TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel’s Press Conference 6/10
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Here’s what Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference on Tuesday 6/10/25.
On the upcoming break, if there’s any message he’ll be delivering to players for their downtime:
“Well, I don’t think it’s a downtime. It’s time away from the facility. I think it’s important. It’s probably the most five important weeks of the offseason, as far as I’m concerned, and just my history as a player and a coach. It’s critical that they come back in shape, that they’re ready to go for training camp, that we’re prepared as coaches with the schedule and the installation and what we’re doing and the players have to hold up there in the bargain to prepare for that training camp.”
On if most players understand that:
“I mean, they will tomorrow morning, but I hope the ones that have been successful and played in this league, I’m not going to speak for 90 guys that they know how important it is. I think they’re focused on today, and we’ll cover that tomorrow.”
On how important that message is and how is that message different from someone like Will Campbell, where he is:
“Where they’re at in their career is obviously significant, but it’s just how Morgan prepares and how a younger player would prepare is going to be different. But both are going to have to be ready to go just using those two different age groups at the same position. We always tell them that everybody will have a plan. This is maybe more for when we get to training camp and you’ll say, ‘Well, why is so and so doing this or that?’ Everybody’s going to have a plan. It’ll be different with as many players as we have. My job is to make sure that everybody’s working regardless of what plan that they’re on. There’ll be players that just do individual, there’ll be players that just do team, there’ll be players that are off on the side, conditioning or whatever that may be that’s going to change daily throughout training camp.”
On how he feels about his roster right now and if there are any areas where he feels is a glaring spot, and ‘we could use more competition and more depth’:
“I think that it should go for every position on a roster. I think that we would always want to do that, I think. Trying to always continually make the roster more competitive and trying to find everybody that can continually help us throughout from now until the end of the season. I think that that just has to go on. That has to happen. Whether that does or not, I don’t know. It’s not going to keep us from looking or try to bring up ideas or players or how we acquire players or between now and the end of the season.”
On the fact there’s always, at this time across the league, a number of guys who might be in whatever contract strife on the trade-off, and if they’re monitoring those discussions:
“I think that we have to. Again, it would go for the ability to acquire good players, good people that feel like they can help us at any position. I don’t know what those situations are throughout the league, but I’m all for trying to make the roster better any chance that we can.”
On Stefon Diggs the fact reporters are on the outside in and he’s on the inside out, and if he’s seen the dedication from him:
” I don’t know if I’m out. I stay right in here. I don’t focus on…”
On if he’s seen the level of dedication from him that he hoped to when they signed him:
“Yeah. I think this goes without saying that we would love every player to be here and during the voluntary portion of the offseason. I think that we can all agree on that. That doesn’t always happen. For multiple reasons. But I would say that his time here, that I’ve been able to be around him and that our coaches, and he’s learning. I think he’s rehabbing. He’s one of those players that’s on a different plan, so he’s going back and forth from different tempos to rehab. It will be tight in there today. The last time we were inside, I don’t think you guys were there other than the rookies, but the offense would run a play, and then the receivers that were working on their own are running, and there’ll be a lot of action. Then they don’t have a defense, but then now the other offensive, defense are in a huddle, and then they run another play, and then you’ll see Ja’Lynn [Polk] and Diggs, I would imagine if that looks like it did before. So I just go by what I see. I think those players are all working, and like I said, they have a different plan.”
On what he’s seen from Efton Chism this offseason and what’s allowed him to have a little more of an impact:
“I think he’s a talented player. I think he has a certain skillset. He’s dedicated. He studied extremely hard. He has a good feel for what we’re asking him to do. I think the biggest thing for a receiver is that there’s trust from the guy that throws the football. When you earn the quarterback’s trust, any one of them that we have, any one of the three, it doesn’t take you long to figure out who the quarterback trusts. It’s the ones they target. That’s a good indicator.”
On the time he’s spent around Will Campbell so far, if this has been more learning new things about him or affirming the things he came to learn and believe during the pre-draft process:
“Just trying to coach him, just trying to help him each and every day. I feel good about the offensive line coaches that are working with him, with Doug [Marrone] and Hoss [Jason Houghtaling] and Kugs [Robert Kugler]. I just try to provide any input that I can and help. I don’t think there’s anything … just kind of helping them become a pro and helping them acclimate themselves to this league and what’s going to happen and how we need to be ready for it.”
On the fact Ja’Lynn Polk has been spotted wearing a yellow pinny and what the classification is for that:
“Well, I just trying to be careful and not have any issues. He had a shoulder procedure in the offseason, and at this point in time, I really would just like to get to training camp. I think we’ve kind of figured out how to practice early on. I mean, you can clearly see that there’s different speeds in how we practice. And early on, maybe that jog through was probably a little faster than what it needed it to be. I just wanted to be careful that they can let him get his looks and operate and function, but just be mindful that this player is working with something, and that’ll be the case throughout the season. That’ll be players that are trying to get ready for the game that we’ll have those on. It’s just an acknowledgement that we all kind of have to work together to achieve a goal.”
On the fact he was asked if he cares if a player throws interceptions in practice, and how much he cares when someone like Kyle Williams hauls in a 50-yard bomb over two defenders in practice yesterday:
“I mean, I think you have to be able to hit those down the field. You only get so many chances at those contested catches down the field. I appreciate the DBs. For the most part, again, they have to give away in the spring, but any chance that you can get completing those not on air with defenders around, I think that that’s always good.”
