PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL

PRESS CONFERENCE
December 29, 2025

Q: How was the bus ride home, and kind of being able to find out and celebrate an AFC East title?

MV: I mean, it was great. Everybody was kind of watching on their phones or following along. I think the timing of it worked out well, that the Eagles were able to win, and then we were able to kind of time it up here, and have the hats and the T-shirts here ready to go pretty quickly. And so, I appreciate that, and Stick [Preston Rogers]'s crew having that ready to go. Players enjoyed it. Staff enjoyed it. I thought it was perfect timing, and then everybody kind of went on their way.

Q: How do you balance taking the time to celebrate while also keeping your sights on –

MV: It was about 15 minutes to get a picture, the shirt's passed out, the hat's passed out and the pictures organized, but other than that, back to work, focused on the Dolphins, focused on who we may have and a plan that we'll have to try to put together to improve. And I think that's the biggest thing, is just trying to really target the things that can reasonably be improved from a technical standpoint and just things that come up throughout the game that we've maybe been working on and that we've seen or saw, and then some things that we've maybe been working on that haven't showed up. And that's what you do. You stay consistent and just continue to coach. Again, I always talk about coaching the action and not the result, making sure that the actions are positive and what we're looking for to help the team.

Q: At your introductory press conference, you said that you were unsure if your team was capable of taking advantage of bad football yet. At what point did that shift for you?

MV: I think that probably goes up and down. I think that changes by the day. Some days we do, and sometimes we don't. So, I would say that we have done that more times than not.

Q: How much does Hunter Henry exemplify what you look for in a leader and when you talk about the culture you want here?

MV: Well, I would just, again, talk about his consistency from the very first time that I've been here with him through the OTAs, through the offseason. His work, his knowledge, but then being at training camp, being where he's supposed to be and kind of always making the plays that we need him to make. And so, I appreciate him. I appreciate his leadership. He always has good perspective. I value his opinion – not that I always take it, but I appreciate the fact that he's comfortable sharing the locker room and the thoughts of the locker room, or maybe what guys have going on and how I can address it.

Q: With Mack [Hollins]'s injury, is that something where you could see him coming back in the postseason if the timeline's right?

MV: Again, we won't be able to see him for another three weeks. So, at that point in time, then we would make a decision, and I hope that's one that we could make. But right now, I don't think I can predict anything.

Q: Did that happen in the game last week?

MV: That was a game injury, yeah.

Q: With Jack Westover, we saw him go out with an ankle injury, I believe. Do you have any update on him?

MV: Sore, probably could have returned, but we'll monitor him here in the next couple days. I don't think it's anything that is too significant, but we'll just see how he progresses here when we get back to work.

Q: Let's keep the injury questions going. Will Campbell, do you have a crystal ball? Do you think he will practice this week?

MV: I think he will.

Q: Obviously, when you beat a team 42-10, from a coaching standpoint there isn't a lot there to complain about, right?

MV: There's plenty. There's plenty. We can find it.

Q: Right, but then you give up the fake punt there. Is that something where you could look at a play like that and say, "Hey, you know what, we won 42-10, but here's an example?"

MV: I think a guy made a play. I mean, it wasn't that they caught us off guard. We had a guy there. We were expecting that all week. I give Jeremy [Springer] and Tom [Quinn] all the credit, the players, for being ready. I just think the guy made a play. Schools [Brenden Schooler] was there. I think Schools would tell you that he wished he had that one back and to make the play. They came back the next time and overloaded us. And, again, I'm really excited for those guys out there that had practiced that, and we always kind of make a joke about the gray team, getting ready and having their hands in the ground and feet set. When they rushed to the line of scrimmage, they overloaded us to the right, which is something that we had seen them do to our left. We got guys over there. K.C. [K'Lavon Chaisson] made a great play, Cory [Durden] made a great play. So, we were prepared for the other one. They made a play. But there are a lot more other details like technique things, tackling, finishing, protecting the quarterback and blocking some of these runs that we can improve on, not to sit here and harp on the 5-yard pass that they completed on the punt return team.

Q: What have you seen from Drake [Maye] that allows him to play with so much poise and decisiveness when teams try to disguise coverage?

