TRANSCRIPT: Patriots Head Coach Mike Vrabel Interview With Chris Long
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Here’s the full transcript of Mike Vrabel’s conversation with Chris Long on the Green Light Podcast this week.
All right, this is a real treat. This is somebody we talk about a lot on this show, somebody I grew up watching. Would have been cool to play with him. Had to settle for Rob Ninkovich.
“2.0 version.”
Yeah, 2. 0. Coach Vrabel, how are you doing, man?
“We’re great, man. Appreciate you having me on and watch what you guys have done from afar and I think you guys got the right idea. You’re doing a hell of a job.”
Well, thanks so much. That means a lot coming from you. The first question I wanted to ask, with your lengthy stint in Tennessee, I got to imagine being a head coach feels like being the President. You know those pictures before and after where you’re like, “F**k, I aged 10 years.”
“Yeah, it’s like how the beard is always like, ‘How short? When are you going to dye it?’ Like, look at yours. There’s no gray in it. It’s just like… And then just start coaching, and you’re going to just see the gray just pop out. So it certainly is different, and it’s challenging, but there’s a balance. You have to find a balance and try to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself and finding ways to get away from this at times.”
Well, the last year, I don’t know if it recharged your battery at all. I don’t know how intentional it was for you to take a job. I know you could have dove right back in, been a coordinator, been something like that. But to take a job where maybe you can step back a little bit, did that help recharge your battery?
“I think that it did. People always ask me like, ‘Oh, what did you learn?’ Well, I learned that I missed it like, hell, there’s nothing else that I want to do. That’s what I learned. Once you realize what you really want to do in life, you’ll figure out ways to make that happen. Obviously, I learned other things, but I learned how badly I missed it and how badly I wanted to continue to do it.”
I read some things about some of the things you were doing in Cleveland, not just with Schwartzee [Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz] and all that stuff, but going over and helping the O-line. How intentional was that for you? Was that something you wanted to add to your toolbox or something that you just always enjoyed doing as a D-lineman?
“Well, Kevin [Stefanski] actually, when we talked about this, he’s like, ‘I’d like you to be with the offense. We got a new staff here working through some things, and I want you to be with Tommy Rees and the tight ends.’ Tommy is a hell of a football coach and was coaching tight ends. It was his first time in the NFL as a position coach. Not that he couldn’t handle it, but Kevin felt like that was the best place for me, and I didn’t ask. I just got in with the tight ends and started working there. It’s not a big group. There’s four or five guys maybe in that tight end room. We had a couple of coaches, and it just felt like maybe with a group with 16 or 17 offensive linemen that maybe I could help out over there in what was going on. I was doing something for them. I was doing a defensive profile tape for them anyway. I met with them a little bit on Wednesday morning, right? Like, ‘Okay, here’s Chris Long. This is what it’s going to be. It’s going to be speed of power. It’s going to be a ghost. It’s freeze. Here’s his fastball.’ Kind of creating a player profile for these guys that I would present at the beginning of the week.”
“But then I would go back to the tight ends and I’m like, ‘What do you think about if I just hang out here and keep working with these guys?’ Kevin thought it was a good idea, and I really enjoyed it. I’ve always kind of … my son played offensive line, and so I’ve always been partial of that position. I felt like in Tennessee, I love the group that we had and so I spent a lot of time there. I felt like I could add some value just based on a defensive perspective of how some guys would play, what their play styles are. So I always embraced that position of helping out. I feel like I can coach multiple positions, have something at every position throughout the team. And really try to help those guys just from a game, just a technique standpoint. ‘Hey, this is who you’re playing against. We may need this technique this week going against [Cameron] Hayward as opposed to somebody else. This is T.J. Watt’s fastball versus what [Alex] Highsmith or [Nate] Herbig’s fastball,’ or just the different styles that you study and you know and I try to explain that to them.”
Well, I think it probably helps to hear from the different perspective. I used to run down Coach Boo or Stout and ask them questions, and you hear a different perspective than you hear from your D-line coach.
