PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
August 24, 2026
Q: I'm curious, do you anticipate having Christian Gonzalez back in practice today or tomorrow?
MV: Yeah, I think we're hopeful that he will be able to do some stuff. He was working before the game and trying to work through the return to play, so we'll see how he feels this morning.
Q: Mike, are you guys going to have to bring in a new punter with Bryce [Baringer]'s injury?
MV: Yeah, I think we will, so we'll probably sign somebody here shortly.
Q: How serious with Bryce [Baringer]?
MV: Serious enough that we'll probably have to sign a new punter.
Q: Did it happen in the game?
MV: It happened in the game, yes. I mean – I would not make him go out and kick while he was injured, if that is what you are asking. But yeah, it was something that occurred during the game, which is why the quarterback had to punt.
Q: Mike, you have talked from the beginning of having a sense of urgency with this team. When it comes to what you were talking about the other day about depth and things like that, how do you squeeze the talent that you have with the sense of urgency to get to where you need to be?
MV: Well, I mean, depth – depth has to be built. That is something that has to be built through experience and making sure that the guys are in place to be the first backup in. Those are critical. Those are almost starters. We know how many people are going to have to play for you throughout the season and there cannot be a drop-off. So, that is why we're building it, and that is what you have preseason for. It is what you have training camp for. That is what you have practices and joint practices for is to be able to identify those players that you think are in a position to provide that. And that is what we're trying to do.
Q: Were there players that stepped up on Saturday night?
MV: I think in the second half, I think there certainly were. I think some guys that the coaches pointed out. I think Kindle [Vildor] obviously had some very competitive snaps. [Dametrious] Crownover, I thought, played well and tried to finish and tried to use his length and pass protection. I thought Lenny T [Leonard Taylor III] played well and factored and showed up. I think offensively, even just down the line, I thought Chiz [Efton Chism III] did a great job of, when the ball found him, making the plays, but also his ability to go and block force and finish. Kyle Dixon hadn't been out there for a while, and so a guy that is relatively new to the receiver position, that was really cool to see him show up in some big moments. We're throwing the ball to Kyle Dixon. He was a baseball player not too long ago on fourth down, and he's making a play, and then he's trying to block. Finding the right guys to block in a run game. So, those are all really interesting things.
Q: Mike, specific to Christian [Gonzalez], what will the protocol be before practice today to determine if he's ready to play or not?
MV: We'll meet here with Jim [Whalen] and myself, see where things are at, see how he feels and see how he feels warming up.
Q: Have you worked through whether you want the starters to play a little bit on Thursday night?
MV: We have two days. It is a short week, so we have two days, and again, I have to see where we're at here coming out of the red zone today and where we're at tomorrow, but no, I have not made a determining factor or decision.
Q: Mike, I'm curious about your embrace of sports science and load management because I think people might look at you as a former linebacker from northeast Ohio and not think of a guy wanting to give a Morgan [Moses] or Reggie [Gilliam] a day off. Did that come from conversations with doctors or maybe when you were a player you thought, "Hey, if we dial it back a little, guys might be better prepared," or how did you come to that?
MV: No, I thought 10 straight two-a-days was a good way to prepare the football team [laughs]. I just think as the data becomes more available, I think you have to be careful to go overboard. I mean, you want to track certain numbers, high-speed numbers, yardage and all the other stuff and also have a pretty good gauge of, I think, the player and what they look like and how conditioned they are, and we try to set the schedule up accordingly. Some of that takes care of itself just by the way that we try to put the schedule together and just try to map it out, and then when there is a longer stretch, you may have to dial back on a particular player. But I think probably just when you become a head coach, you try to focus on the things that get the team ready and what they need and what each guy needs. And then some more of the GPS stuff became really popular and prevalent, and anything that can help us keep the players out there, I'm all for.
Q: With the linebacker position, with Christian [Elliss] and Robert [Spillane] having not played in the two games, how do you evaluate the guys who have played in the games?
MV: Yeah, I mean, I think K.J. [Britt] has been physical, which is good. I think he's using that as a strength. He was physical in the Philadelphia joint practices. The young guys continue to factor, and then there are a lot of things that they need to learn, and there are a lot of different defenses and situations and a lot of plays. There are a lot of firsts for Nam [Namdi Obiazor] and Khalil [Jacobs] – and then certainly Riley Wilson in that group, too. And then Chad [Muma] came in last year mid-season and helped us and helped us in the kicking game. So, we'll continue to see where those guys are, and I would not anticipate seeing Khalil out there this week. He's working through something, and I would say we've got a pretty good list of guys. Marcus Bryant would be in that category. I wouldn't plan on seeing Craig Woodson out there today. X [Xavier Holmes] won't be out there — Xavier won't be out there today. Lan [Larison] and Jam [Miller] probably won't be out there today either.
Q: How much does the unusual start date that you guys have play into the decisions you are making about this final preseason game?
MV: I mean, I think whether we played Sunday or Wednesday, I don't think that really would factor into it. I think it factors into just, are we getting the work that we need, and then however you just back it out from the normal – the start date on Wednesday. For example, I think the Friday before becomes a Tuesday, and we just kind of live in Sunday to Sunday world. So, when you play on a Wednesday, you just kind of adjust everything back from there.
Q: Mike, maybe the starters are not playing Thursday. How can you use this preseason game to prepare your coaching staff to get ready for the regular season? Or do you think they need that kind of preparation?
