PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
August 27, 2025
Q: I know there are moving parts still, but I'm just curious how you feel about the roster.
MV: Well, I mean, again, you're correct in saying that there are some moving parts. I feel great about where we're at, but we'll continue to look for ways to improve and what we feel like from a personnel standpoint, but also looking for ways to improve on the field. Today will be an important day for us. I'm just getting started here with the Raiders, the show team process and all that and trying to get the looks that we need to try to begin the game-planning, practice and some of that stuff.
Q: Are there any spots you would be comfortable saying that you really want to target to try to look at improving?
MV: No, I mean, I don't think that you really set out – you just try to focus on adding good players to your football team, whatever role that you envision for them and kind of go from there. So, I feel like we've improved through training camp, and then need to continue to improve through this process of preparing to win. Then also continuing to target players, whether that's today and the next few days as players become available.
Q: Mike, I understand that things are moving fast here. Tommy DeVito awarded on waivers. What does he bring?
MV: Well, again, I think that we'll confirm all those things later on. We put a claim in for a couple guys and I would say that – just strengthening the roster, certainly, at a premium position and continuing to add pieces, whether that's offensively, defensively or guys that we feel like can help us on special teams.
Q: How much would somebody like Ryan [Cowden]'s insight be valued with a player like that having overlapped with him in New York? Tommy DeVito and Ryan Cowden, both with the Giants.
MV: Well, I mean, we've had coaches and personnel people throughout the League at different spots, whether that be me, [John Streicher] Stretch, our coaches, Ryan or anybody. I think that's just one part of the evaluation, having some working knowledge of what the player's done in the building. How are they day-to-day? We can all watch the performance and see what it looks like on the film, but the practice, the habits, how they are in the building, how they prepare and did they improve? I think those are some insights, whether it's this particular instance or if it's just somebody else that we're trying to target. So, I think that that can always help. It wasn't the main factor in this decision.
Q: Mike, are you satisfied with what Josh Dobbs has given you this spring and summer?
MV: Yeah, yeah. Again, Josh has settled down in the games, and I think that there have been some mistakes, whether that was joint practice or practice, and we're all going to have mistakes. Then being able to settle down in the games, perform and operate. Again, I don't – each move that we'll make may not be an indication of what the players are at that position. I think it's just looking to strengthen the overall roster construction.
Q: How valuable and important has the practice squad become as it's evolved over the years?
MV: We were laughing the other day when it was 53 players and five guys on the practice squad, and we actually practiced and functioned, and now we have – probably, we'll have 70, and we'll be wondering how we can practice with that many players. So, what it's given you, it's given you a good blend of having some veterans that may be able to go in right away and be elevated. It also gives you an opportunity to develop some younger players, which you'll see when that list comes out. So, you'll be able to kind of recognize both of those who may need some more time and want to invest some more time into them, or a veteran that's played in this League and would be ready to go if we needed to elevate them.
Q: Along those lines, Mike, I wanted to ask about Bradyn Swinson. Just, given the draft status, a fifth rounder, what type of camp did he have? Is he someone that we'll see on that practice squad list?
MV: So again, that'll be out at 4:00, and there's always tough decisions that we have to make. So, we have to do what's in the best interest of the football team, and that's why you practice. There's a competition and there's games to evaluate and see how they respond. So, that practice squad list will be out at 4:00 and it'll continue to, I think, change over the course of not only the next few days, but probably the season.
Q: You guys ended up playing with Andy [Borregales] as your kicker over Parker [Romo]. I'm curious to get your perspective on how that kicking competition played out over the summer.
MV: I thought it was competitive. I thought Parker really improved from the spring to the summer, and I think just the entire body of work, we felt like Andy was going to be our kicker. Again, I appreciate Parker's competitiveness and how he worked, and I wish him well. Those are always difficult decisions, and again, we're going to do everything we can to support Andy, and he knows he's got to make them. That's the job of the kicker. You've got to make them, and I expect that he will.
Q: You mentioned Josh Dobbs settling down a little bit when he got to the game, cleaned some things up. Drake [Maye], who was very open the other day, has been, was saying, "Ah, I've got to settle down at the beginning of games. Sometimes, I get a little amped up." I asked him about strategies for early in the game. Do you help him with the strategies? Is that something you encounter whether it's a linebacker or a quarterback?
