Here’s what Mike Vrabel had to say Wednesday morning, July 23, 2025 ahead of New England Patriots training camp:
On the fact that yesterday, Hunter Henry talked about a get-together that Drake Maye organized, getting all the players together in North Carolina and how beneficial that was on several levels and if he looks at something like that in Drake in his second year as a sign of his growth and development?
“I think that there’s a lot of things that go into that. I think that that’s part of it, being able to organize it. He did, I would say, 95% of it on his own to be able to plan the travel, the housing, the location, and everything that they were going to do and the places that they were going to do it. So, I think that that’s a large step, not dealing with other things in the offseason in the summer and getting married, and everything like that. It was important to him. That was something that he wanted to do. It was something that he approached me with early on. So it was something that he was thinking about.”
On the importance of the five weeks leading up to training camp at the end of mini camp:
“Well, again, if you want to talk about the conditioning, I’m happy to revisit it. I thought we went in great detail yesterday, but maybe not. We’re all on this honeymoon stage right now. It’s all fun.”
“No, you don’t have to apologize. It was great.”
On how much fun this is for him, having been there as a player and what it means to be there as the head coach of the Patriots:
“Well, I think we’re grateful. I think we’re excited. There’s an energy in the building. The players seemed excited to go. We had a long meeting. That first training camp meeting is brutal. It is long. There’s a lot of presentations that we have to get in front of them. They stayed engaged and then came in here this morning, and I’m excited to hit the field with them, and our coaches are ready to work and continue to build what we started on in the offseason.”
On the fact he’s been there before, and what the importance is of his first training camp in his first year as head coach:
“There’s always, however long you’ve done it, you’re going to have things that come up. I think it’s just about being flexible. It’s about being able to adapt and adjust quickly and change the schedule based on the health of the team or maybe just trying to have a good sense of where the team is, and what they need, and how much meeting time and how the schedule works. We put a lot of time into the schedule to make sure that it’s efficient and giving the players exactly what they need to come out here and, again, continue to build a team, earn a role, and then ultimately, we have to prepare to win.”
On the fact he has a structure and if it’s the same structure, or if he changes it based on the players he has this time around:
“Just there’s things that you need to get done, and there’s a checklist that you go through, and it relates to the fundamentals, the scheme, the special teams, conditioning, game situations, red zone, third down, two-minute.”
“But the fundamentals are critical. The fundamentals in this game are our foundation. The foundation has to be built here in training camp. We’ll adjust and add time in the way that we take care of the football, the attention to detail, and the ability to turn the football over. Everything that I think that we need to work on, we have to be able to address at some point in time during training camp.”
On the fact day one doesn’t have pads, but what he looks for as a coach on day one to evaluate the team and where the guys are at:
“Well, nothing that’s changed when we hit the grass in OTAs. It’s just about the urgency in which we move around practice, that there’s an organization to it, that there’s a flow to practice, the operation, that the substitution, you know, we’re working with 91 guys, maybe 87 of them will be out there today, that there’s communication, the substitution is good, the flow of practice, and again, just the efficiency in which we work.”
On the team meeting and what some of the things are that, as he said, makes it kind of ‘brutal’:
“Well, that’s usually… It was after I met with you guys. There’s an extensive medical presentation, which is critical. The one thing that I tried to reference to our football team was I went to attend a doctor’s dinner for every doctor and nurse and every person that would come in contact with our football team through the course of the year. We’re extremely lucky to be where we’re at to get that kind of care. We can get our MRIs, we can get a lot of our lab work right here at Patriot Place. The one thing that Jim Whalen, our trainer, told me at that dinner, because I was like, ‘There’s a lot. I wasn’t expecting there to be this many people.’ He said that we have one specialist per every three players. Whether that’s an orthopedic or whether that’s a cardiologist, that is a neurologist, anybody that would have to be in contact with our players, we have a large group, and we’re thankful. They take care of us here at Patriot Place at Brigham and Women’s to be able to get in an MRI and get back and be efficient so the players get back in meetings.
