TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Coach’s Breakfast Press Conference Transcript 3/31
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Here’s what Mike Vrabel had to say during the 2025 NFL Coach’s Breakfast Press Conference:
On what the plan is at left tackle:
“The plan is to continue to evaluate our roster and see who is there that we can continue to try to work there. We’re going to bring the players in on April 7th. I think that Caedan [Wallace] is certainly going to get an opportunity there as the roster is currently constructed and Vederian [Lowe] is going to be coming back, and he had a little procedure. I think the draft is going to be a good option for us. There’s a lot of guys in the draft that we like at a lot of different levels. I’m confident between now and the time that the season starts that we’re going to have something that we believe in and a plan that’s going to help us.”
On his excitement level on getting Stefon Diggs?
“Stefan brings an energy to him. I think that it’s fun to coach players like that and guys that have a confidence to him that understand the game of football that have been around, that has developed. This isn’t like a first-round draft pick. Stefon went later in the draft and continued to improve, and has done that, has been productive each and every year. But I love his energy. I love our conversation so far, and looking forward to getting him back there and helping him recover from the surgery.”
On getting back to left tackle, and what about in the draft, in the early portion of the draft with Will Campbell, and the fact they’ve met with him and also [Armand] Membou, and what he thinks of those two players:
“Well, I think they’re great, young, talented players that have great film. Will’s got a lot of snaps at left tackle. Membou has played right, but there’s a lot of guys that have played right and left, and switch. Those are two good young players to talk about in that conversation. But there’s others throughout the draft as well.”
On if he views Will Campbell as a tackle prospect:
“Yeah. I think you have to. I don’t understand how you could watch him play in the SEC, which is the best conference in college football, against guys that are going to get drafted at that position. So I don’t think you have to project it. You can just actually watch and say, there’s the snaps at left tackle evaluate it, see what you think.”
On if they’d be open to trading back at four:
“I think we’d be open to everything. I think we’d be open to everything that we felt like could help the football team. I think that’s what we have to do, whether that’s stick and pick a player or if somebody has an offer for us, I think we’d be willing to listen. But there’s a lot of options that we have to consider that could help the team.”
On the fact the last time he spoke, he mentioned there was a little uncertainty at the top and if he feels like there’s a clear picture of how picks 1, 2, 3 might go ahead of him:
“No. Do you have any idea? You tell me it goes at, 1, 2, and 3, and I’ll tell you who goes four.”
On the fact he played both ways in the NFL but not to the degree as Travis Hunger, and how difficult it is for him at the NFL level to play both ways, the same volume, the same productivity? Or if he has to evaluate him as just a corner:
“I don’t know anybody could say how hard it would be. We’ve never seen a player necessarily do it. I think that there are some things that he can improve on by probably concentrating on more than just on one position, but never going to put any restrictions on Travis or any player. We try to as much as they can handle, then we’re going to continue to put more on their plate. If he were on our football team and he showed a great skill at one position and was starting to really do well in his conditioning, and it didn’t fall off and it didn’t drop, we would be open to playing everybody that we had at more than one position. Anything that would help the football team, I would be all in favor of.”
On if he has to have a primary position:
“Well, I think to improve, I think there has to be a primary focus just to be able to get some of the details that are going to be required at this league. We’ll see once everybody’s on our football team, where they end up playing or where they end up starting out and practicing.”
On the fact there’s a report about Diggs that he could be ready for week one, and if he has a realistic timeline for him to be ready:
“Try to stay away from timelines and predictions. I know that he’s working hard to get back, which is exciting. I think it’s, by all accounts, everything is on schedule, and we feel good about where his rehab is and what he’s doing. But I think with any injury, I’m never going to put a timeline on it. I don’t think it’s fair, one, that a player, what one person’s MCL injury may be, is not the same as another player’s injury, that everybody recovers differently. So as long as they’re working hard to get back with every injury, that’s all we can ask of them. I just don’t think it’s fair to put a timeline on it.”
