HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
February 10, 2026
Q: Mike, before sending the players off to the offseason, is there anything you wanted to convey to them or any messages you wanted to give them?
MV: Well, I just talked about a disappointing finish to a phenomenal, exciting, enjoyable year. It's unfortunate. Talked to them about the foundation I think that we've built. Much like a home, you build a home and then run out of things to do, so you continue to add on to it, you finish the basement, you make additions to it, and we'll try to do that to this football team. I like the foundation of it, and we'll try to improve on it.
Q: Mike, will you get any downtime or will you just dive right into the offseason?
MV: Yeah, I'm sure there'll be some. Get the coaches out of here. I'm sure there'll be some time. It's all part of it. I think we're so embedded in it, you don't look and say that today's February 10th. I think, for the most part, we focused on today on, "is today a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? We play on Sunday." So, we got into that routine and never really noticed or paid attention to what the actual date was. So, I'm sure we'll take a little bit of time, and then we'll have to continue on with the player evaluation, combine and all those things.
Q: Mike, it was such a special team, culture-wise, personality-wise. The changes are inevitable, is that difficult to wrap your head around? I mean, you've been in the business for a long time, but it's going to be –
MV: I don't know if that's difficult today. I mean, there'll be some difficult decisions that we'll have to make, and we'll try to do them with the team's best interest in mind. As always, that'll never change. I appreciate what they did and how they came together, all the guys that came in from other places that maybe didn't start the year with us, and the different path and a different journey that each guy took.
Q: Mike, you're asked after the game if the Super Bowl experience would be a valuable one for you guys. You said it would only be valuable if we understand what we need to do to improve. Having had the chance to reflect on it a little bit, do you know now what you need to do to improve?
MV: No, not right now. I don't think that this is a time to go into those. Just still try to enjoy the season, enjoy 17 wins, the opportunity to coach these guys and whatever that looks like. But we know we'll continually have to improve. Reflect upon the first Super Bowl I played in, was able to win and failed to make the playoffs the next year. So, we know how difficult this is. Won't be easy, it never will be. So, we'll have a plan.
Q: When it comes to your coaching staff, do you envision Zak Kuhr staying as the defensive coordinator? How do you think things work out with –
MV: Yeah, there'll be a lot of things that we'll have to work through there, Mark [Daniels.] We'll have to work through – T [Terrell Williams]'s healthy and been given a release to be back and be back at work. So again, I'll work through all those things here in the next couple days, weeks, however long those decisions may take.
Q: Mike, you just used the words, "We know how hard this is." Using those words, we know how hard, what you thought about this team when you first took the job, training camp, did this team meet expectations or pass expectations?
MV: Every time you guys ask me about my expectations, I say I try not to have any so that I'm not disappointed. But I would say that they, now that we're done, probably exceeded expectations. I think we probably – the biggest thing is I think we learned how to win. I think you have to learn how to win in this league. You have to understand sometimes they're pretty, sometimes they're not. Sometimes you have to come from behind. Sometimes you have to make a stop late defensively. Sometimes you have to make a kick. And sometimes they're easier games where things are going right, you're returning punts for touchdowns and defensive touchdowns, and everybody's having a big pizza party. But we learned how to win in different ways, and I think that that's important in this league.
Q: Have you re-watched the game yet?
MV: Yeah, I've watched it.
Q: Are there any occasions where you say, "I wish we did this, or why didn't we do that?"
MV: Well, I mean, I think that's the same case in every game. I wish we would have blocked this guy, I wish they wouldn't have moved, I wish we would have called a different coverage for what they did. I wish, I wish, I wish, but it doesn't go that way. None of us did enough to put ourselves in a position to win the game early on, I think, however that went. And we had chances. We put a drive together and stalled, we hit a 20-yard play and then stalled, we gain eight yards on first down and find a way to not convert a first down. There's a lot of things where we had chances on the quarterback, and if we make those sacks, maybe the ball comes out. Maybe we intercept the ball instead of them catching it. Maybe Marcus [Jones] makes that interception, as close as that is. That's how this game goes.
Q: Mike, I wanted to ask you about Will Campbell. I think because when he was coming out of the draft, some teams viewed him as a guard, others viewed him as a tackle, I guess his season has been looked at and scrutinized –
MV: Just like everybody's has. When you sign up to play left tackle, you sign up to play corner, you sign up to play quarterback, you sign up to be the head coach, you get judged, you get scrutinized. Will's 22 years old. He's our left tackle. He'll get better, he'll get stronger. There were moments where he played well, moments where he blocked the guy. There's plays he'd like to have back. We're not moving Will to guard, to center, to tight end or anywhere else. So, I don't know what to tell you.
