PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
November 3, 2025
Q: I'm just wondering if you're annoyed at all by an opposing coach accusing you or your team of doing something underhanded.
MV: I don't think annoyed. I'm trying to not waste any more time looking for anybody clapping. I don't see anything.
Q: [Jaylinn] Hawkins was clapping in the back, but that's far away.
MV: Certainly, that wasn't anybody's intent, and I don't think that we've ever coached that or talked about that. I can't spend that much time focused on it. I did look at it briefly. I certainly didn't think that that was anything that we did – I mean, I think it's pretty loud, guys are trying to get lined up and I'm glad that we took off when they snapped the ball.
Q: Ideally, how would you like to see [the organization] approach tomorrow's trade deadline?
MV: Yeah, I mean, continue to focus on – I think what happens is, our personnel staff makes calls and they all have conversations as this thing leads up to it. I would just say continue to do our due diligence about what those may be and what those look like, and then make a decision that we think is best for us. That's what I hope that we do. Until I hear otherwise, we'll have conversations this afternoon. Nothing new to report, but just like everything else, figure out who's available if they're on a roster, and if they're not, do we need to get guys in here on the practice squad, or how do we want to handle the roster each and every week?
Q: Jack Westover made some key blocks yesterday. How have you seen him continue to develop into that role?
MV: Yeah, I think he's, one, worked hard. I think he's taken ownership of that spot and continued to improve. They normally are never – when you get a diagram, it's like, "OK, go block this guy." And then when the ball's snapped, it never really looks like that. So, he's done a good job of trying to navigate through some traffic, and create some lanes and some space for us. I think he's improved on special teams for us, he's contributed. So, I think Jack's gotten more comfortable each and every week since training camp. He's kind of carved out a little role for himself, and that's been good to see.
Q: Mike, when it comes to the pass rush, nine sacks this year – and I know that's not everything – but do you feel like the defensive front seven is doing enough to affect the quarterback consistently?
MV: I think we can always do more. I don't think that the sacks are a number – I thought we had some good rushes yesterday. I thought we had some impactful rushes. We got off the field on third down. We've talked about the ability to get into second-and-long situations and affect the quarterback. We got the grounding on the one, that's significant. So, I think it just has to continue to improve and understand where those opportunities are. They don't always occur on third down. We have to find ways to go rush and affect the quarterback outside of third down. Sometimes the ball gets out of there quick, sometimes it doesn't. So, I would say that it's okay, it needs to continue to improve. It has to be something that, whether we send four, whether we send more than four, just a great mentality and an understanding of how we need to affect the quarterback, but also what the quarterback can do. There are so many more that are mobile, that can extend the play. So, I think that's also part of it, is making sure that it's relentless and coordinated.
Q: What were your thoughts on the red zone defense after watching the tape? It seemed like Marcus Jones was in some tough spots later on, when they made some adjustments.
MV: Well, one, I'd say we've got a lot of confidence in all those guys back there, and Marcus Jones has made those plays. They made plays, those are jump balls and it's hard to help everybody down there. You have to go up through the pocket, whether that was Carlton [Davis III] at the end or Marcus. We've seen him cover a couple weeks ago, Defensive Player of the Month, making PBUs in the end zone. So, they've got a lot of skill over there on that football team, a lot of first rounders.
Q: I guess part of the reason I asked this is, later, it seemed like Christian [Gonzalez] was more in some of those situations.
MV: Well, we always try to – the idea was to have Christian on Drake [London], but then, to their credit – you have to make some traffic calls and be able to combo some stuff when you're in some of those situations in the red zone, playing man coverage. So, I would have liked to have tried to avoid that, but give them credit. I think I'm confident that we'll come back and be able to play better. It's frustrating to get them into those third down situations or fourth down situations and give up a touchdown there after playing OK early in the down, in the red zone, and then the one was at the end of the first half, which is unfortunate. But I do like the fact that when our offense turned it over, we threw a pick, sudden change there, we didn't give up any points in the second half there, in that opportunity. So, we've got to be better in the red zone. We started faster defensively. I would rather give up a touchdown on the first drive of the game and then no other points, in case you guys are wondering.