On the fact Stefon described his visit as a get-to-know-you process, and what did he learn from that day and a half that they spent together:
“All the things that we’ve talked about before, just his presence, the energy, that knowledge of the game, his ability to talk through things and talk through his rehab and in his plan and how he prepares for the game, how he … the relationship with the quarterback and all those things that we’ve worked through over the course of a couple of days. It was an easy visit. The conversations were easy. Nothing was forced and so looking forward to moving with him on our roster.”
On if at number four overall, if the guys will weight need or if it’s just all about taking the best player available:
“I just think you have to be careful. Hopefully, those two things can come together and align when you’re drafting. But we certainly want to add premium players at the top of the draft and throughout the draft. That’s our goal.”
On the fact that leaders from last year like David Andrews, Jonathan Jones, Dietrich Wise, and Ja’Whaun Bentley are no longer here and what he envisions the leadership in the locker room to look like this year:
“I think that there’s going to be opportunities for everybody, whatever. If they’ve been in the league eight or nine years, or they’ve been in the league one or two years, it’ll be some rookies. There’ll be plenty of opportunities for guys to lead and create a new identity for us and this football team moving forward.”
On with David Andrews and considering the scheme going back to Josh McDaniels, since he’s been in it, why not give him the opportunity to see if he could come back and earn a spot on that team:
“We felt like that was best decision for us. We thank David for his contributions and what he’s done. I thought it was best for our football team that we move on, and we’re excited about the guys that we got up front. We’re able to add Garrett Bradbury, and Cole [Strange]’s worked hard at center the last couple of weeks of the season, which he did and played there, and it was pretty impressive, considering he hadn’t spent a bunch of time there.”
On if he’ll keep Cole Strange at center and if that’s the plan:
“I mean, I think he’ll work on the interior three, but I think to give him an opportunity to compete at center and build off of what he did at the end of last year.”
On the decision to move on from David Andrews, Jonathan Jones, Dietrich Wise, and Ja’Whaun Bentley, if those were all individual football decisions or collectively, did he feel like they needed a culture reset in the locker room:
“No, I think those are all individual decisions. I think that something that happens… The captaincy is not a four-year term. It’s not an eight-year term. It’s a year-to-year term that every player has to prove themselves each and every day to the football team. Again, there are some veteran players that have done a lot of great things, and it was just individual decisions. Some of those other players went and moved on to another football team. Some … we had decisions that we made. That’s just all part of the roster construction.”
On how important is it to build that core of young players in this draft. Three, four guys were long-term contributors. Last year, it’s an X-Factor as to how many guys the previous year … :
“It’s tough, buddy. It catches up with you. You know what I mean? It catches up. If you don’t draft well, it catches up with you. You got to chase in free agency, and you got to be perfect. And so the draft is critical, to be able to find players that fit a role, and you develop them, and that you decide to retain them, and build through the draft because you know the person, and the player can really excel in your program and what you believe in. So, you got to draft well. If not, it catches up with you.”
On the fact it can’t be one guy a year, either, or two guys a year. It has to be… you can’t get all 10, whatever:
“No, but you have to have the volume of that draft. Or if you’re going to go up for players, you got to be convicted on them because of the capital that it’s going to cost you to go up and get them.”
On his view of the tush-push rule being discussed and if he feels it should be banned:
“Well, what I think we should not do and be careful of is there’s a lot of different plays that you have to defend, that the offense does well. And that particular play, you have to defend it. It’s also tough to defend Lamar Jackson when he runs the ball. So I’m all in favor of getting rid of those plays that are tough to defend. But we just try to focus on what the rules are and try to use them to our advantage.”
On where things stand with Christian Barmore:
“Well, he’s, by all accounts, I think, going to participate in the voluntary offseason program, voluntarily be there. This is my point to see how many times I can say the word voluntarily in a 30-second hit. But I write a letter voluntarily to the players in making sure that they voluntarily read it and voluntarily show up.”