MV: Well, I mean, I think that you have to – again, you have to prepare. Each player prepares differently for that game and how you – what your emotion level is going into that game and how it starts, and I think that there's always something to be said for getting into a rhythm. I mean, we can't throw a bunch of 2-yard routes to start the game, but I think that it's just getting into a rhythm and a flow and the warm up. How guys warm up, some guys go and warm up a few hours before the game, come back in, settle down. Some guys kind of just roll on out there, but it's all about finding your own individual routine that will allow each and every one of them to perform at a high level when we start the game. We can't wait until the second quarter to feel comfortable.
Q: You talked about how difficult it can be to release guys and give them that news. On the flip-side of that, how about some of the guys, [Efton] Chism [III], Marcus Bryant, telling them that they've made the team. How rewarding is that for you?
MV: Well, I don't think that that makes it any better with the players that you have to release. It all comes to some players at different times, and everybody's got a little different journey into this League and how they make it. Some guys go through the practice squad, some guys go on multiple teams and some guys are undrafted and make it. I think the most important thing is that we earn the right to be here every day and earn the right to provide value every day.
Q: This is year one of your program. How did you balance, if at all, picking the best 53 versus the best 53, maybe, in the longer term?
MV: Those are just things that you try to figure out how you – we've got to go win games, and then we have to build and try to develop players, strengthen the roster and just try to have a vision for guys. Not that that's always going to be perfect, but you have to try to have some idea of what they're going to be and what they're going to do for us. So, I think that I think that was just the balance that we try to wage and figure out where we can have guys who would be on the – again, we've got to get down to 48 for the game where there will be some guys that are inactive. Who can do multiple roles? Who do you trust out there? But also, they have to have a level of ability to go and perform as well. So, special teams plays a factor into it and multiple positions. Some position flex plays a part of it as well.
Q: When players request a release, how do you determine whether to grant that release or say, "Too bad, you're sticking around?"
MV: I don't know who you're referring to, I guess, specifically.
Q: [Marcus] Epps and [Kendrick] Bourne.
MV: Yeah, that's news to me. I mean, I think that we just, again, try to put the roster together. I guess when it when it doesn't work out, you break up with somebody, your girlfriend doesn't want to be with you, and then you say, "Well, I don't want to be with you either." I'm not going to get into all that.
Q: So was that…
MV: I just said I'm not going to get into it. It was just like – you know what I mean? We're not going to go back and forth here. We're trying to build a roster. You've got to move on from some guys. You make connections with guys, you coach them, they earn opportunities, they get more opportunities, they take advantage of them and that's kind of how these things go.
Q: Mike, with Kyle Dugger, why is he still a good fit for this roster?
MV: Because I think he's feeling better and I thought he had some really good snaps against New York. I think he can help us, and obviously, find a role. We talk to him about that, have talked to him about that. We'll continue to talk to him about that and provide value to the football team.
Q: Was it similar with Anfernee Jennings? Did he kind of win a spot in some of his performances later in camp and preseason?
MV: Yeah, I mean, I think – he wasn't able to play in the last game, but where we were as of now, I thought he, through his practice, through his performance in the games and the way that he competed, has earned the right to be here. He'll have to continue to do that just like everybody else will.
Q: How do you feel about the flow of information yesterday? Any rodent issues?
MV: I just try to let you guys know whatever's going on, when I can figure it out. Again, especially when it relates to a player's health. I mean, that's their body. That's whatever they're dealing with. So, I think some of the injury stuff gets overblown, but it is just, in effect, to try to – again, I'm trying to protect the player, having been one. Whether you're dealing with some sort of injury or whatever it may be, I'm always trying to be respectful of their health and different things like that.
Q: I guess I'll ask about the other NFL news. Anything to say about Taylor [Swift] and Travis [Kelce]'s engagement? That was everywhere as well as roster cutdowns.
MV: I mean, I probably have a few thoughts, none that I'm going to share right now. No, it should be an interesting wedding. Maybe it's in Nashville, maybe it's a destination wedding, I'm not sure. But it should be a fun one if we get invited.
Q: Any shot of getting invited?
MV: No shot. I doubt it.
