PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
August 10, 2025
Q: Can you give us an update on Christian [Gonzalez]'s status? Might we see him in Minnesota or at all this week?
MV: You might be seeing him in Minnesota.
Q: Ja'Lynn Polk got hurt during the game.
MV: You won't see Ja'Lynn Polk in Minnesota.
Q: Carlton Davis?
MV: You'll see him in Minnesota.
Now, before you think I'm being funny, you'll probably see Christian in Minnesota, you won't see him on the field probably in a uniform. See how I did that? You'll see him in Minnesota, but he probably won't be practicing this week. Because if I didn't, then it would be like, 'Oh, he's –'. But anyways, I wanted to clarify that.
Q: Mike, you've got two weeks to cut down day. I'm just curious. If you know there are any players that are not going to be on your squad, do you have a tendency to cut them early so they can possibly pick up on other teams?
MV: Oh, I think we're so far away from that. Me personally, I'm focused on just having another great day and continuing everything that we did on Friday. And as you can see, everybody that was healthy played in the game and gave those guys opportunities. Whether it was John Jiles or [Jeremiah Webb] Webby, the offensive linemen, some of those guys that we talked about that didn't get to play or practice against Washington, really did themselves well when they were given the opportunity. And so, I want to continue to reward those players that treat the team well and treat them the same way they treat the team. So, as long as they're here working and getting better, we're going to practice them and eventually get them action in the game.
Q: Mike, after looking at the tape, anything specific stand out to you from Friday that you didn't see during the game?
MV: I thought we played – to continue to build the identity of playing with great effort and trying to take care of the guy with the ball. We have to tackle better, and that happens sometimes in the first live action. A lot of good stuff to teach off of there. Continue to talk about the ball security, whether it came out or not, the opportunities where we feel like the ball is in jeopardy. I thought we ran it well. I thought we took – I thought we played a clean game. I thought we took advantage of the field position, won that battle and saw the kickoff returns and how explosive that play can be. We're going to have to cover those same kicks this year. So, did a lot of really good things, and then we just have to continue to improve the things that we talked about with the missed tackles or getting into a rhythm with the passing game and kind of just continue to progress.
Q: Mike, is there a specific focus for practice today, just coming off the preseason game and with joint practices coming up?
MV: We'll be in the red zone. We know how critical that is. We didn't get a stop defensively in the red zone. We did a nice job offensively in the red zone, but defensively it wasn't very good. So, again, we like coming off these days off in the red zone. Shorter space for the players, but it's still a critical area where you need precision and speed, it's just not maybe long speed.
Q: I'm just curious, do you still feel good about the path that [Morgan Moses] he's on right now?
MV: Yeah, yep. And I anticipate him in practice today and he will be in Minnesota as well.
Q: Mike, on the kickoff return that [TreVeyon] Henderson took back, [Elijah] Ponder was in there and looked like he had one of the blocks that helped. I want to ask you about him. One, what have you seen from him in camp? And then maybe the block, if that stood out to you as a good play.
MV: Sure. Yeah, no, Elijah continues to improve, and I think that the ability to play on special teams as an outside linebacker who probably in college they don't get a whole lot of work at is something that you're always trying to build and develop because it is new for some of these guys. On that particular play, it's at the point of attack and it's a big block, and there's going to be a lot of these that are close. And when I say close, I mean close to a penalty and close to a touchdown. And we have to coach the heck out of it. We have to make great decisions, split-second decisions when you're at the point of attack because when they start to see that, we just have to stay square and the backs have to help us by setting some of these things up, because the alternative is now you're starting inside the 20-yard line and defeating the whole purpose of taking advantage of the field position. So, there was a lot of good blocks there. We'll have to see where the trends start to go on the penalties, and the more kickoffs, there's going to be more penalties, you can imagine, and see what the League wants to do there.
Q: Mike, when you watched the film back, when the quarterbacks ran in the game, did you think they had chances to throw, and would you rather them take advantage of those opportunities to try some things in the game than run?
MV: I mean, one was from the five, one was from the two. I don't think Josh [Dobbs] was doing anything but trying to not get hit and happened to find the end zone. Drake [Maye], I thought, made two good decisions when he went up into the B-gap, got the first down. Probably could have been a little muddy, I guess, if you're nitpicking to Mack Hollins, but I don't think he was put in harm's way to where he went. So, I saw Mack break, and again, when you have the football in your hand, we trust you to make great decisions. I don't know if there were any other opportunities. We had a couple move-the-pocket plays and found Jaheim [Bell] on one, which was a nice catch-and-run, and then I think found [Efton Chism III] Chiz on the other one. Are those the ones – I don't know which ones you're specifically referring to.
Q: Probably the Drake – I think it was a third-down scramble where he picked up a first down. He might have had a couple shots down left side deep end zone.
MV: I think that the way that he went, I think it would have been hard for him to remain a passer to the left side, just physically. I mean, again, once you start to scramble – and again, you'll see some of the scramble drills hopefully today in the red zone, but we would like him to be able to shut off half the field. You start looking back here, bad things kind of happen. So, to me, I think he was going to right, I think he saw soft coverage and trusted in his ability to be able to go and pick up the first down.
Q: What have you seen from Marcus Bryant so in this camp, and just – earned the start there on Friday night, what led to that?
MV: I think he earned it. I think that when they switched over and he had some snaps on the left at the beginning of the training camp, I think moving him over to the right, I thought he did well, especially in the joint practices, earned that opportunity and continues to improve. He'll have to play both sides for us, and I think he's just a young player that is taking the coaching and was one of the players I remember when we first put pads on had really high pad level. We talked about it, we coached it, we showed him, and I think that has improved. I mean, he's 6'6", so first day, I guess we'll cut him some slack, and it's improved. That's all we ask of the players, is that each day they continue to improve and focus on improving. So, I kind of liked Marcus. He's kind of a happy, lucky-go kid, and I think there's a lot of good football in front of him.
Q: Mike, we haven't talked to you about the joint practice, just wanted to get your take on what happened in the scrum there and did you have any fun with the film review with the team?
MV: I didn't show the team. They all looked at it, obviously, in their meeting rooms because guys were laughing at me. I realized that Will [Campbell] and I were thinking the same thing, just trying to get the second guy off and TreVeyon and they're wrestling around – I just don't want anything to happen to anybody. My job is to try to break those up and I don't mind doing it, and that's kind of how it went.
Q: You have a quarterback like Drake who has a unique ability to extend plays, what's the teaching process in, he has this unique ability, you want him to play to that, versus sometimes knowing when to go down and just live to fight another day.
MV: Yeah, we have to be able to protect ourselves as the quarterback of the football team. At the yard markers, at the sideline, near the line to gain and especially the goal line. I think the biggest thing is just don't assume. Try to use the rules to your advantage, and being able to slide, whether you go feet first or whether you go head first, you're still protected. And again, we want him to be aggressive, but just not reckless and put the ball or himself in harm's way.
