TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Press Conference 8/13
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Here’s what Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference ahead of New England’s first joint practice with the Vikings on Wednesday:
On it being a nice facility:
“It’s a good place to work up here. That’s why when we came up here before in Tennessee, good experience, excellent experience to come back. Plus, I like the cheese curds.”
[Inaudible]
“You don’t like them? I mean…”
On when he has them, if he has them after practice:
“And before practice, after practice, last night, there’s not much I have to perform. After this, my performance will be pretty slow.”
On his thoughts on Stefon Diggs’ performance thus far in training camp, and the fact he didn’t play being a ‘coach’s decision,’ and if he can elaborate on what went into that:
“I think the same thing that goes into most every decision that we just try to communicate with the staff and the personnel staff and training staff and see where we are with the player and how much work he’s getting in practice. I think that that volume is good and being able to come back and have a good day in the red zone. Just trying to track what this may look like in the season for veteran players that we have. I think good experience with just in the end, trying to get each player exactly what they need to be ready for the season. Then also, once you get into the season, where things are at, week to week.”
On how important today is and this week with the opportunity with all the reps that they’re going to get for the preseason:
“Well, every day is important in training camp, obviously. We can’t waste any. It’s going to be a great opportunity to go against a talented team, a well-coached team. We’ll see how much they do defensively. They have a lot. So that’s always a great challenge there. This is another opportunity to kind of practice the way that we practice, but against a different team. So similar to Washington and how we functioned and operated there, we’ll have an extra day. So it won’t be some of the situations that we worked on in one day in Washington will be spread out till tomorrow. And again, I just want us to be able to practice and compete and stay up and take care of their team, take care of our team, but do it against a different group of guys.”
On what makes this defense such a unique challenge:
“They do a lot. They communicate, they disguise very well. They’ll show you something and then rotate to another coverage. There’s ability to pressure players from all three levels from the front, from the linebackers, and from the third level. You’ll get different personnel groupings that we’ll have to be ready for. We’ll get different movements and run pressures and coverages where the quarterback has to be aware, whether it’s man or some kind of rolled trap coverage, that we have to be careful where we’re throwing the football.”
On the fact Carl Davis has been on and off the field over the course of the summer and if he anticipates him being good to go for Week 1:
“Well, that’s a ways away. I anticipate he’ll be practicing today. That’s what I try to focus on, is what we’re going to do today, and what the players are going to do today. So to speculate about where he’s going to be week one, I’m not going to do that with anybody. I’m going to focus on today, and excited to see him get back out there and continue to work and build back towards that potential start of the season.”
On which players he anticipates not practicing this week:
“Gonzo [Christian Gonzalez] won’t practice. [Marte] Mapu won’t practice. Rhamondre [Stevenson] won’t practice, [Jahlani] Tavai, Hunter Henry probably won’t practice, but he won’t practice today. We’ll see where that is tomorrow. A couple of guys, [Kendrick] Bourne, obviously, won’t practice.”
On if he’s decided how he’s going to use the starters in Saturday’s preseason game yet:
“No. Similar to where we were with Chris [Price] focused on today, and then see how much work we get in and tomorrow. Then if I feel comfortable, trying to figure out where things go after that. No, I have not.”
On if Rhamondre [Stevenson] got nicked up in the game:
“That’s probably something coming out of the game. I think some residual stuff from the game.”
On the fact Jaylinn Hawkins has gotten some runs with the ones, and what he’s seen from him that’s warranted that opportunity:
“I think he’s done a nice job of coming in and communicating and playing pretty much all the different techniques that we’ve asked these guys to do on the back-end. I think he’s playing with some speed and plays with some physicality. You saw a couple of passes out to the perimeter that he was on in tight coverage in the game. I just really evaluated him and decided to get him back from last year. He did a nice job and played all special teams, played a lot of defense when guys went down. So he’s continuing to take advantage of his opportunities and then see where that goes.”
On what Kyle Dugger needs to do to get back in the mix with the first team:
“I think just making sure that he’s where he needs to be and understanding that the coverage concepts and everything we do, keep working and keep progressing. A lot of this is the guys that have earned a right to take a look with that first unit. And again, there’ll be different lineups and different things. It’s a little just focus on the reps that you get. Right now, his attitude has been great. And he’s had a long, long recovery in the offseason. So just keep …he’s been out there and he’s continuing to get better and work. I think the more that he practices, the better he’s going to feel and the more that it’s going to translate onto the football field.”
On the fact he talked about Drake Maye’s leadership on Monday on WEEI and if that’s an area he feels like he’s lacking in some way, and how much of your job is trying to draw that out:
“Well, it’s not that it’s lacking. I just always want more. I think I have to as a coach. I think that we always want to try to take a player, and we want to meet them where they’re at and then be able to improve on that. So there’s no finished products no matter what. We always can continue to work on things, focus on our reaction, our response to things, and how… As a quarterback or any player, you want it to be perfect, and it’s never going to be perfect. And you can sit there and paralyze yourself sometimes by mistakes. We need to focus on our responses to those mistakes that are so critical. There’s so many snaps in the football game, there’s certain things that can go up and down, and performance is one of them, and our attitude and our effort is something that can’t.”
On the fact Garrett Bradbury and Josh McDaniels mentioned a little bit of game planning coming in for Minnesota’s defense and how much, if at all, did Bradbury help given his experience playing here in Minnesota:
“I think he’s helped a little bit. I think we just didn’t want these guys to come in without any idea of what that would look like. There is a lot of front multiplicity. There’s a lot of stuff that they do. I think it’s only fair to give the players some idea of what may or hopefully see today. If it’s not, then we’ll make some adjustments. As we go on here through practice and then into tomorrow.”
On the Vikings offense and what goes into defending Kevin O’Connell’s scheme:
“There’s an urgency to which they operate. They’re good up front, excellent skill players. The ball comes out quick. They don’t wait out things. There’s a good blend of what they’re trying to do. They’ll move the pocket. Again, it’s a very good personnel group.”
On “Check me if I’m wrong,” …
“See how they said, check me if I’m wrong? You guys back home should start saying that sometimes.”
On Vrabel’s last year with the Patriots being the year Kevin O’Connell was there and if he can tell us anything he might remember from that year:
“If that was 2008, then that was my last year. Was that his first year?”
Yeah. Can you give us anything on Kevin O’Connell, the quarterback that you remember?
“The same thing I said about Kliff Kingsbury. He wasn’t as good as Tom Brady.”
[Inaudible … possibly regarding Stevenson]
“I don’t think so. No. I mean, hopefully we’ll get him back here sooner rather than later. I don’t think it’s anything that’s significant.”
On what the focus is today versus what’s scheduled for tomorrow and what the differences are:
“Be more in the red zone tomorrow. We’ll be out on the field today. More full-field stuff. Doing a thing here that Kevin likes to do. We’ll play second and long, which for us would be a get back on track. We’re trying to get back half the yardage to getting third and manageable and then play out whatever third-down scenario comes of that. I think that’ll be a great opportunity for us. See if they blitz, if they play zone, and what we need to do on both sides of the ball to try to keep them in third and long.”
“Then offensively, we got to try to get some yards back to help our third down offense. So, that’ll be something that probably will look a little different. It’ll look second and 10, and then it’ll go to third and two, or it’ll go to third and 10.”
(Editor’s Note: This transcript is done via the available footage and is subject to typos. If you spot something, please take a moment to let me know in the comments below.)
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