“No. He came in with an injury. He popped in the other day to see the doctors. And he … I knew Christian from when I saw him at Alabama. Haven’t really had any interaction with him. When he walked into the training room, the trainers, and just his energy and presence, so I know that he’s feeling better. We’ll continue to evaluate him. That’s something very serious. We take the health of our players extremely serious, especially when you’re talking about something like blood clots. We’re going to have a great plan for him. We’re going to do right by him, whatever is necessary, however we can get him to help us, based on days of practice, based on everything that he needs. We don’t have that plan yet, but we’re continuing to work through it.”
On the fact he mentioned Caedan Wallace on the first answer and he was interesting last year because he fact he played mostly right tackle at Penn State and the team played him on both sides, and then he had the injury...
“Yeah, he got hurt. I think, by all accounts, you try to… Offensive linemen really can’t play special teams. They’re not a contributor. You’ve gote a tight end, you got a running back, you got a linebacker. Some of these young players, they can get their feet wet, they can develop on special teams, gain the confidence going out and doing those things on special teams. And Caedan, they were trying to do that from the XL tight end, and he was doing a nice job. He was playing physical, doing a nice job, and then got injured, and by all accounts, worked extremely hard through that process to, one, get back, but also to train while he was out. So looking forward to working with him. And again, we’re only going to evaluate what we see going forward. We don’t care how you got here. We just care what you do when you’re here. So whatever they are coming in there, when we see them, we’ll evaluate them, we’ll work with them, and we’ll try to have a role or a vision for them.”
On if there’s any thought to just letting him stay at left tackle just because he had never really played it before and if he would do that:
“Sure, that’s something to consider. We’re going to consider everything once we get everybody in the building and figure out what’s best for the player and what’s best for the team.”
Speaking of tight ends, what he thinks of Tyler Warren:
“How many tight ends can we play, right?”
On the fact those guys aren’t young that you have…
“No. I think that we would love to add as many good football players or have that play style. And you certainly watch Tyler and his play style and his demeanor and having met with him at the combine. I think he’s a wonderful prospect. I’m all for playing and acquiring as many tight ends as we can possibly get. So sign me up. Bring me as many good tight ends as you have out there, Tommy [Curran], and we’ll find him something to do.”
On what went into the decision to release Ja’Whaun Bentley:
“These are difficult decisions, Doug [Kyed], and players that have been here for a while and made great contributions to the football team before I was here. And so that I know that the Kraft family and the organization appreciate everything that they did. But these are decisions that we don’t take lightly. These are tough personnel decisions that we have to make. Once we come to that conclusion, we’d be as honest and direct to the player that we can, thank him, and that’s what we did with Ja’Whaun.”
On the fact Layden Robinson started last year at right guard and finished at left guard and where he views him, along with whether or not he’ll stick him at one spot to start this offseason:
“I do think for some of these interior offensive linemen, it’s critical that there is a level of versatility, that they can play multiple sides. It’s just tough to be so specialized, and we’ll give him an opportunity to compete. But I do think for some of the interior players, and again, you’re going to have to evaluate who the swing tackle is and some of those guys during the game that can cross-train and be a left side and a right side. Layden was able to get some quality snaps last year, had some good snaps on tape, had some snaps that he’d like to have back that he can improve on. But there has to be some versatility inside once you start getting to the games.”
On if he has a better vision of what the offense will look like with Josh McDaniels now that the roster is mostly put together:
“I think we’re so far from game planning right now. I think we’re just putting the base stuff and putting what we believe in as far as the way that we want to play, the style, the things that I believe in, playing with the technique and all the details to the play. So, we’re not going to overload, guys. We’ve got time. We really want to make sure that we’re starting this thing off the right way and don’t assume that they know anything about our system or our style. But it’ll always be multiple just like it was. There’s going to be opportunities for two backs in the backfield for multiple tight ends on the field, having [formations] with three wide receivers, and talk about the run game, I think being able to have some multiplicity and not just getting married to one particular style, I think is important. But we always want to be able to create some conflict with the defense and have multiple ways to do that, whether that’s going on the ball, whether that’s being able to shift in motion. Again, once we see what our players can handle, I think that’s the level to which we take the offense, and how quickly we do it is based on them.”
