PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
June 10, 2025
Q: I was wondering with the upcoming break ahead of training camp, is there any kind of message you'll be delivering to the players for their downtime?
MV: Well, I don't think it's a downtime. It's time away from the facility. I think it's important. It's probably the five most important weeks of the offseason as far as I'm concerned, just in my history as a player and a coach. It's critical that they come back in shape, that they're ready to go for training camp, that we're prepared as coaches with the schedule, the installation and what we're doing. The players have to hold up their end of the bargain to prepare for training camp.
Q: Do most players understand that now, Mike?
MV: They will tomorrow morning. I mean, I hope. The ones that have been successful and played in this league – I'm not going to speak for 90 guys that they know how important it is. I think they're focused on today, and we'll cover that tomorrow.
Q: How important is that message? How does that message differ from someone like Will Campbell as opposed to Morgan Moses?
MV: Where they're at in their career is obviously significant, but just how Morgan prepares and how a younger player would prepare is going to be different. But both are going to have to be ready to go, just using those two different age groups at the same position. So, we always tell them that everybody will have a plan. This is more for when we get to training camp and you'll say, 'Well, why is so-and-so doing this or that?' Everybody's going to have a plan. It'll be different with as many players as we have. My job is to make sure that everybody's working regardless of what plan that they're on. There will be players that just do individual. There will be players that just do team. There will be players that are off on the side conditioning, or whatever that may be. That's going to change daily throughout training camp.
Q: How do you feel about your roster right now? Are there any areas where you look at it and say, 'Man, that's a glaring spot; we could use more competition or more depth?'
MV: I think that should go for every position on a roster. We would always want to do that, I think. Trying to always continually make the roster more competitive and trying to find everybody that can continually help us from now until the end of the season. I think that just has to go on. That has to happen. Whether that does or not, I don't know. It's not going to keep us from looking, trying to bring up ideas or players, or how we acquire players between now and the end of the season.
Q: Part of the reason I ask that is there's always, at this time across the league, a number of guys who might be in whatever kind of contract strife or on the trading block. So to not speak about them specifically, would you guys constantly be monitoring all discussions?
MV: I think that we have to. It would go for the ability to acquire good players, good people that feel like they can help us at any position. I don't know what those situations are throughout the league, but I'm all for trying to make the roster better any chance that we can.
Q: Mike, we'll get the chance later today to speak to Stefon Diggs. We're on the outside looking in. You're obviously on the inside looking out.
MV: I'm not I'm looking out. I just stay right in here and focus.
Q: Have you seen the dedication from him that you hoped to when you signed him?
MV: I think this goes without saying that we would love every player to be here during the voluntary portion of the offseason. I think that we can all agree on that. That doesn't always happen for multiple reasons. I would say that in his time here that I've been able to be around him and our coaches, I think he's learning. I think he's rehabbing. He's one of those players that's on a different plan, so he's going back and forth from different tempos to rehab. We'll be tight in there today. So, the last time we were inside, I don't think you guys were there, other than the rookies. The offense would run a play, and then the receivers that were working on their own are kind of running, and there would be a lot of action. So then, they don't have a defense, but then now the other offense and defense are in a huddle, and they run another play. You'll see Ja'Lynn [Polk] and Diggs, I would imagine, if that looks like it did before. I just go by what I see. I think those players are all working, and like I said, they have a different plan.
Q: Mike, what have you seen from Efton Chism [III] this offseason? What's allowed him to have a little bit of an impact in the spring?
MV: I think he's a talented player. I think he has a certain skill set. He's dedicated. He's studied extremely hard. He has a good feel for what we're asking him to do. I think the biggest thing for receivers is that there's trust from the guy that throws the football. When you earn the quarterback's trust – any one of them that we have, any one of the three – it doesn't take you long to figure out who the quarterback trusts. It's the ones they target. That's a good indicator.
Q: Mike, the time you've spent around Will Campbell so far, has this been more learning new things about him or affirming the things you came to learn and believe during the pre-draft process?
MV: Just trying to coach him. Just trying to help him each and every day. I feel good about the offensive line coaches that are working with him with Doug [Marrone], Hoss [Jason Houghtaling] and Kugs [Robert Kugler]. I just try to provide any input that I can and help. Just helping him become a pro, helping him acclimate himself to this league, what's going to happen and how we need to be ready for it.
Q: We've seen Ja'Lynn Polk wear a yellow pinnie out there. What's the classification for him to be wearing a yellow pinnie? The quarterbacks wear red.
MV: Just trying to be careful and not have any issues. He had a shoulder procedure in the offseason. At this point in time, I really would just like to get to training camp. I think we've figured out how to practice early on. You can clearly see that there's different speeds in how we practice. Early on, maybe that jog-through was a little faster than what it needed to be. So, I just wanted to be careful that they can let him get his looks and operate and function, but just be mindful that this player's working with something. That'll be the case throughout the season. There will be players that are trying to get ready for the game that will have those on. It's just an acknowledgement that we all have to work together to achieve a goal.
Q: Mike, I think we asked you a few weeks ago how much you care about when a player throws interceptions in practice. How much do you care when a player like Kyle Williams goes up and catches a 50-yard bomb over two defenders in practice yesterday?
MV: I think you have to be able to hit those down the field. You only get so many chances at those contested catches down the field. We appreciate the DBs. Again, they have to give way in the spring, but any chance that you can get completing those not on air with defenders around, I think that that's always good.
Q: Would the rush have got there on that one when you watched?
