HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL

PRESS CONFERENCE
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2026

Q: Are you expecting A.J. [Brown] at practice today, and is the plan for him to still go to Germany?

MV: Yeah, we'll see what he can do, and I would say most everybody but a few guys are going to go to Germany. I'm including him as the group that would go.

Q: Trade deadline comes and goes. Are you disappointed that you guys didn't add anybody?

MV: I'm excited to get ready for the Lions. That's all I can do right now. That's it. It's what we were trying to do before. I think it was good to be able to get in here Tuesday afternoon to kind of get a jump start on things, understand the schedule and how we're traveling and the intent of it. It's another good football team, so that's where our focus is.

Q: So Mike, A.J. going to Germany doesn't necessarily mean he'll play in your eyes?

MV: There's going to be guys that go to Germany that won't play. I don't know who those will be, but there'll be a lot of guys that'll go to Germany that won't be active. I don't know who those are.

Q: What do you see in this Detroit team?

MV: Again, I think they know how to win. They've built, I would say, a program that I know that they're proud of, and Dan's [Campbell] a good football coach. I think Jared's [Goff] playing at a high level. Continued the last three years, he's been at a high level. Great skill players, speed, physical. The defense has played really well the last three weeks, and they stay aggressive on fourth down. They stay aggressive on special teams. So, certainly it'll be a huge challenge. They don't turn the ball over offensively at all.

Q: New coordinator there this year, Mike, how would you just describe, you say they don't turn it over, but –

MV: Well, I mean, I think that's just because they haven't really put the ball in harm's way. They've created X plays. [Jahmyr] Gibbs leads the league in touches. Coordinator wise, I think the run game and the scheme kind of mirrors what it's always mirrored. I know there's a few pass game wrinkles, but I still think some of the same things and same concepts that they liked have carried over, and Drew's [Petzing] done a good job. He gives Jared a lot of autonomy at the line of scrimmage to get him in the right play.

Q: When it comes to defensive game planning, do you feel like there's been sufficient cohesion among the coaches, and do players have any amount of impact when it comes to those game plans and their perspectives?

MV: Cohesion, I mean, I think that's all we want to do from a staff is to do that. We've done that since I've been a head coach is try to get everybody's ideas and figure out what works. Certainly, we present a game plan to the players, and I know where this is going every time that you guys question a player and their ability to do their job. It's, "Well, it's got to be the coaching." It's all of us. Then we talk to the players, they give us feedback. The professional initiative is that you have a job to do, block your man, throw the ball to the open guy, run where they're not, cover, rush, tackle, and we have to teach them the skills to do that and give them confidence to go out and do their job each and every week.

Q: You have an open roster spot right now. Do you anticipate that going to Greg Van Roten?

MV: Yeah, I mean, again, we'll probably get to 53. Greg was return to play. Reggie Gilliam will be back practicing, so that'll be good. We'll just have to see where that goes. This is Wednesday. This is the first practice of the week, and it'll be important for us to see how those guys do.

Q: Is there a chance Rhamondre [Stevenson] lands on IR?

MV: Again, there's a chance that anything could happen, but I'm not going to speculate on any of that. You guys are just – let's get past the injuries here. Let's try to focus on the Lions and what we need to do to try to find a way to win the game. But the injuries and the injured reserve, I mean, if you pay attention, we don't have too many spots left here to bring guys back on injured reserve.

Q: Mike, what would you like to accomplish today? How important is today's practice here?

MV: Well, today's critical. Yeah, I mean, I think that after walking through yesterday afternoon on the first and second [down], clean that up, get some speed stuff at that and what they do defensively and offensively. I mean, I think it'll be hard to replicate the speed of the back. That's what you always concern yourself with when you're playing somebody that has the skillset that he does. It's hard to say that we have somebody like that that's going to be able to run the way he does, or certainly without pads on and where we're at here at this part of the season. So, I think just making sure that everybody is – we're communicating, we get our speed in, that we understand the first, second, and third down game plan before we travel, and that we get a work day in. I'm looking forward to getting back to work. I think the players are, too.