Q: You mentioned you'd like to have Christian on London there. On the second London touchdown, were the assignments there divvied up the way that you wanted, because it looked like Marcus was maybe locked on to London on that one.
MV: I think there's just getting over there in a bunch set, making sure that everybody's in the same thing. Yeah, I mean, again, we've seen Marcus and all those guys repeatedly down there in the red zone compete, challenge and get the ball out. So, as long as we're all on the same page, which they were, we didn't leave anybody uncovered, we have to execute better, and when they make a good play, we have to also recognize that as well, continue to challenge and go up through the pocket. We know that those are going to be contested and we have to get them out.
Q: Mike I have a two-part question, one football, one facial hair. What's going on with that?
MV: Well, I partnered with Gillette. I've been excited to get this mustache back. It's been a while. So, we're going to do Movember this year and we're going to promote men's health. Obviously, Gillette does a lot for us and I'm excited to help them. They're the leading sponsor for men's health here this month, prostate cancer and obviously the effect that it has close to us here. But making sure that we take care of ourselves. You guys won't recognize me in another week, this thing will be flowing. So, we'll see how that looks and we'll go from there. But excited to do that and help promote the Movember.
Q: The second part, I was curious what you've seen from Kyle Williams.
MV: Well, he settled down. He had to play a lot of different positions and there's a lot of moving parts. And Kayshon [Boutte] went down and Kyle's been learning a lot of different positions. I'm excited that he'll probably get an opportunity here, a little greater opportunity going forward. It's just a lot of different personnel groups and alignments. And so, I think he settled down and I think that he'll get an opportunity here moving forward. I think Kayshon's going to be day-to-day, but I don't see him practicing early in the week. We'll see where that goes late in the week, but Kyle should be ready to go here for us.
Q: I wanted to ask you about Mack Hollins. He gets a lot of attention sometimes for things that might seem peculiar to some: no shoes, costumes, etc. But, the professionalism that you've seen from him, all the things that he's asked to do, blocking in the run game, maybe setting a rub to get a guy free on a pass route, and then when the ball's thrown his way, catching the ball. How has he met your expectations? Has he exceeded them when you guys went out and signed him?
MV: Well, I would say that the professionalism that you touched on, he's in here early. He spent a lot of time here this offseason, away from his family to learn quickly what we were asking him to do and all the different positions that we were putting him in. Spent a lot of time. He was a great mentor to these young guys. They were here, I would say, as long as the coaches were in the offseason. After some of the veterans had gone home for the day, stays, here early. He has a unique bond with some of those young guys and has been dependable. He's coachable, has a great energy to him and a spirit. We'll try to continue to find places to get him to football when he goes in there and does some of that dirty work. We'll try to reward him.
Q: In terms of culture, when a guy like Pop [DeMario] Douglas goes through what he went through this weekend, but still wants to be out there for you and for his team. Just how much pride do you take in that?
MV: Well, I take a lot of pride in this football team, my job, my responsibility to support them and to try to foster a bunch of connections. I try to give them everything that I can to help them do their job, and so when somebody goes through some pain like that – and I wish I had known. Credit to Pop, he was like, "I just didn't want to be a distraction, Coach." So, it kind of breaks my heart a little bit that he had to wear that on his heart and in his mind until after the game. We'll continue to support him every chance that we get, his family and our condolences to them. Pop is just one example of many that exhibit the type of camaraderie and togetherness that we want to create. He's always got a smile on his face. He'll do whatever you ask him to do. And so, to have him have some success, be able to get into the end zone and have some big catches when maybe that production wasn't there. Again, it's just another example of another week, another receiver taking advantage of their opportunity. So, that was a cool opportunity and moment for Pop.