MV: I think that there's a lot of times that we could sit here and say that. You guys track sacks. Whatever you want to do. They're rushing three steps, four steps, trying to pull off, take care of the quarterback. It depends who you ask, Mike [Reiss]. You ask the defense, every play is a sack. Ask the offense, every play is not a sack. It just depends on who you ask.
Q: Mike, going back to Will. You've mentioned how you're not in pads, you can't run block, and there's certain things that you can't do. How do you gauge where he's at in his progress?
MV: Well, just the understanding, the protection, the sets, 'Am I on the man side? Am I on the zone side? Do I have a sword,' or any of those terminologies that they have, how they're blocking the games. It's been good work because our defense has been able to do a lot of this stuff and still take care of the guys and not – if we're picking or we're running games, do it in a sensible manner that takes care of everybody. We've gotten a lot of looks and gotten a lot of pass sets and different communications. We'll work on a silent cadence today at times on some of those second-and-long and third down opportunities. We know we're going to have to go on the road at some point, obviously, during the regular season and function in crowd noise, so we'll get that again today.
Q: How's Terrell [Williams] doing? Without providing a timeline, any context on when –
MV: Doing well. He'll be here soon and excited about that, so I think everybody's looking forward to that.
Q: I think we've primarily seen Marte Mapu at linebacker so far. Is that where you envision him playing in this defense?
MV: We don't want to waste anybody's time, except yours [laughs]. Just trying to find some versatility for him. He's got a unique skill set. He's got a good size, good length. He's a good blitzer, so we just thought that that could help him and obviously try to help us.
Q: The official date was announced for Bill Parcells and Julian Edelman's Hall of Fame induction. I'm just curious, your thoughts on them and what they meant to this franchise and organization?
MV: Coach Parcells is a Super Bowl winning coach. My conversations with him are just about people, getting to know people. He gave me great advice; sometimes you have to get out of this building. You have to go for a drive. You've got to go to lunch or do something outside of here, which really resonated with me. He had different relationships with most of his players; some were different. Different personalities meant he had to take on a different personality himself, and he clearly got the most out of his players in how he coached them, managed them and prepared them. Jules is just an ultimate grinder and competitor, taking advantage of opportunities, continuing to get better and playing his best in the biggest games and the biggest stages. He's a great representation of this organization.
Q: Mike, that advice from Coach Parcells, is this something he gave you recently or earlier in your career?
MV: Probably earlier.
Q: Mike, what are you going to do in the next five weeks? Water parks?
MV: Probably do a little bit of football, do a little bit of golf, do a little bit of relaxing.
Q: Are you looking forward to it?
MV: Yeah, I think so. The last 10 days, you get a little cranky because you're ready to go to training camp. You get a little cranky because you're just, as a player, you're thinking about starting training camp and that's kind of carried through.
Q: You talked about analytics yesterday. I just wanted to ask about one specific part of it, which was the hiring of Ekene Olekanma from the 49ers. What do you envision in his role, and how do you hope he can help you?
MV: We'll add a couple other people there. I think that just having somebody that's dedicated, that's been in that role, that can manage the people that we have here. He did a fantastic job in his interview process and meeting with all the different groups that we feel like he's going to be able to work with. He played football. Not that that's a prerequisite, but you have to have the ability to not only take these numbers and pull them out of wherever they pull them out of. I'm not going to pretend that I know, but also have some application to it and be able to explain it to the coaches and say, 'How much is too much, probably need more.' However we can make our jobs more efficient and better is something that I'm excited about. We're all excited about him.
Q: So, it will be more like working with the coaches as opposed to on your headset saying, 'Go for it here,' or whatever?
MV: Yeah, that'll be Stretch [John Streicher] and I. That's a pretty proven system, but I would say that he would be involved. That would be one area that he would help us, help me and Stretch specifically outside of the game planning, the self-scout, the opponent's pre-advanced report or anything that they may do. We'd carve out some time for him, me and Stretch based on who we're playing, how aggressive we need to be, what are the field conditions, what are the wind, what are the game conditions. That would all be part of what he would do, but I would imagine that the communication would still stay between Stretch and I. Not that he wouldn't communicate with him throughout the game.
Q: You're obviously preparing for your first training camp after this in the midst of your first minicamp, but in the process context of building your program. Looking ahead at the new training facility, football facility being built. Have you been able to kind of put your stamp on certain aspects of that, and how important is that to your vision?
MV: We're excited about getting in there. I think it's going to be an unbelievable place to work. It's a first-class facility that will give us everything that we need and then some. We're excited about that, and yeah, we've been able to communicate, get what we feel like and have conversations just to try to get it right.
Q: Yesterday, it seemed like Drake was holding on to the ball, but also avoided throwing into bad looks. I was curious, how did you feel that the offense did with the red zone execution, and where would you like to see them improve today?
MV: Well, if you look at the majority of the red zone plays in this league that are passes, it's usually, 'One, two, see you later,' right? Or it's a sack. Maybe there were a few three-man rushes where again, if we feel like those are instances where you can sit and progress, that you can. I know that there were maybe a couple of those. Again, I'm with you. I'm coaching them up to say, 'Hey, we've got to go somewhere, we've got one, two,' and that's what these turn into in the red zone. If you watch every red zone snap in the league, that's about what the majority of them do if you get past your first hitch. I think that will continue to progress when we get down there and just making sure that the timing is there. Sometimes it's not, and then we're going to have to be really good on both sides of the ball with the play extension, being where we need to be and then the defense executing what they have to do as well on those play extensions in the red zone.