“It’s funny how differently the two sides of the ball look at it.“
Yeah, we think totally differently. And the one story I thought was really cool was Dawand Jones, and you made what seemed like a really close bond for a year in the building to where he was like, ‘I need this guy on the road with me.’
“Well, I was only going to go Monday to Thursday. It was a four day. It was a Sunday night to Thursday night, and I was going to I go, figure out what I was going to do for a couple of days. Then again, that’s why you coach, right? It’s why you play, you make relationships, and that’s what you loved about playing, obviously outside of winning and helping your team. But the relationships that you make player to player, coach to coach, or even, obviously, coach to player. I said, ‘I’ll figure out a way if that’s what you guys want, then I’ll figure out a way to be there and show up on the road and I’ll make it work.'”
That’s great. Back to the D-line, I think you watched Myles Garrett play last year and the whole thing. You’ve coached some incredible players. Who’s going to be your Jeffrey Simmons? Because the one thing when I watched you all play, he was the a**hole.
“Yeah. You know what I mean? I think that there’s guys up there that we have to have from that position, right? When you say the a**hole, right? That’s somebody that’s disruptive, that’s creating a tone, setting a tone, creating a standard of what it is to play with speed and violence and physicality and effort and relentlessness. We feel good about what we’ve done. We’re excited about what Milton [Williams] is going to bring to our football team. We’re excited to see where Christian Barmore is coming back and where his availability is going to be. Continue to work with some of these young guys, excited about where Keion White and his ability to continue to work on his technique. He’s such a talented athlete with size, that if we can continue to refine some of this technique, that it really is going to help him. You know how technical the position can be.”
“Then conversely, you got to have guys up front that are going to… Who’s going to combat some of these players on defense? Who’s going to block some of these premier players that get drafted high? That’s always the struggle that I find, is who’s going to be the guy that stands up to the a**hole on the other side.”
Yeah, right. He’s going to make your offensive line better, too. I look at your team, obviously spent a lot of money, being aggressive. You want to win. Does it feel a little bit like an expansion team where it’s like, ‘Man, we got to get all these guys on on the same page.’ Back when you played, and for early in my career, we had a lot more time to gel and to install and that sort of thing. What’s the importance of bringing in people like [Harold] Landry who know your culture?
“Well, I think that it’s important. I think that it’s a fine line of we want really good players and we want great people, guys that are great teammates, guys that play a certain way, that understand how important a team is, understand how important effort and accountability and things are. You just can’t win with just good dudes. If we could win with good dudes, me and you’d still be playing. We’d be great teammates, but that’s not going to happen. We’re excited about what we’ve done. We want to continue to build a program here. That’s the thing I’ve wanted to do since the day I got here is build a program when these guys come back April seventh that they believe in. Somebody asked me what success looks like, and I said, ‘Yeah, you can judge it by wins and losses during the season, but success for me in the offseason is going to be that the players believe in what we’re doing, and they believe in the message, they believe in the teaching, and they believe in the connections that we’re making.'”
It feels like it’s really hard to find good veteran help in the NFL these days. Teams got a lot younger with all the CBA changes, it’s hard to keep the guys on teams. And I looked at your roster, you’ve got, what, seven guys over 30. I think that’s really great. And one of the guys, my dude, Morgan Moses, is probably maybe your oldest guy, 34.
“Special person as I’ve gotten to know him.”
He is.
“I don’t want to cut you off, but special person, raising three boys like these kids, man. He signed, and I FaceTimed him, and the boys were there. He took them out of school and he had candy and stuff, and they were all smiles. He says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be taking them out at 4: 00. They’re going to be training. They’re going to be working this candy off.’ I’m like, Man, you can give them one day off, You give them a day off. You let them eat candy and not have to go work them out.”
Well, it probably helps having some good vets on your team to help install the culture and to hold people accountable.