On if the plan is to go with Spillane at Mike linebacker, and what he likes about him in that role if that’s what it is:
“Well, a lot of production. I love the person, love what he’s about, but a lot of production in the last couple of years. I think his ability to get his hands on the football in passing game, is something that we valued. His ability to play three downs. He did that for Vegas. It’s something that is critical. We haven’t passed out the helmets with the headgear or head system, coach-to-quarterback, yet. So I don’t know where that’s going to fall, but I would imagine that he’d be one of the players that we would consider to be able to do that.”
On the fact the Patriots have never had a passing game coordinator, and the logistics of how that works:
“Yeah, that system has been pretty fluid here with Thomas [Brown] and Todd Downing, and Josh. Those guys have worked together well with Ashton Grant. It’s good to have some outside eyes on the system and the scheme. As Josh’s offense has kind of evolved, it kind of gets added on at the bottom. I think what Thomas can do with Todd is kind of look and get things cleaned up and put it in more of a bucket and being able to be a coach that’s learning it, how they would be able to teach it. Right? I think that that’s something that we always want to look at is how will we teach this to the players? What’s the best way to get this across to the players? Having a fresh set of eyes with Thomas and Todd and Ashton or Tony Dews allows them to say, ‘Hey, Josh, let’s clean up this or this is how we did it with the Rams, or this is how we did it with the Jets, or this is how we did it with other places.’ Then they go through this process, and we sit in there and we look, and we can call this ‘family here. We got all our in-breakers. We got all our three-man concepts or whatever it may be, it’s allowed, I think, for it to get cleaned up a little bit. Just having those communications where maybe it was Josh took it for granted. These new coaches are like, ‘I think it can hit the player’s brain a little better this way, or here’s how I would like to coach it,’ and they’ve been able to clean it up.”
On how the meshing has gone so far with the staff, and how the conversation has gone afterward where one guy says ‘I like him,’ another says, ‘I can’t stand him,’ and how it flushes out:
“I mean, those are all conversations about all the players. I don’t know if it’s necessarily that. No, I mean, we’re constantly talking about what we feel like is best for the team. I think when you go through, it’s more so during the college evaluation that there’s the coaching report and what the personnel side would be, the evaluation. I love having been a head coach that I can see when these things… One group is going to have the guy here, the other one, and ‘I’m like, Oh, we’re heading towards that. Well, he doesn’t do this.’ Or there was a player in last year’s draft that was a really good pass protector, but he really didn’t do much in the run game. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh, we’re heading for one of these. The scouts love this guy, and the coaches can’t stand him.’ And sure enough, in Cleveland, it happened sitting through the personnel meeting. So, those are going to happen. We didn’t take that player. The Browns didn’t take the player, so it didn’t matter. But it was just continually to have a vision. I think for the coaches, the best thing is to have a vision. ‘Like, this is what this player is going to do for us. This is how we’re going to use them.’ Then the personnel side says, ‘Okay, here are the traits, here’s the skill set. This is what the measurables are,’ and you always want to try to combine that. So, that’s my job, I think, to coordinate both sides of that.”
On the fact that it can set itself up for a ‘told you so:’
“We never want to do that, but I think that that’s human nature. We want to try to eliminate those things from our program, the ‘I told you so.’ It’s like, You could put it on me. I’m a big boy. Trust me. We’re going to have a lot of things that go well, which will be due to the players and the assistant coaches, and then we’ll have some things that won’t go so well. You could put those on me. I can handle it.”
On the fact during his introductory press conference he said the goal was to win the AFC East, host a home playoff game…:
“We absolutely do.”
On if based on what they’ve done so far, if he feels that they’re closer to doing that:
“We won March. We won March. Amazing. Which is something that’s comical. We’re never just trying to win March. We want to just try to be ready when the season goes, and it’s a long process. Don’t interrupt me, Karen [Guregian] (Smiles) I’m still talking.”