Q: When it comes to offenses using quick snaps against you guys, is there anything you guys can do to slow them down from doing that, or is it just awareness that they might snap the ball quickly?

MV: I would say that when the center has his hand on the ball, we should probably be ready. And when they hard count us, we should probably wait until the ball is snapped. So, all the same things that teams will do. They protect with seven guys and quick snap, three guys are in the route. But again, I think just being ready and understanding what teams are doing each and every week. Teams around the league do it to teams that pressure on third down or move guys around. That's part of understanding and trying to explain to them that this is what teams are going to do. They're not going to sit there and wait, and let you line up six guys, blitz them and do whatever you want. So, we've done okay with that, and then there are times where we probably could be a step quicker to get lined up. But third down, I don't think third down overall has been an issue. So, we'll keep working on it.

Q: Mike, does that limit the defense's ability to sort of change how –

MV: No, I don't think it can limit what you call. You're just – there's not going to be a check involved. You're going to have to play things out.

Q: The Lions have been one of the best defenses at creating unblocked pressure this season. That seems like an area where the offense has maybe struggled in recent weeks. What's made the line so successful, and maybe what are some ways that you can shore up some of those unblocked pressures?

MV: We can communicate; we can identify who we want to go to. And if we do that correctly, then we should have everybody blocked, and then it comes down to whether we can block them or not. And if we don't choose to redirect the traffic, then we have to know that somebody's going to be free, and we're going to have to throw hot or do whatever else the other mechanics are that we have. You don't have a whole lot of choices.

Q: You mentioned that Dan Campbell has established his program. You're still in a phase where you're trying to establish and build a program. How much has this been a reminder this year for you and for the players?

MV: Well, we're not trying to reflect on anything. We're just trying to focus on this week, who we can have available, who can improve, who can practice and all those things. And finding a way to win a game, eliminate the things that get us beat, continue to do the things that we've done that are productive and that have been productive. We hit X plays the other night. We just choose to turn the ball over too much. And defensively, again, it comes down to a handful of plays, whether they make a play or we hand it to them. But it's okay if they earn it. It's just that when we hand it to them and when we make it easy on them, those are the ones that get you beat. So, we'll have to do that more consistently to where, if they're going to gain something on us defensively, they have to earn it. They have to go make a play. And they did that the other night, and they'll do that going forward. We just have to come back and recenter, challenge, compete, stop the run, pressure the quarterback and the things that we do when we're successful.

Q: Both you and Mack [Hollins] have made the comments about wanting guys who want to be here. Robert Spillane was on the radio today, and he kind of said he didn't agree with those comments. Did you have to kind of explain what you meant by that? Was there any conversations that were had on what you meant by that?

MV: No, I didn't have to explain myself, and he didn't say anything to me. Listen, I want people to be here. I want you guys to want to be here. If we're going to get together and we're going to have a team, I want people that want to be here. That's really nothing new. That's not earth shattering. So, I tried to explain that that wasn't an accusation. And if somebody took it like that, then it's probably who we were talking to.

Q: In the past, you have praised the wide receiver group as being really unselfish and said something along the lines of wishing that that was reflected in some other parts of the team. Since then, have you seen that reflected among any other position groups, just in terms of collectiveness?

MV: Well, yeah, that happens. And again, I think what we've talked about actually is trying to have the ability to spread that throughout the team and not just make it a silo. I want the outside linebackers, the defensive line, the inside linebackers and another position group, right? Not just offensively and defensively, but you want to try to spread that sort of connection, urgency, excitement, whatever that may be, throughout the team as opposed to just the seven or eight wide receivers that we have or just the one position group by itself. Nobody wants to create an environment like that.

Q: With these international games, how much does it come down to just how each side handles the logistics, the jet lag and the extra stuff that's associated with this kind of stage?

MV: I mean, I think that's part of the game. I think that's part of the week. No different than the challenges you may have in traveling here or games. There's always going to be distractions. We can't eliminate them. It's how we handle them, so we've chosen to handle them by going over tonight. And whoever plays better and does the things that we talk about that ultimately lead to victories will be the team that ends up winning the game. So, every week has its own set of circumstances. This one, it just means we're traveling to Germany.