MV: Yeah, the coaches have been involved in both of the preseason games, and I think the communication has been good. The headset has been good, but I don't think – As long as we have 11 guys out there, the coaches are going to be working through their communication and how we need to fix things, and then whether I tell Josh [McDaniels], "Hey, we got four downs," or what the line is that we're going to kick or, "Hey, this is a two-minute situation." So, it was good that we had a lot of those situations come up Saturday.
Q: Joejuan Williams said that he had a chance to call a play in the second half yesterday. Just what prompted you to give him that opportunity?
MV: Well, I just appreciate the program that we have with the Bill Walsh Internship Program. I think Clint McMillan does a fantastic job of identifying a great group of qualified coaches that then we meet with and invite. They commit a lot to our program and to our players. So, I had Abdullah [Anderson] call a third down pressure. I told him it better be a pressure, and it worked, and we got off the field. Joejuan called a defense. Brad Davis called a run. We did not gain many yards. He said the back made a bad cut. And then JaVaughn [Craig] called a pass. So again, I just feel like it was —I appreciated what they did and thought I would give them an opportunity to pick a play that they wanted to call throughout the game.
Q: The preseason has been a hot topic of its value, and I think in the past you had Terrell [Williams] call a –
MV: Terrell was the head coach. He acted as the head coach for the three days prior to the game because I thought that was an earned opportunity for him, something that I want to continue to do once we get established here. I did not want to cut you off, but I can go back and explain what I did. He handled the team meetings for the two days prior to the game. He met with the officials. He worked the challenges. He talked to the coaches. He handled the media — the postgame —
and I thought that that was — we talk about trying to grow coaches. I try to think of ways to do it, and I thought that that was a good one.
Q: So, I guess my question would basically be the preseason has been such a hot topic. People say that it should be eliminated and we should just televise the joint practices instead. Do you view this aspect of giving the coaches that type of elevated opportunity as a potential underserved value in keeping the preseason or just –
MV: Well, I think that is part of it. I think that is certainly part of it. And these weren't plays just off the top of their head. They were actually on the game plan that they looked at, and whether Zak [Kuhr] called it or Josh [McDaniels] called it, they were on the call sheet. So, I just think trying to be creative and find ways to develop everybody that we have. When we identify the people that we have here that can continue to grow and do a good job, I think it's always a good thing. So, whenever the game is, the situation, preseason, regular season, we just have to make sure that we have a plan and that we're trying to do everything that we can to get the most out of those games and certainly win them. And I think that that was clearly obvious and evident from the way that our guys played, certainly in the second half, on Saturday. I thought guys, they really responded.
Q: Mike, do you anticipate the team being active in either the trade market or waiver wire to fill in some areas of depth?
MV: I mean, just like we do always every year. That will not change. We did that last year. We tried to — again, when you are claiming 31st and you are claiming fourth, there is a big difference.
Q: Mike, when you mentioned the other night that you feel like you aren't a very deep team right now, is there a message trying to be sent there by you in that situation?
MV: No, I got asked this this morning. We're all on the same page. There is no front office. There is no back office. There is the Patriots. There is me, there is Eliot [Wolf], there is Ryan [Cowden], there is Stretch [John Streicher]. I told you those are the people that we rely on to make decisions. So, there is no message. And it just was Mike [Reiss] asked me, I think, about the starters playing, and I mean, we lost a couple guys that aren't going to be with us, so you can only play that for so long. You can only do that for so long, and we're going to need to prepare the football team, be smart and make sure that we're as ready to go as we possibly can. And the depth was about building the depth. It is about taking the guys that we have, building them and then identifying if there's other people that we can add to the roster. We'll continually try to do that.
Q: Do you get more value out of a joint practice versus the preseason games and where the injury risk falls between the two?
MV: I know the data will tell you one thing, but there were some really good opportunities and moments during Saturday night's game that we would not be able to replicate with the Eagles. Fourth-and-1 situations, just the live tackling players, the ability to adjust quickly, our ability to run the football, to finish runs, to push the piles. There's a lot of benefits to that game that I saw on Saturday.
Q: Mike, I know he's getting return to play. That is the focus for Christian [Gonzalez] right now. Just curious, given the time he has missed about as many padded practices as he has participated in, do you have any concern at this stage about his potential readiness for Week 1?
MV: I'm going to focus on today. I'm not ready to talk about Week 1. I hope that we have to do everything we can to get the guys ready. Each guy has to be ready individually, and then I have to find a way to make sure that the football team is ready and that we're conditioned and ready to go.
Q: Caleb Lomu, it seems like in the past two preseason games, his recovery ability has really stood out, the ability to maybe stay on blocks even if it has not been perfect. Have you seen it the same way? And what are some things he can do to make sure he wins earlier in the rep to avoid having to recover?
MV: Yeah, I mean, I don't think you have to be — you do not want to rely on being able to recover too much. I think just being square, throwing your hands, playing with a good base, not getting overextended is things that can help you.
Q: Behren Morton, can we get a chance of a punter tryout there?
MV: Maybe. His plus-50 has to improve, and then we need some more hang time and not kick it right down the middle and think – at least they bounced and then it went forward, so that was positive.
Q: Did you know he could do that? Did he raise his hand at the time? How did that happen?
MV: No, I just know who can punt. I wasn't going to go to [Lorenz] Metz or one of the offensive linemen. I know that every quarterback has probably been a punter and they were the shortstop on the baseball team, and they were the shooting guard on the basketball team. It is what happens. And it was not going to be Drake [Maye], and Behren was the obvious choice that any one of you would have went to.