“What’s the question?”
On if he’s happy with …
“I’m never happy. Sometimes. Am I happy with- What you’ve done so far? Yes. I think that what we’ve done has been exciting. It’s been fun to come to work. There’s an energy in the building, which I am proud of that when I hear that from people around the building that maybe have been there, that makes me happy. That everybody is excited and there’s an energy about coming to work and ultimately trying to help the players.”
On based on his evaluations and conversations on last year’s roster what his impression is about what went wrong with Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker, and how does that inform his approach moving forward:
“I didn’t do a whole lot of investigating about what went wrong. I’m trying to focus on what’s going to go right. I know that Ja’Lynn’s working hard. He’s excited about being a new dad. He’s working hard to rehab that shoulder. He’s focusing on, and again, he said this, not me, but this is something I’ll always say, is he’s focused on what he can do as opposed to what he can’t do. He’s lifting hard. He’s lifting his lower body hard. He wants to get stronger, and where he can make gains right now about strength is in his lower body because he’s rehabbing his shoulder. So that’s exciting to me. Javon, I’ve been communicating with, and again, I’m excited to get these guys back whenever they come back and get going. We’re going to evaluate them going forward, not anything that happened and if there’s things that we can try to eliminate from last year, we’ve had those conversations, and whatever their frustrations were or whatever things that did or didn’t happen, we’re moving forward with what we see in them and the excitement that they have. The more excited they are about learning, we’ll be just as excited about teaching them.”
On the young receivers and the offense with Josh McDaniels and the fact it’s been difficult for young receivers to be able to pick up with the side adjustments and some of the other stuff, and how close it will be to what they ran when Brady was here and if they’ll make changes to make it easier for them to pick it up:
“There’ll be changes. There has to be changes, right? We have to start somewhere and to say that Drake is going to be similar to somebody else in this system after five or six years. I don’t think that that’s fair to say. We’re going to start with a foundation, and those are the most important things, and building and making sure that the receivers… we’re not just going to go past something because it says it on a schedule. If it takes us an extra day, then it takes us an extra day. If it takes us an extra week to get the first couple installs in, then that’s what it’s going to take. We’re not just going to gloss over things. We believe strongly in teaching and helping those players and figuring out how they learn best and making sure that we’re doing everything we can to give them a chance to help themselves.”
On his thoughts on Joe Milton and if there’s any sense that they could maybe have an asset that could have value in potential discussions with other teams:
“Yeah, I think Joe did everything that they asked him to do last year. It sounds like in conversations that he worked extremely hard and that’s tough when you’re a quarterback. Everybody wants to play, everybody wants to be the starter, and that’s great to have that attitude. He was ready for his opportunity there late in the season, which I commend him on, just like I would any player that sat there and went through a long season, a difficult season and then got the opportunity, went out, won a football game, played well, helped his team win. Then where that leads to, we’ll see as the draft approaches or where Joe is on April seventh to start our offseason program. But you have to give Joe credit for being ready to go, going from the third quarterback to being able to win that football game and stay ready and stay hungry. ”
On the fact his life would be easier if they had lost that game:
“Yeah, it’s a difficult season. You want to compete and fight. Those players out there were doing everything that they could to win a football game. I think that’s the mentality. That’s the environment that you want to create. To say that there’s any other reason, I think that that’s not what you want to create. Somebody has the first pick, somebody’s going to have the second or third. But those players, man, put yourself in their position. To get that opportunity to go out there and play and to compete and put tape out there, that’s important. That’s important for their career. That’s important to instill that in a football team. I don’t think you could have it any other way. So, I’m proud of all those guys that did that. They fought and they won a football game.”
On the fact they matched the offer sheet for Christian Ellis and why that was important for them to do:
“This was a difficult decision. It was one that we ultimately decided that a young, ascending player that has a skill set and speed and feel like he can do a lot of different things for us and that his arrow was up and that we felt like we wanted to keep him on the roster. In order to do that, we had to match the offer sheet. Christian is excited, by all accounts, to be back. We’re excited to have him. This is a player, the more he played, I think the better that he got. Was very good on third down and fourth down. And then first and second down, the more he played, the better he got on first and second down.”
