PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
August 25, 2025
Q: As a player, did you ever sweat out cut-down day or go through what a lot of players are going to be going through tonight?
MV: Yeah, I think probably early on in my career. I think that that was something that – you're just trying to earn a role and figure out what it is that you needed to do to make the roster for the first few years, I think, in Pittsburgh, until you become an established player, and then I think there's other conversations that kind of go on. So, I've been through a lot of these things. And like we said, we try to do them as respectfully and professionally as we possibly can.
Q: A few weeks to go, how happy are you with Drake Maye's development with learning this new offensive scheme?
MV: I think it's continuing to build and grow, and now we transition into a new phase of game-planning and looking at a different defense and working through the show team and the looks that they need in all three phases to kind of take the next step here to start to win. So, I think that it's been good, and now it'll be the next challenge here, to take the next step of game-planning and understanding how to prepare early in the week and build as the week goes on.
Q: Mike, a little bit of a different kind of question. With the new kickoff rules in the [NFL], have you given any thought, when the regular season comes, to whether you'll be thinking about deferring or receiving?
MV: Well, I think that there's other factors that go into that, but potentially we get to the point where we feel really good about our ability to return those, and then we could take the ball and want to be aggressive just like we did against Washington and being able to establish an explosive gain or get our offense started. And again, we'll have to cover them just as well as we return them, but I haven't put a whole ton of thought into that, and analytically, we'll see where that ends up being and kind of shaking out.
Q: What have you seen from Marte Mapu over the course of the summer and how he's grown into a role in this defense?
MV: Well, he's been in practice and in the games. He's been a core special teams player and has worked at some spots on the inside, and I think that he's continued to develop. I think he worked extremely hard when he was away to get back in there and to be ready to go, and showed us a lot by getting ready to go for the Giants game. So, clearly shows that he wants to earn a role and is trying to do that.
Q: Mike, I heard you say that you were a little nervous when you were walking on stage with Morgan Wallen. I'm just wondering, what was the most nerve-wracking part of that experience?
MV: I think, probably, I just ran out of word choices. I mean, I don't know if I was that nervous. It wasn't like I had to sing or anything. I just had to not trip or tackle him.
Q: How much can a player help their cause out here today? Or is the hay pretty much in the barn as far as the decisions that are about to be made?
MV: Well, there's a lot of decisions that are still to be made, but I don't know, the evaluation process has been a large one. A lot of these players, whether we want to work with them moving forward, that's kind of the case here. Those are the decisions when you get down to it as you make a roster, and then there's obviously the practice squad players. So, a lot of these players that you see today, however things go, hopefully will still be back here.
Q: What did you think of Elijah Ponder so far, and did you expect him when he was coming in to have the impact on special teams that he did this preseason?
MV: I think for a young outside linebacker that hadn't played it a bunch, I thought he picked it up fairly well – the punt sets and being able to play in space and then also trying to build a role on defense. So, those young players that, when you can find that they can back up a position but also give you some flexibility on special teams, they start to help themselves.
Q: Mike, how's Christian doing – Christian Gonzalez? Obviously, the position he plays, speed and conditioning is so important. How long do you think it might take for him to just get ready to be able to actually play in a game?
MV: He's working hard to get healthy, and I think that's what I try to remind you guys all the time. That'll be my stance on injuries – that I'm confident that the player is working hard and that they're doing what they're asked to do, and once they, let's say, recover from something that they're working through, especially if it's been in a training camp, if you look at this specific situation, there is some conditioning that's involved. I think that's probably different for each guy. In my own personal experience, you can only ride the bike so long or do the stair climb or something, you actually have to come out here, put pads on, run and get into football conditioning. So, whatever that takes, that takes, and I've said that to every player that's not out there with us right now.
Q: Mike, you've said the left guard competition is still kind of open. You don't have that set starting five yet. Has it become more clear in recent days, or are you still trying to work through that?
MV: We're not making anything official. It'll be the five guys out there with the first group today, and then – but as far as having a parade or anything about it, we're just not going to do that right now. Still want to get some work in today, compete against ourselves, like we talked about, and then come back and finish the week with starting in on the Raiders.
Q: Mike, what do you need to see from Keion [White]? He was, beginning of camp, with the first group, I guess you would say, and now more with the second group. What do you need to see from him to get him back into that equation?
MV: Well, there'll be a rotation. We're going to play a lot of guys on defense. I mean, I've had plenty of conversations with Keion and love how he works and love how he competes. And so, we're going to need him, we're going to need all three of them, four of them, five of them, however many guys can help us on the edge and affect the quarterback. So, I think when everything is said and done, the snaps are going to be pretty even and equal.
Q: Mike, I know we talked about Drake before. Protecting himself has come up a lot. Is there anything you can't do in a non-padded practice where he's obviously not going to get to work on that besides the verbal reminders and conversations?
MV: When he runs, either get in the end zone, get out of bounds, or get on the ground. One of those three things.
Q: Mike, you've been after this for about a month or so now in camp. Is there something that you've learned about this team, about this roster, over the last month that maybe you didn't necessarily know or were aware of?
MV: I think they've tried to respond to the things that I've asked them to do. Trying to work at different tempos and figure out how to practice with shells on, I think that's gotten better. We had pads on, and whether it was perfect or not, I felt like it still was the speed that we needed, and then just the way that the rules are during the season, and at times during training camp, we have to have shells on and we still have to practice with speed and being able to work on the things that we need to work on, and I think that they have improved on that. But whether it was just the little points across camp where we asked them, "Hey, this is a new thing for us. Here, let's focus on this, let's try to be ready to go for when the [Commanders] come in here," or, "Let's be ready to go in our first preseason game." All these things that I've asked them to do, I think they've tried to do.
Q: Mike, is that an indication of – you said you wanted to remove the sense of entitlement when you came here. Have you gotten the impression that by doing those things, they're meeting you where you want them to, they're doing that?
MV: I mean, again, I don't maybe look at it, necessarily, in that sense. I guess just the idea of the things that we do and we want to treat them the same way that they treat the team is something that we feel strongly about. I would say that there's a lot of guys that care about the team and trying to earn a role and help us win.
Q: This being our last day, is there a particular player or two that you've been particularly impressed with their development from the time that you came in until now?
MV: There would be more than one or two, and I'm not big on singling guys out, so I think that they're all trying to work hard, and I think there'll be a time for that. I don't know, I'm going to meet with you guys inside, whether it's on the field or inside, I'm still going to meet with you plenty. I don't know how you try to preface that like, "Well, this is the last time you're going to meet with us on the hill, so can you?"
Q: Last time we get to watch.
MV: You guys get to watch. Stretch and indie.
Q: As a country music fan, how would you grade most of the rap – the music that we hear is rap music, hip-hop music, how would you grade the camp music?
MV: You want country today? I can make that happen, easily.
Q: How would you grade the aux at practice?
MV: Oh, I think the music's good. I mean, I don't complain. It's good music, bad music.
Q: Is there a perfect playlist that you would want?
MV: No, I can go in any direction. It's usually loud and something that I remotely know would help, but if you guys want any requests, we can certainly have that happen.