MV: I just think he's getting a lot more comfortable. He's knowledgeable. I think it means a lot to him to be able to manage and understand where we're going with the football, and the run game, in the passing game, knowing where he needs to be and where the protection issue may be. And then I think there's trust with the protection at times. I think that there's trust. I think that there's a trust that he can transfer into the pocket. He can also extend. They got him a little bit on the one coverage and they jumped into cover two. He took a peek and then took off. And so, I know defensively that's frustrating because here you are, you get a quarterback to think it's one coverage and it's something else, and then all of a sudden he just takes off and scrambles for a first down. So, those are great qualities to have, not panicking and throwing it into roll coverage, and just being able to pull the ball down and find an escape route.

Q: Mike, speaking of qualities, I know you want and enjoy having a tough football team. How much does it help if your quarterback is one of the leaders in the toughness category?

MV: Well, again, we always talk about, I believe that Drake is tough. I don't think we have to put it to the test or we don't have to always challenge his toughness. I think we just need to protect him the best that we can, and he has to understand that when he has the football, where he needs to be and how he can protect himself. So, it helps to see him out there and blocking for guys on reverses, or being able to stand in there and deliver the football. There's no question. I don't question his toughness at all.

Q: For a guy like Chiz [Efton Chism III] who worked so hard to get his opportunity and break through in the squad, what conversations do you have with him about what he can do to continue to earn these opportunities as the injury report starts to clear up?

MV: He's prepared the same way since the day that he got here, so that's the nice thing. It's not, "Oh, wait until somebody goes down and then start preparing." And we've talked about how hard that is to prepare as a starter, not see any light at the end of the tunnel and think, "When am I going to get my opportunity?"

Q: You mentioned Tom and Jeremy, two coaches you retained from last year's staff, and Tom's a guy who was a coordinator for a long time in this league. How's he complemented Jeremy? Talk about the way they've worked together.

MV: They've worked together really well. And, again, I've got a little bit of history with Tom and have gotten to really know Jeremy, and they, I think, complement each other very well, just from a guy that's been around the league that maybe has a little bit more years in this league, and Jeremy, who has been places, and has great energy and ideas. They're both very well organized in the structure of practice, our execution and trying to get guys in the right spots, and I know that Jeremy values Tom's opinion, so it's very collaborative. And then, I like the way that they present the information and that they teach the information, so Tom's done a good job with Andy [Borregales], Bryce [Baringer] and all those guys with kicking the football.

Q: Mike, why was it important for Will Campbell to travel with the team the last two weeks, and what does he learn in situations like that?

MV: Well, I think Will cares deeply about this team and the players on it. That was his decision. I mean, I usually would rather these guys stay, get some rest, recover and treatment, and once he started feeling good enough to travel he asked to go. And so, I think it can only help him to be around his teammates, be into the game and help them just like Mack did yesterday.

Q: Mike, I noticed at the game it seemed like a lot of significant others were there, the coaching staff, the support staff. Is that something you always did in Tennessee?

MV: No, that's nothing that we've done. We just thought that, again, as we wanted to build this thing, how critical the families, the support and everybody around us are. Just to offer that, an opportunity to go to New York, hang out and go to dinner. I want to thank Robert [Kraft] and Jonathan [Kraft] for doing that and allowing that to happen. I think those things can be positive, and just the balance between work and our families. They make significant sacrifices for us to do what we do, and not just the coaches. This is personnel, the video, operations and the training room. So, felt like – and again, it worked out to be a perfect time to come back, and them to be with us and us being able to take the next step here with the AFC East. And then now we're back to work.

Q: We saw you give the game ball to Drake Maye after yesterday. Can you just talk about that moment and why you felt it was this game where he had truly earned that?

MV: Oh, it was just a pretty special performance. It's no secret how I feel about Drake. Again, that was a special game ball. That was one that I had constructed that had a lot of tape and paper, and I did arts and crafts on it. That was all our road wins on the ball that I had taped on there. So, he better bring it in here, and he better put it in the quarterback room because I put a lot of time and effort into that thing. Yeah, when we won three games in a row on the road, those three weeks, Stick had done a nice game ball that had those three games on there, and so then I went back and kind of added on all the other ones. I printed them off and put them on there. So, I'd said the night before, whoever was the player to gain, they got this special game ball. So, it's kind of fitting that Drake had the performance that he had. There were a lot of other really good performances and a lot of guys that helped us contribute, but certainly the day that he had and what he's done so far for us. So, we'll need a lot of those efforts from him to continue. You guys know that, and I anticipate that to happen.