On if there’s anything set in stone for joint practices this summer:
“Still waiting for the NFL, but have had conversations with Minnesota. Washington, I think, would like to come up. We’d love to go to Minnesota if the NFL gives it those opportunities.”
On what draws him to Minnesota:
“Cheese curds. We practiced with them a few years ago in Tennessee. It’s a nice setup. They got a beautiful facility. There’s a hotel close by. Can walk to the field. Just have enjoyed working with Kevin [O’Connell] and B-Flow [Brian Flores] and their team. ”
On what the most important things he has to do leading up the draft for him personally over the next four weeks or so:
“Just have enough exposure with those players in the first few rounds that we see, the top 100 and 150 players that I got to have enough exposure. Our scouting department has done a fantastic job. Our personnel department with Eliot [Wolf] and Ryan [Cowden] and Cam Williams helping us do there. Matt Groh, everybody getting out and going different places and bringing guys in on 30 visits and making suggestions like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this guy coming in? Let’s get some more information on this guy.’ I’ve loved where the process has been. We worked well through the free agency process of being able to have a plan, being able to pivot off of that, move quickly, be decisive. Those were some things that we were really excited about.”
“I think the balance for me is just making sure that I’m doing everything I can with our current players, but also making sure that I’m staying up on the guys that we may add to our football team.”
On the fact they haven’t signed a running back yet and if that’s an area they’d like to address in the draft:
“I mean, I think so. Having a good young runner, something that’s potentially something that we would like to do. I thought the guys coming back… I think Ramondre and Gibby [Antonio Gibson], I think, obviously, we’re a good one, two punch. People are going to talk about Rhamondre and putting the ball on the ground, and he knows that, but we’ll help him there. We’re also going to help make sure the other 10 players know that their job is to protect the guy with the ball as well. There were some opportunities on there for me to teach the other guys that, that second guy in, the guy you don’t see, is the one that’s making the fumble or causing the fumble. So it’s a great opportunity for me to show those other players that their guy is the one coming in there to knock the ball loose.”
“Is that going to all be on the running back? No. It’s going to be on the guy that’s letting his guy get in there and make the hit. So, those are great opportunities for me, but we love to add good young players on offense and skill players.”
On how it’s been coming back here and if it’s like he remembered it for him and his family:
“Yeah, it’s exciting. I thought that there’d be some new faces, but unfortunately, there’s some of the same faces [looks around at the media] that have been there, some new ones. But it feels good. It feels good to be back there. I’m excited to come to work and looking forward to this thing get going. Can’t wait to work with you, Tom [Curran]. It’s going to be great.”
On how it’s going to work with the three offensive line coaches, if [Robert] Kugler is going to be in charge of the younger guys …
“I think that’s a good question. I think that’s … I was excited about adding the two guys that we added and keeping Kug’s. Usually, that third position is a younger quality control coach, but I’m excited about having three guys that can, like you said. It’s a tough position to develop. In the spring, if we can have three guys that are working with four or five players, however many are there, in smaller groups, that can be really beneficial. Having those guys, and the trust, once you get to the season, I want to be very efficient with our time. I don’t want tired coaches. I don’t want exhausted coaches. I want coaches that come in with energy. So to be able to divvy up some of those responsibilities to work ahead on the pressure, the third down game, making sure that we’ve got the run game and the diagrams drawn. I think that those guys are going to all be able to do that, and we’ll divvy up the responsibilities so that everybody’s efficient. ”
On if he can rough Michael Felger up a little bit for them:
” A little bit. He talked about his high school football career. He said he fumbled in the last game of his season, and it cost his team the game, and they lost to their rival. He said he played tight end. I looked at him and I was like, ‘That’s embarrassing.'”
“Thank you. 34 minutes. That’ll be the longest we ever go.”
(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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