On if the rush might have gotten there on that one:
“I think that there’s a lot of times that we could sit here and say the rush … You guys track sacks. Whatever you want to do. They’re rushing three steps, four steps. Just trying to pull off, take care of the quarterback. It depends who you ask, Mike [Reiss]. You ask the defense every play is a sac. Ask the offense, every play is not a sack. It just depends on who you ask.”
On Will Campbell and how does he gauge where he’s at, and his progress understanding the stage of where they’re at, not being able to hit or run block:
“Just the understanding, the protection, the sets, ‘Am I on the man side? Am I on the zone side? Do I have, you know a sort,’ or any of those terminologies that they have, how they’re blocking the games. It’s been good work because our defense has been able to do a lot of this stuff and still take care of the guys and not, if we’re picking or we’re making or we’re running games, do it in a sensible manner that takes care of everybody. So, got a lot of looks and got a lot of pass sets and different communications. We’ll work on a silent cadence today at times on some of those second and long and third down opportunities. We know we’re going to have to be going the road at some point, obviously during the regular season and function in crowd noise. So we’ll get that again today.”
On how Terrell Williams is doing:
“Doing well. He’ll be here soon, and excited about that. I think everybody’s looking forward to that.”
On Marte Mapu playing linebacker so far and if that’s where he envisions him playing on defense:
“We don’t want to waste anybody’s time, except yours. But just trying to find some versatility for him. He’s got a unique skill set. He’s got good size, good length. He’s a good blitzer. So I just kind of thought that that could help him and obviously try to help us.”
On the fact Bill Parcells and Julian Edelman’s Patriots Hall of Fame induction date has been announced and his thoughts on them and what they mean to this franchise:
“Well, I mean, Coach Parcells is a Super Bowl-winning coach. My conversations with him were just about people, getting to know people. He gave me great advice. Sometimes you have to get out of this building, you have to go for a drive, you got to go to lunch or do something outside of here, which really resonated with me. He had different relationships with most of his players. Some were different. Different personalities meant he had to kind of take on a different personality himself and clearly got the most out of his players and how he coached them, managed them, and prepared them. Jules is just an ultimate grinder and competitor and taking advantage of opportunities and continuing to get better and playing his best in the biggest games in the biggest stages. Just great representation of this organization.”
On that advice from Parcells, if that was advice he gave him recently or earlier in his career:
“Probably earlier.”
On what he’s going to do for the next five weeks:
“Probably do a little bit of football, do a little bit of golf, do a little bit of relaxing.”
On if he’s looking forward to it:
“I think so. I think it takes … the last 10 days, you get a little cranky because you’re ready go to training camp. You get a little cranky because as a player, you’re thinking about starting training camp, and that’s kind of carried through. “
On the fact he talked about analytics and the hiring of Ekene Olekanma from the 49ers and what he envisions his role to be and how he hopes he can help him:
“We’ll add a couple of other people there, but I think that just having somebody that’s dedicated, that’s been in that role, that can manage the people that we have here. He did a fantastic job in his interview process and meeting with all the different groups that we feel like he’s going to be able to work with. He played football. Not that that’s a prerequisite, but you have to have ability to not only take these numbers and pull them out of wherever they pull them out of. I’m not going to pretend that I know, but also have some application to it and be able to explain it to the coaches and say, ‘How much is too much?’ Probably need more. However we can make our jobs more efficient and better is something that I’m excited about. We’re all excited about him doing.”
On the fact it will be more working with the coaches as opposed to the headsets saying ‘go for it here…’
“Yeah, I mean, that’ll be Stretch and I. That’s a pretty proven system. But I would say that he would be involved. That would be one area that he would help us and help me and Stretch specifically outside of, let’s say, the game planning or the self-scout or the opponent’s pre-advanced report or anything that they may do. We’d carve out some time for him I and Stretch based on who we’re playing, how aggressive we need to be, what are the field conditions, what are the wind, what are the game conditions. That would all be part of what he would do. But I would imagine that the communication would still stay between Stretch and I, not that he wouldn’t communicate with him throughout the game.”
On the new football facility being built and if he’s been able to put his stamp on certain aspects of that:
“Well, I think we’re excited about getting in there. I think it’s going to be an unbelievable place to work, first-class facility that will give us everything that we need and then some. So we’re excited about that. And yeah, we’ve been able to communicate and get what we feel like and have conversations just to try to get it right.”
On the fact Drake Maye was holding onto the ball yesterday and avoiding throwing into bad looks and how he feels the offense did with the red zone execution and what he would like to see from them improve on today:
“Well, if you look at the majority of the red zone plays in this league that are passes, it’s usually one, two, see you later, or it’s a sack. But there were some … Maybe there was a few three-man rushes where, again, if we feel like those are instances where you can sit and progress, that you can. I know that there were maybe a couple of those. But again, I’m with you. I’m coaching them up to say, ‘Hey, we got to go somewhere.’ We got to one, two. And that’s what these turn into in the red zone. If you watch every red zone snap in the league, that’s about what the majority of them do if you get past your first hitch. I think that’ll continue to progress when we get down there, and just making sure that the timing is there, and sometimes it’s not. Then we’re going to have to be really good on both sides of the ball with the play extension, being where we need to be, and then the defense executing what they have to do as well on those play extension in the red zone.”
(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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