Q: Mike, what do you hope that your team – because you didn't finish the job, what do you hope they learn from that?
MV: How hard it is to win a championship. How hard it is to finish the season, to be at your best in the biggest and brightest moments. But you have to start over. This whole thing starts over in 10 weeks. The offseason program starts in 10 weeks. That's how I look at this, and when I said that to them, they kind of looked at me like I was crazy. But that's the reality of it. We have a group of guys that played a lot of football. We have a lot of guys that didn't play a lot of football. As I was taught, we talk about the business of the NFL, the businesses, we're looking for the better, younger, cheaper player every day, and the players that we have are trying to not let that happen. And that's the dynamic, and that's the business of the National Football League.
Q: Mike, Devon Witherspoon said that he saw some tells from guards and tackles on pass rush sets. Were you able to see anything that he was talking about?
MV: I mean, that tell is there every week where a guy's stance is a little different. We went the whole season, Morgan Moses was in the same stance when we threw the ball, and we threw it pretty good. When we run it, guys try to be in the same stances. We want to try to be as consistent as we possibly can. I think on some down-and-distances, guys can be in two-point stances. We have certain rules there in third down or if you're on the open side, you're away from a tight end, and I think that those things are pretty consistent. If there were moments where they knew we were going to throw the ball then, I don't know, you'd have to give me the exact idea of when the nickel thought we were throwing it.
Q: Mike, with this season, can you just reflect on what your first year in New England has been and what it's meant to you?
MV: Well, I mean, I think just the support since we first got here, not only from Robert [Kraft] and Jonathan [Kraft,] but the entire organization, of just everybody buying in to what it was that we wanted to do. Some of the changes, some of the things that remain the same, I appreciate that. I know change is sometimes difficult. The fans, the community, I thought, coming back here and seeing 20 people here last night, I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but when you had a tough day, I thought that was pretty cool to see the people standing out here last night in the cold, waiting for us to come back just to welcome us back. So, we gave our fans a lot to cheer about. We're certainly not satisfied with not finishing the season with a championship. But I think we gave them a lot of things to be hopeful about and to cheer about, and those environments that they created in the playoffs was special.
Q: Is it any more beneficial from a roster building standpoint to have gone through this playoff run and seen how your team matches up against some of the top competition in the league and where the margin for error can maybe be increased?
MV: I mean, we can only play who they let us play. I guess being able to evaluate your team against the top talent is always something that's important. We try not to focus too much on who the opponent is, just what we need to do to try to win each week. But I think that that's a good measuring stick to say, "Well, these guys are really good defenses, or this is how we need to be able to do these certain things to win. I think we have an idea." But then, once you play the better teams, all those things get magnified.
Q: Coach, over the course of this season, you mentioned multiple times, finding the right player and fostering a relationship. Evaluating a player's skill might be straightforward, you can look at the stats, the film, the tape, but how do you know the personality and the characters for those players when you're evaluating them?
MV: Well, I think that that's a great question to be able to – there's no test at the combine to measure away heart, fortitude and competitive spirit. They don't have tests for those types of things. So, we have to put it upon ourselves, our coaching staff, our scouts, our personnel staff, to be able to identify the right type of people. You have to be talented, and you also have to have a certain makeup. That when things are tough, which they are, they will be tough during the season, during the game, that we find a way to persevere.
Q: Mike, at what point would you know about any changes to the coaching staff, and do you expect any?
MV: There's always going to be change. I don't know when I would expect those. I just try to focus on the season. I met with the players this morning. We'll continue to meet and visit with coaches, and we'll kind of go from there.
Q: Mike, you were hired about a year ago. What is the biggest difference with the New England Patriots between last year and this year? From your start date to now, the biggest difference in the building, the culture, where the team is at.
MV: Like I said, I feel like we learned how to win. I think that they believe that what we're doing is try to help them be better players, be better teammates, be better parents, be better husbands. I hope that they care about the relationships in this building, and that it's not transactional. We know that there's going to be transactions that take place, but I hope that they know that we have their best interests in mind. We may disagree, but I think that there's a level of respect there.
I appreciate you guys. I don't know how many people that I got to see after the game, but I want to thank you. Thank you for covering us. Thank you for the care that you gave a lot of these stories. And again, we fully understand that we're judged, we are questioned. That's your job, that's what you guys are here for. But I appreciate the respect that you gave us, gave me, gave our team, gave our organization. So, I look forward to seeing you guys in April, maybe, or whenever I have to talk to you again. I know it's at the combine, I'm just kidding.
