of pressure have been a lot better on third downs than first and second downs. Just kind of curious if you have any thoughts on that discrepancy or why that might be?
MV: We just have to do a better job of transitioning some of the play actions, and recognizing the opportunities to rush and to affect the quarterback. We haven't given up the amount of X plays that we have but we probably have given up – the quarterback's probably not held onto the ball as long, and so when you create longer yardage situations on third down – and sacks can be funny. I mean, we have however many we have on offense for like 25 yards. Our sack numbers, if you just looked at the numbers, aren't great, but the amount of yardage that we've actually lost – because if the quarterback runs out of bounds for no gain, apparently sometimes it goes down as a sack. I wish I had more of those 20 years ago, but I didn't. And so, we just have to transition, we've got to get into the pocket and recognize those opportunities to rush on first and second down that are there when we see that, and there's indicators.
Q: How would you describe what [Joshua] Dobbs has brought to the team?
MV: Well, I've enjoyed being around him. He's a professional, he understands, I think he's good for the quarterback, good for Drake [Maye], good for Tommy [DeVito], and he's prepared. As much as we've talked about those practices on Thursday or our red zone on Friday, that those are competitive reps for everybody, I think that those have been great reps for Josh and Tommy to get during the season. So, I think that that's helped. You just don't get a whole lot of reps, and so you have to use those as your preparation reps and your game reps to read it out. That's why we're not highlighting somebody and saying, "Throw the ball here." Throw the ball to the guy that's open and play quarterback. We don't want to practice like that and say this is what they're going to do. We don't know what they're going to do. So, I think those reps that he has in practice really help him. And again, it's good to see that he was prepared last week to go in, execute and help us.
Q: Mike, we've asked you a lot about Drake sliding and protecting himself, but how do you feel he's developed in terms of how he looks in his comfort in the pocket, knowing when to leave when he has a little bit more time at this point in the season?
MV: I think it's improved. I think there are some times, maybe a few weeks ago, that he probably took off and didn't need to. I think that we've worked on it. I think that was some of the drills that I saw Ashton [Grant] working on with him. Probably don't want to sit there and wait it out a whole lot this week. This would probably not be the week to try that. I would probably go one, two, and I would probably look for an exit strategy based on the Browns, their defense and the way they rush. So, you just have to be, I think, conscious, and again, not staring at the rush, but just having an internal clock and knowing that you don't want to leave a clean pocket. And if it looks dirty, then I'm going to trust his judgment of, if somebody's flashing in there, to extend and be smart with the football.
Q: It seems like there's been a lot of pass rush situations where you guys are sending four, but offenses are keeping guys in, chipping and things like that. Are there ways around it where you can still affect the quarterback, or are you just kind of trusting your coverage in those situations?
MV: Well, I think that you have to kind of trust what you've called. And again, if you live in the world of man, then you can sit there, hug and add on against bigger people, which we've done at times. And again, just trying not to give up big plays. I think that sacks come in bunches. We have to do a better job of affecting the quarterback. I'm not going to say that we need a certain amount of sacks. I think we need to, when they throw checkdowns, be ready to come up and tackle so that checkdowns aren't eight-yard gains. Much like that series that we referenced the other day, it was second-and-whatever it was, [Robert] Spillane makes a good bang-bang tackle coming out of zone coverage, makes it third-and-1, we do a good job on the coverage on short yardage, and then we get a sack. So, it kind of just is all going into letting each other help, and when the ball gets out quickly and we are in zone coverage, that we're trusting the quarterback look in and the quarterback read. What we can't have is the quarterback looking over here, patting it, coming back over here. That system, that can't work. So, that would be one where we would, if we start to see that, then we have issues with basically marrying the rush and the coverage up if the quarterback could sit there, stare it down, pump it, come back and do something over there.
Q: Mike, you talk about preparing every player to be a starter, but you also emphasize keeping improving the roster. Just wondering, as the trade deadline approaches, how do you balance keep improving the current roster versus exploring external options?
MV: Well, we'll always continue to try to do that. I would say that the players that are here, we ask to prepare as a starter mentally so that they're ready to go, they're not just checked out and they're not just reading a card. I mean, again, our coaches will watch, they'll have breakfast with our young coaches. It's a great opportunity for them on Saturday morning to tell those guys, "Hey, the front seven –" Milt [Milton Patterson] and Vinny [DePalma] will be in there watching their defensive snaps from the week, grab some breakfast, come in, have a little meeting before they work out. Same as on offense, whether that's Kugs [Robert Kugler], Riley [Larkin] or Chuckie [Keeton], to be able to get those players in there so that they feel like there's feedback and they're getting coached the same way that anybody else would. And then, as far as the roster, any opportunities that we have to improve it, whether that's the practice squad or the 53-man roster, we'll probably always try to do that.
Q: You were an Ohio guy. Did you grow up a Browns fan?
MV: Of course I did. I mean, you don't grow up in northeast Ohio, not be a Browns fan and have necklaces that are made of dog biscuits. I mean, of course I did. And so, I lived that and Bernie Kosar. And again, I've said this a lot, but I appreciate the Haslam family, Jimmy and Dee, Andrew [Berry], Kevin, that staff. I mean, that was a good experience for me. It was probably the place where I was supposed to be last year. It allowed me to kind of reconnect with a lot of different things as far as whether that's being back around home, seeing old friends and going to high school football games, or spending more time with people that you don't really spend a lot of time with during the season.
