TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel’s Press Conference 3/13
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Here’s the transcript from Mike Vrabel’s press conference on Thursday:
OPENING STATEMENT:
“I want to thank Robert and Jonathan, he’s not able to be here today, but I want to thank them on behalf of just the coaching staff, I think the personnel, and echo Eliot’s comments just about the support and the commitment that they’ve made just in getting this process and this, just being able to build a program every single day and allowing us to have the resources that we’ve needed to do that, to provide our players with everything that they need to be successful on and off the field. So thank you, Robert. I want to thank Eliot. I want to thank his personnel Department, specifically to Pro Scouts and that staff that really teed it up for me and the coaches to come in and evaluate as we work through the personnel stage and the preliminary stages of that. I thought they did a great job. I want to thank them. Would love to thank Nancy Meyer and Stretch for coordinating everything. Everything moves pretty quick, and they kept us in line, and they handled travel and just the communication and getting everybody here. So I want to thank them.”
“I would love to thank Richie and Mitch and Halley who are going to form our player engagement Department and then being able to just meet with these families and visit and then help this transition that there’s going to be some new players here. There’s going to be some new faces here, and that department is critical, and we want to support them. I want to thank specifically our little free agent group, which was me, Eliot, Ryan Cowden, Matt Groh, Richard Miller, that we were firing them off left and right, just trying to get back, touch, go, pivot, because everything happens pretty quick, and that was fun, just being able to everybody work in a different angle, getting the contracts done, communicating on that, going to plan B. Really, it was fun, and we’re excited about the players that we had. You can see that once you get to know these players and these men, that we’re going to be just as excited as them off the field as we are on the field.”
“But I want to welcome you guys. I want to welcome you guys to our Patriot family. I think that we were all excited about getting you as players. But then when we met in the hallway and met your families, we’re even more excited to meet your support system and understand why you guys are the way you are. We’re going to support the things and the people that are important in your life. That’s what we believe in. We believe in making connections and making sure that when they come to work that we’re doing everything we can so that we can put the product on the field that Robert talked about. That’s a championship product, and that starts by investing in people. I’m confident that we got the right people, and then now it’s our job to put them in the right places as players to get the best out of them. And so I’m excited to start that process. I guess I’ll take a few questions as it relates to some of the players and what we plan on doing going forward.”
On the fact that he’s talked about wanting to support Drake Maye and protecting him with an improved offensive line. Following the release of David Andrews today, there now appear multiple holes to fill and if things have not gone according to plan, and whether he’s now forced to draft for need in that area?
“No, I think that there’s a lot there, Karen. You mentioned David. I want to thank him. Having played at this organization, not quite as long as he had, but being here. I want to thank him for that, for being here and carrying on a tradition that so many great players before him had. We’re going to continue to support, as Eliot mentioned, the needs that we feel on the team, and we’ll target the offensive line. There’s still quite a bit of time before we get to the draft. But we don’t want to just be careless. We talked about there’s a difference. We want our players to play aggressive. We don’t want them to play reckless. We don’t want to be reckless through this process. We want to be very intentional with the people that we bring on this football team, and we’ll continue to target all those needs that we feel like and the players that can help us. ”
On the signing of Milton Williams and the fact there was a report of him signing with another team, and whether he can take us through the emotions of that, along with what it was about Williams that made them comfortable with giving him the deal they did.
“Well, I think it’s always about the entire package. When you look at compensation, it’s the body of work, it’s what they’re going to do for us. We always want to be able to not rely on past performances, but that was something there’s a high ceiling and a great vision about the person, the effort, the skill set, the speed in which he plays, There’s a power. So certainly there’s an aggressiveness, and being able to add him to our defensive line is something that was really exciting. But you talk about the character, and hopefully we’re going to be able to… I hope you want to play more than they played in Philadelphia. I know that you guys are extremely successful, but we want to play them a little bit more than that and hope we can do that. You just try to do your best in a short amount of time to make a connection with the player and what we are. We don’t want to sell anything. What we want to sell is just who we are. We want them to want to be here. Then if they want to be here and we want them, we’ll figure out a way to make it work contractually. But we want people, players that want to be here, that want to be a part of what we’re doing. That’s what these guys are, and there’ll be more that come along after them.”
On the reports of their pursuit of Chris Godwin, and his thoughts on what their plan is at the wide receiver position and how they plan on addressing it, whether it’s free agency or the draft:
“Yeah, I’m not going to talk about any of the players other than the ones that are right here and the ones that are currently on our football team. We’ll continue to target… Mack Hollins will be in here tomorrow. He’s a wide receiver, but we’ll continue to look at the wide receiver position as it relates through free agency, explore every option with other teams, and potentially, then we’ll get to the point where we’re looking in the draft. There’s just a lot of time. I know that everybody’s like, It’s over at free agency. It’s never over. Zo’s, wherever Alonzo [Highsmith] is, I don’t know, but he keeps reminding me, and I think everybody else that because he’s been around a lot of times. He’s like, ‘There’s players that are going to come available, whether it be now or whether it be in May or after training camp. I’ve seen it enough to know that there’s going to be someone that’s currently not on our roster that’s going to help us win a game this year. He’s not in Foxborough.'”
