PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
September 5, 2025
Q: Mike, I know this is game week, but I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you if you had any comment on Belichick banning your scouts from your team?
MV: Oh, no, that's an individual choice and we'll cross that bridge when we start looking at players. I want to focus on our football team, and that's their prerogative to make the decisions they feel like are best for them. And then we'll have to find other ways to get the information for any players that we want to look at at North Carolina.
Q: Got a status report on [Christian] Gonzalez?
MV: Out.
Q: Will Campbell?
MV: Questionable.
Q: Charles Woods?
MV: Is there a probable? Yes. But Stacey [James] will give you the official, but that's my stance.
Q: As we get to the end of the week, I'd just like to ask you, just coaching your first game here and obviously watching you play for all those years –
MV: I think it's going to be about the players. I think that's the most important thing, is to make it about the players. Mike [Reiss], I appreciate you asking about me, but I think Jen [Vrabel]'s excited. I think Carter [Vrabel]'s excited. So, make it about the players, I think that's the most important thing. They put a lot of work in. We ask a lot of them, and then I feel like the games are their opportunity to go play. And I want to make sure that we exemplify that. That we give them what they need to be ready, but also prepared.
Q: Mike, you lost your last three season openers in Tennessee. Any sort of common thread there? Anything that you adjusted for coming into this season?
MV: No, just have to play better. Missed a field goal. Got boat raced by Arizona. Just play better, take care of the football, win the second half, things like that. [That's what I'm] focused on. You look at everything, every game, and you want to win them all. A couple plays in every game. I don't know who the third one was – Giants, we missed a field goal. I don't know what else.
Q: Saints.
MV: Close one. Couldn't stop them at four minute. Turnovers in the red zone. That'll do it to you.
Q: Mike, is Jared Wilson trending to start for you with that left guard?
MV: Yeah, Jared will start at left guard.
Q: How happy are you with his development? I know he came in, he missed the spring.
MV: Well, he's worked hard and competed. Again, we're going to end up playing different combinations of guys, but Jared will be there Sunday. The other guys will be ready to go in there. I think the more he plays, the better he'll get and improve and work and figure out the tricks of the trade as it goes along.
Q: What have you seen from him and Will [Campbell] working together as two rookies on that left side?
MV: I mean, there will be things that they do really well. There's things that they, again, are seeing. That's part of playing young guys, and I want them to have fun. I want them to enjoy it and understand that mistakes are going to happen. We'll just pick it up and we'll move on and get back to center and go play the next play and not worry about being perfect. Just focus on being precise.
Q: Mike, Josh [McDaniels] was here telling us yesterday that he learned something new every day from you. I'm curious, from the coach that you knew before this year, where do you see any kind of changes or growth with him as a coach?
MV: I think he's a great teacher. I think the way that the connection with the players – again, it's a fine line to try to hold guys accountable to what we need to get done, but also having a connection with them. I've seen that. Right now, we're all, I think, in a good place. We're undefeated like everybody else, except for one team. I appreciate the staff. I want to publicly say that. I appreciate the staff helping me do this and getting us to this point. We don't do any of this by ourselves. There's a lot of people involved, from the training room, the equipment room, operations, player engagement, each of those departments, and then the coaching staff that gets these players ready and will continue to get them ready throughout the season, and the ones that come in on Tuesday that get signed that end up playing for us. It's just part of the National Football League. I can't thank them enough for being on this journey with me.
Q: Do you expect Alex Austin to fill in for Christian?
MV: Yeah. I think Alex will – Double A will play. I think Marcus [Jones] will play. Everybody's got to be ready to go.
Q: You mentioned an early goal that you stated of being good enough to take advantage of bad football. How much closer do you think you guys are?
MV: Another day. Another day closer until we get to the games. That's really all that matters, and I don't mean to make light of the question. We're another day closer to finding out because, really, what happens on Sunday is going to start to dictate have we gotten it, have we learned, do we understand how critical some of these things are when the opportunities are there to be able to take advantage of them?
Q: Were there any season openers that you were a part of as a coach or a player where a team came out in something that you just did not expect and had to make significant adjustments to?
MV: I'm sure in 25 years in this league, I'm sure there has been. My first game was an eight-hour game that had two two-hour lightning delays in Miami. We lost that one, too. Touchdown got called back on a holding penalty. So, it was an eight-hour game in Miami. They don't really prepare you for that, but we managed. We beat the Texans the next week with a backup quarterback and everything else. So, whatever they throw at you, we'll be ready. Try to make adjustments as we go. We were buying pizzas on the third deck because the players were hungry in between the lightning delays.
Q: At wide receiver, do you guys prefer to stick with three guys most of the time or do you like to mix and match at receiver?
MV: During the game? Well, I mean, I think everybody will play that's active. I would imagine everybody's going to play. Everybody's got their package and things that they're doing, so just making sure that everybody has a role in the football game.
Q: Mike, when you were doing the telestrator with Scott Zolak, you diagrammed TreVeyon's kickoff return. You noted that you got three players off the restraining line. How much have the rule changes this year affected configuration personnel? You also noted the two running backs back there.
MV: Yeah, I don't know how much that's going to really dictate. I think maybe a little bit, but they still get on you pretty quick. You still have to be able to cover them up. And again, some of the rule changes were for player safety. The off-returner was getting peeled, and some of that was just by scheme. The guys were putting the off-returner on one of the five screaming down the middle of the field. I was shocked that there weren't more injuries. People were running that scheme. Just trying to understand how some of these guys are kicking. They're kicking kicks that try to land short in between the 20 and the goal line. Are they landing at the goal line and making you make a decision? Or are they landing there at the eight and trying to get a shorter kick? However they do that, we'll have to adjust to it. There was a penalty last night. The kicker started in, and Philly tried to move and there was a penalty. So, just knowing the rules and understanding the things that we can and can't do.
Q: Going into the stadium for the practice. What's the thought process on that?
MV: We hadn't been in there in a while. It felt like it would be a good opportunity for us to get into the stadium again since we hadn't been in there since the first preseason game.
Q: Mike, I know Chip [Kelly]'s running the offense over there. Do you see or expect more of what he ran more last year at Ohio State, new personnel, or do you have a sense that he's working for Pete Carroll and how Pete wants for an offense?
MV: Probably a little bit of both. I guess I could guess and guess wrong and you'd say I was wrong. I think there's going to be a little blend of everything and stuff that he's done and has liked, and the things that the head coach wants to do, and stuff that he did in the NFL that he liked and stuff that the quarterback liked. I really don't have a perfect answer for you because I don't know. Unless you know something I don't.
Q: Who do you think is going to have the best game day outfit?
MV: Me. No, I don't know. I'm not much into the walk-up, I guess.