“All these different things. The concussion – making sure that that presentation is presented. So, there’s an extensive medical equipment, wearing the proper equipment, and understanding what that is about some of these young guys and their feet. We covered at a hotel, we covered security, we covered media. For you guys, there’s a media presentation that there’s a film that the league puts out. Stacey [James] and I talked to them about that. There’s a long checklist.”
On the trust he has with the medical staff with Jim as long as he’s been here and how valuable that is:
“Well, the trainer I worked with in Tennessee was a mentor for Jim as well. Todd Toriscelli, Jim had worked with him. When I left here, we still all stayed in contact because I was working with Todd at Tennessee, and Todd talked to Jim a lot. But there is a lot of comfort there. There’s a lot of experience on Jim’s part. We’re just trying to give the players the best care that we can as quickly as we can to give each guy what they need. So, that’s been good. Again, we always talk about some of these injuries are going to be unavoidable. It’s just how we work from them and how we come back from them is what’s most important.”
On the fact there was a moment in Forged in Foxboro …
“What did you call it? I didn’t call it anything. What is it? Is it a docu-series?”
I don’t know if you call it a docuseries. That’s probably a more apt term for it. I’m the media guy, so nice job by you.
… there was a moment where the offense is in between plays, and he said something to Drake Maye like, ‘Hey, you’ve got a minute here. Talk to your guys.’ and why that is important to him, and how naturally does that come to Drake to do things like that, and how much of a focus will that be for him as head coach to draw that out of him:
“My job is to figure out what we need and what each player needs and do everything that I can to help them physically or mentally or emotionally. I try to recreate these practices the same way the game is. The offense goes over there. We have a drive. They last one play, three plays, eight plays, twelve plays. It ends in 6 points. 7, three points, whatever it ends in or a punt. You go over there and you have to talk to the coordinator. You’ve got to talk to Josh. But then the quarterback is going to have to go up and down and make sure, ‘Hey, we just had this happen on this last play. If we get it again, we saw this defense for the first time.’ There’s a lot of things because it’s always going to mean more coming from the guy that’s out leading them. That’s all that situation was. No different than defensively. You’re going to go over there, linebackers and safeties are going to talk, say, ‘Hey, we’re going to make this check or they’re in this formation. We’re going to have to make sure that we adjust to it quickly or if we get this same … Chances are, if they had success with it, we’re going to see it again.'”
On the fact Milton Williams talked about being pushed in a conditioning drill by him, and what he’s seen from him from a leadership and conditioning standpoint, and how has he responded to that:
“Early on, that was something that was important to Milton, was that he wanted to lead, and there had been zero pushback. He is fun to coach. He’s very mature, and so there’s zero reservation about his leadership ability. He’s here a lot. He’s here all the time. He shows up early, gets plenty of work in, takes care of his body. He’s a true pro.”
On what would make a successful training camp:
“Well, if we can remember what the objectives of training camp were, which were… Do you remember?
You said … no.
“No?”
That was yesterday. There were three things.
“Build a team.”
Okay.
“Remember, Mike? Earn a roll.”
Earn a roll.
“You remember the last one? Prepare to win. You guys are on fire today. We’re off to a great start. So, if we can do those things, there’s a reason I try to do this. I don’t claim to be the smartest person. So, if I can just try to find some things that I think are important for the team and the individual, and then kind of coming back to the team. So, if it looks like we build a team and there’s some cohesion and guys are enjoying being around each other, are they competing? Are they taking care of each other? Then are guys starting to figure out, ‘Hey, this is going to be my role. I’m going to go try to dominate that,’ whatever that may be. Then ultimately, are we understanding these situations and can we try to win a football? That’s what would be successful.”
On what he looks for in leadership and what he wants from his leaders, and also from his captains:
“Well, I mean, I think that every, I hope, player and coach can be an extension of the message that I have created and try to get that across in their own words and stay consistent to it. That’s why we don’t have a ton of stuff that we try to talk about. We try to stay very consistent and allow that to kind of branch off and don’t tell them what to say, but allow them to have some parameters and things that we’re working for. We just hope that everybody carries that message over here as they work to lead their unit or another position.”
“Thank 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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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