On what he remembers about Robert Spillane when he first came to Tennessee as a tryout player and what he thinks about the career he’s put together since then:
“Well, he was just… We went out to practice, and he didn’t make any mental errors. He was athletic. He was excellent in this open field tackling drill. Did the same thing the next day, did the same thing on Sunday. It got to be a joke where we would just keep throwing him in a minute and be like, ‘Hey, let’s see if somebody can make Spillane miss.’ Then John Robinson and I were just like, ‘We have to have him on the football team, and I think he’s earned the right to be here based on those three days.’ Robert may or may not share this story, but we told him, and it was on Mother’s Day, and he got to call his mom, and it was pretty special, especially for me being a young football coach or a young head coach, to be able to see a player that had earned the right. We didn’t hand him anything. That’s what we want for every single player on our team. We want them to earn everything that they get. That was an example of what he earned his opportunity in the National Football League. So, that’s no surprise of the career that he’s had based on how it started.”
On as he looks to build a culture, what made releasing an 8-time captain in the best interest of the team:
“Well, I think we talk about leadership, and Eliot mentioned a few other players as it relates to Jonathan Jones and Dietrich Wise and David. Happy for those guys that found other places. There would be no restriction on leadership as far as age or experience. Every one of our players that walks in here or our coaches can act as a leader. So I think when you go through personnel decisions, there’s a lot of things that we’ll talk about. Age, ability, durability, production, vision. I would say that anytime we talk about personnel decisions, that those are going to be some of the things that Eliot and I will talk about.”
On the timing of Davis Andrews’ release and whether or not it was injury-related:
“I’m not going to get into a lot of details and specifics. I want to try to celebrate these players that we have here on this team that we’re going to be moving forward with. Robert and Eliot touched on David, but we’re just trying to move forward here and continue to sign and add players that we feel like are going to help us win and really start preparing it April seventh.”
On how much previous familiarity he has with some of the players had in free agency:
“I don’t know how you could do free agency any differently. I really don’t. Just the timing that’s involved with a lot of this stuff. It’s important to me, and Robert entrusted Eliot and myself, to bring the right people onto this football team. If we have coaches that we trust and believe in and have been with players, we have to take that into consideration. If there’s players that Eliot or anybody else in the personnel department have had or myself. I think that that’s critical. We have to evaluate the tape. That’s the first thing we do. We watch the tape, and then it’s, ‘What is this person? Who are we going to get every single day?’ Because there’s going to be times in every football season that it’s not going well. I’ve seen it from these players that they’re not going anywhere. The other ones that we bring in, and the other ones that are down in that locker room right now, they’re resilient. They’re not going to back down when things are bad. They can handle adversity. They’ll attack adversity. That’s what the idea is. It really helps when you know somebody or a coach or a trusted personnel member has been with that player. It’s just hard. It’s important.”
On how he views Carlton Davis’ skillset and how it pairs with Christian Barmore and unlocking what they might be able to do defensively:
“Yeah, hopefully we can just play ‘cat’ coverage. ‘You got that cat, I got this cat,’ and we can go to work. Just an aggressive… I would say the thing I appreciate about watching C.D. is that they may catch a ball on him, and he just lines back up, and he competes, and he challenges, and he tries to play aggressive, and there’s a play style that we embrace. Corners, it’s a tough position in the National Football League. Right? So, they’re going to have passes that are caught on them, it’s can they line back up the next snap and challenge and compete and get their hand on the next football? That would be, I would say, outside his physical skillset is the mental makeup.”
On what Morgan Moses brings:
“Well, I think just a great veteran leadership. Tell a funny story – After We were able to commit. We were able to have a conversation. I FaceTimed him with the boys. He’s got three boys, the two are here, you’ll see. But they’re all eating candy. I said, ‘Oh, you guys are lucky. This is celebrating.’ He goes, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll have them out there working, training at 4:00 after we get done eating all this candy.’ I’m like, ‘Can you just let them have a good time today?’ He’s like, ‘No, they’re going out training at 4: 00, and that’s what we’re going to do.’ There’s been a repeated experience of taking care of his body, playing a demanding position, what he brings in the locker room. But again, there’s been a great product on the field with length, size, and we were excited to add him and his family. Thank you, guys.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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