“It does. And again, you have to still be able to play, most important. That’s something that you have to do. But in free agency, you have to know these players. You have to know the person that you’re getting and that’s going to be in your building. And you have to believe in that because it can be a slippery slope sometimes when you go down free agency. And one thing that Morgan said that I’m going to remind everybody is you don’t need miracles to win games in the NFL. You just have to get the right people in the building. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
“We’re trying to get the right player in the building at the right time. That’s through free agency, that’s through the draft, that’s through post-draft. That could be going to camp, the guys are still out there or at the end of camp, maybe somebody gets released. There’s a lot of ways that we can continue to add to the competition of this roster. That’ll be the thing that I always… When we were really good here, and again, that’s not going to help us. It’s just going to tell us what the blueprint is and the history, but there was competition in every position. There was competition at the linebacker spots, the edge spots, up front. I think that really, obviously, makes everybody better.”
I heard stories from Bill this fall about the competition between you and Tom in practice, the relentless s**t talking. I’m glad somebody talked s**t to Tom.
“Oh yeah, I loved it. It was the part of the reason I came to work every day was to be able to do that. It was fun in those battles. The players all pushed each other. The players all held each other accountable. That’s what you’re trying to create. And ultimately, my job is to protect the team. And if the players do it, then I have an easy job. And if they don’t, then I have to pick up where they don’t. And so I have to evaluate that and see where that is and where I have to step in to make sure that I protect the football team.”
How about Stefon Diggs, man? I think a lot of people have this idea of him like, he’s an older player, he’s not who he was, but he’s on pace for a thousand yards last year. He can still get off press. He’s a great guy in quick game out in the perimeter. He can run with the ball. I think the thing that stood out to me in making that move is a real vote of confidence for Drake.
“Yeah, it’s just trying to make sure that we’re supporting Drake and supporting the football team. And again, this is a highly competitive, confident receiver that’s produced throughout his career in multiple ways. Play style, he’s got to play strength to him, that you see that he can play physical, route craft, good at the catch point, has been good in the red zone. There’s a play style to him that I’ve always appreciated and that we want to continue to enhance and make sure that he’s doing things to help us. But it’s just his conversation, his demeanor, his attitude, and his presence have been great through our conversations, and hopefully, we can continue to add good players.”
In my opinion, the real headliner in the wide receiver class for the Patriots in ’25 is Mack Hollins. He’s one of my favorite players in the league. I got to play with him in Philly. Do the same things jump out to you when you watch him play? The emotion, the energy, the tone setting, and the special teams, the willing to do anything. Those are the things I love about him.
“I haven’t heard one person say anything negative other than maybe wear some shoes once in a while. But other than that …”
It’s going to be tested up there.
“I mean, just his intelligence. It’s just you’re talking to a very mature person. I love the conversations that I have with him. It’s like, successful family. His brothers are successful, his family. We were excited to be able to add him. I’ve always looked at him from afar and said, ‘Man, this guy is somebody that could always play for us,’ and we weren’t able to add him, but he’s had success against us, and now we’re able to add him through this process.”
Hey, a couple of quick ones before we let you go, Coach. This is a mailbag question from a guy named James Laranitis. He asked, ‘Who’s tougher, [Luke] Fickle or Vrabel?’
“I mean, toughness is relative. I watched Luke tear his peck in pre-game practice or pre-practice of the Rose Bowl our senior year and played in the game. Damn. And not too many players can do that. I guess you have to have short arms and play nose guard to be able to do that. But he actually did. And so I will always give him credit for that. Saw James yesterday at Pro Day, and he’s going to have a great career coaching at Ohio State or wherever else he decides to go. So it was good seeing him.”
And the other guy in the Vrabel coaching tree, I don’t know if you can call it this, but he played for you is Darren Bates. Does Daren Bates need to give the camera a rest? He always finds the camera on the sideline.
“It’s like he has his own camera that follows him. It’s like we’re the content creators, like the raw-”
Raw room.
“Yeah, raw room. We need the parental advisory if we want to have a conversation about Batesy, me and you.”
No question. Well, I look forward to having that conversation sometime down the line. Coach, wishing you luck up there. Like I said, always enjoyed watching you play and watching you coach. It has been a lot of fun, too. So I’m wishing you luck, and thanks for coming on.
“Absolutely, man. Anytime, anything you need, keep crushing it, and I can’t wait to see you.”
(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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