PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL

PRESS CONFERENCE
January 30, 2026

Q: How's your quarterback? He was not spotted at practice.

MV: He did not practice, no. It was illness and shoulder.

Q: Illness?

MV: Illness and shoulder.

Q: Any more concern for him, Mike, than you've shown so far?

MV: No. I mean, again, we've had a lot of guys over the last month or six weeks here with illness. So, again, trying to do what's best for the player and the team. Try to take care of guys. Don't spread anything. But, again, we've worked through that here for the past six weeks.

Q: Is Drake [Maye] at the facility today?

MV: He came to work, yeah.

Q: Is he still here or did the illness send him back?

MV: I don't know where he's at right now, but I think he's here.

Q: Was he able, Mike, to participate in meetings and things like that?

MV: He was, yes.

Q: How did his shoulder respond after practice yesterday?

MV: I would say favorably. Yeah, he was fine.

Q: How much did he practice yesterday, Mike?

MV: However you label limited, that's how much he practiced. It wasn't full, and so if it's not full, it has to be down as limited. I don't know what percentage of the normal work, but it's pretty clear that if you don't take the normal reps or whatever you normally take. So, it wasn't that much.

Q: Did Josh [Joshua Dobbs], get the bulk of the reps in his absence?

MV: He did.

Q: Was he able to go through any throwing reps?

MV: No, because he didn't practice.

Q: Yesterday.

MV: Yeah, on a limited basis.

Q: So, he would have practiced today if not for the illness?

MV: He would have been at practice today if not for the illness.

Q: How important is it, Mike – he's obviously in early preparation practices for a huge game – how important is it for him to be out there for as many of these practices as he can?

MV: No different than in the regular season. Practice is important. There's things that come up that – again, there's other ways to prepare. Today was a lot of carryover from yesterday, just in more, I guess, a little faster pace and with shoulder pads on.

Q: Would it be beneficial, you think, to maybe rest him, even if he's not dealing with an illness, to give him time to come back healthy for the game?

MV: There's a lot of ways to recover from injury. Treatment, rest, sleep, a lot of different ways.

Q: With Josh, how does he handle sort of leading the charge offensively?

MV: He prepares as a starter every week, just like everybody else that we have, and was able to do a good job for us at practice.

Q: Mike, on the other side of injury, but not Drake, there's Robert Spillane and Harold Landry [III] –

MV: They did not practice. They didn't practice.

Q: Do you feel that they'll be ready for the Super Bowl?

MV: I can't tell you. All I can tell you is that they didn't practice today. I don't know what's going to happen nine days from now or however many days that is.

Q: What makes JSN [Jaxon Smith-Njigba] unique as a wide receiver?

MV: Just sudden, savvy, competitive, really good play strength for – his stature, you wouldn't think – he's not a 6'3", 220-pound receiver, but he's got great play strength. He's a really good contested catch. I think good route craft, understanding the zone and man. Great body control.

Q: During your year off, I know you still stayed involved in football, but how do you feel as though, or how do feel as though, you had a chance to maybe mentally reset as far as spending more time with family, skiing, golfing, just the opportunity to take a step back a little bit?

MV: It was a good balance. I think when you are in a position where you've done something for so long and that gets taken away for whatever reason, whether that's playing, coaching or a profession, you just try to reflect on it. You try to get away. I think that was positive. Try to find a good balance of a mental and physical state where you feel like, "Man, I can start to improve. I can start to get better. What do I want to do next?" So, all those things are – it's important to have a good balance in what you do, with work, family and things outside of your profession.

Q: Mike, you saw Zak Kuhr as an intern, and obviously later in Tennessee as a defensive assistant. How much have you seen him grow as a coach?

MV: Well, he's talented. Being able to do what he did offensively, and then learn what we were doing defensively and kind of learn the game, but also be able to provide assistance with the coaches as maybe why offenses were doing what they were doing or whether some of the zone read elements from college were starting to creep in or we would see more things, more spread formations and RPOs. He quickly grew as a coach, and I wanted to continue to work with him and keep him a part of what we were doing.

Q: Do you view coaches like you view players in terms of, you give them a little something, if they can handle it, you give them a little bit more?

MV: I think that's probably a good way to look at it. I think that's true for anything that we want to do here, is give people opportunities, see how they respond, see what they are capable of and get them out of their comfort zone, and then try to evaluate how they can help us.

Q: Mike, you have a rally here on Sunday. I'm just curious, the fan support this year, how has it been for you, for the team, et cetera?

MV: I mean, I can only speak for myself, I'm sure the players would tell you the same thing, but I just think that not only in the stadium – there's only so many people that can come to our games and we appreciate everyone and the atmosphere that they've provided for us – but the ones that have traveled, that have been on the road with us, and then the ones that I see around town. I think they remind me how lucky I am to be in this position. And they don't tell me I'm lucky, I tell myself that I'm lucky just by their support, their passion and their appreciation.

