How did the Pats figure out Vrabel = TE?

[ctpatsfan77]

I was talking to my brother last night, and he asked that question. And, to be honest, I couldn't answer.

Has anyone written about how the Pats figured that out? [Or, for that matter, why teams forget this fact after all the evidence proving it? ]

 

[khayos]

I remember a report that Pepper Johnson did drills with the LBs by having them catch to improve their hand skills -- maybe as a result of that.

 

[Ishdul]

Well, he's got the size for it, he probably played TE somewhere down the line and maybe he was just catching the ball a lot when they were messing around in practice.

 

[jct]

On special teams it is necessary to catch and run with the ball. IE onside kick etc. I bet thats where it began. Or part of his experience in the past...

 

[FlyingElvis75]

I was talking to my brother last night, and he asked that question. And, to be honest, I couldn't answer.

Has anyone written about how the Pats figured that out? [Or, for that matter, why teams forget this fact after all the evidence proving it? ]

By videotaping other teams' defensive signals, duh.

 

[BAM!]

I remember a report that Pepper Johnson did drills with the LBs by having them catch to improve their hand skills -- maybe as a result of that.

I believe we have BINGO!

 

[MetalBleachers]

It might have come out of a need for another TE. Vrabel's first TD catch came in 2002, according to patriots.com:
http://www.patriots.com/team/index.cfm?ac=playerbio&bio=10110

At that time, the Pats had Fauria, Fred Baxter and Cam Cleeland on the roster, so maybe having a defender jump in there seemed like a good idea. He did such a good job with it that, I imagine, he kept the position even after the drafting of Graham, then Watson.

Remember, before Dillon in 2004 the Pats were more of a pass-first team, so there were plenty of goal-line passes to go around (Fauria was another go-to guy).

 

[redsox33]

I think I remembered hearing/reading somewhere that he was asked by Bledsoe to catch a few passes in warmups and then Drew put the "bug" into Bill's ear about using him as a TE. I'm pretty sure it was from an article if it means anything I could Lexis Nexis it later.

 

[DaBruinz]

I am fairly certain that Vrabel was a TE/DE coming out of High School. And though he never played TE in college, he's always had good hands.

 

[shakadave]

Back around 2003-2004 Bruschi had the best hands I've ever seen on a defender. I guess he didn't have the height to make him attractive at TE.