Q: Mike, do you have a social media policy for the players, and why or why not?

MV: I mean, I have guidelines. Speak for yourself, no comparisons, no predictions. As far as social media, I wouldn't try to go back and forth with somebody that's got a lot of time on their hands. It's usually a good thing.

Q: Is there anything about, don't do social media in the building?

MV: No, I mean, I guess on their time, on their break, lunch, breakfast or in the locker room. I tried to keep them off their phones last week. It didn't work. I didn't know which phone to try to keep off of them, the first phone, the second phone or the third phone.

Q: You a social media guy ever?

MV: Probably when I recruited.

Q: Coach, can you talk about wearing the white uniforms out in California and why that's a good idea for this team?

MV: We had to pick blue or white, and we went with white. I guess the blue would have been a good idea. As long as we've got a uniform on. I went through this with the uniform police in Tennessee. I try not to get too involved with it. We're the home team. We get to choose. Guys like the white uniforms.

Q: You're 5-0 with the white uniforms.

MV: There we go. I hope the tooth fairy comes tonight, too. We'll be real excited.

Q: Was it the captains' choice?

MV: Yeah, the leadership group.

Q: Are you guys going to practice tomorrow?

MV: Players are off tomorrow.

Q: I thought you guys treated today like a Thursday. I just assumed that meant tomorrow might be a Friday. Usually Friday –

MV: There can only be one Friday, and that's going to be next Friday.

Q: What does that mean?

MV: That means there can only be one Friday, and it's going to be next week. That's why we turned the Friday music off.

Q: So, no weekend update?

MV: Absolutely not.

Q: What makes Nick Emmanwori such an impactful and versatile player?

MV: Well, just the traits, the size, the speed, and I think his awareness and instincts are really – and maybe I'm just – since he's come down around the line of scrimmage, the versatility is really good. I mean, he blitzes, he covers and he's been a fun player. He was a fun player to evaluate. And then, obviously, just a difficult matchup here as we've watched him the last few days.

Q: Why have they been so effective in the run game over the course of the year? Why have the Seahawks been so effective in the run game?

MV: Well, they commit to it. I mean, they lead the league in attempts, so that's a good place to start if you want to do good things. They have a good scheme, and they commit to it. They've been ahead in football games, and therefore allowed them to run the football by volume. But it's a versatile scheme. They run multiple zone schemes, and then some of your duos, inside zones, combination blocks. So, they had two backs that were a good combination. Now [Kenneth] Walker [III]'s getting the bulk of those carries, but certainly he's taking advantage of them.

Q: Coach, how does the allotment of Super Bowl tickets work for players? Are they each allotted two and they can buy more? How does that work?

MV: That probably sounds about right. I don't really get into a lot of the details. I think they do get two and then can buy a certain number based on availability, based on practice squad, based on different things. But, yeah, that sounds about right.

Q: When you're dealing with players who are sick as opposed to physically injured, do you have to rely on player feedback more about their capabilities that day as opposed to Jim [Whalen]'s reports or the medical staff's? How does that decision change with an illness?

MV: I mean, if they can make guys sick, we usually don't have them around, if they're some sort of contagious. I probably help make the decision if I feel like they should be practicing based on how we think they feel.

Q: Mike, growing up watching the Super Bowl, what kind of lasting memories stand out for you? Was the dream playing in the game or did you see yourself potentially coaching in the game?

MV: No, I never thought about that. I was heartbroken that the Browns didn't make it, so I started rooting for the Cowboys, and they made it a lot more times than the Browns did. But, no, I never envisioned this.

Q: How much growth have you seen from Tommy DeVito this year as a quarterback, and within the Patriots, Josh [McDaniels]'s system?

MV: A lot. I think that's a tough proposition to have, is just coming in at the end of training camp and trying to get acclimated offensively. So, to his credit, he's done a really nice job, works with guys and receivers on Mondays, maybe guys that are on the practice squad or that didn't play in the game. So, Ashton [Grant] takes those guys up there and is able to work through our system, and then they'll walk through whatever reps happen today that Tommy didn't get or what he normally doesn't get to be ready to play. So, I have enjoyed the time here with Tommy.

Q: Is the feeling different going through this as a coach than a player or can you –

MV: There's a lot more things that are taken care of as a player. I think it's just a completely different process here being a coach and trying to get prepared. I mean, we have a full season of work here that we can break down and try to decide on what we're going to give to the players, what's too much and what's not enough. So, those are all decisions that we have to try to make as coaches, and then looking at the practice schedule, there's just a lot more logistical things to it from a coaching standpoint.

Q: Mike, about how much of the game plan would you say is in at this point?

MV: I would say the first, second and third down is in. So again, we'll have to be great situationally next week. We'll have to be great in the red zone. Focus on putting those things in and having a plan for that.