TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Press Conference 9/15
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Here’s what Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference with the media on Monday, September 15, 2025.
On the fact that on the radio earlie, he said that there was a chance we could see Christian Gonzalez and perhaps he could play:
“I don’t know if I said that there was a chance – the chance, right? That …”
On if there’s a slim chance:
“It’s a chance. It’s a chance that a lot of things could happen. It’s Monday, and we’ll figure out how he progresses along the week, and we’ll see what he can do and have him do what he can do.”
On his progression last week:
“Continuing to improve, working hard, and trying to get back.”
On the status of Terrell [Williams]:
“I think Terrell is in good spirits. I appreciate you asking, Mike [Reiss]. Again, Terrell will be around. I don’t quite fully know in what capacity, but he will be around and involved. We’ll continue to just make sure that there’s a good plan for everything that happens, just like we always have been. But thank you for asking.”
On how everything went with the operation defensively, with him and Zak [Kuhr] working together yesterday:
“Good. We didn’t have any… We subbed and we got into our calls. Again, there’s no … talked about this before. The best call is a decisive one that the players know and believe in, and that they have confidence that they can execute their job. And so when we needed to get the drive stopped, we got the drive stopped, had a plan to play these guys and then how we wanted to play them.”
On his mindset in the fourth quarter, on the 53-yard field goal, it was after a false start, and if even punting was a consideration:
“I think maybe had the game been down, the time would have been less, I think maybe you could have discussed a punt in that situation. But with as much time, I don’t know if putting them on the 15-yard lines, 12-yard lines, going to really matter for those guys. It just felt like either we were going to win it or we were going to force them to have to score a touchdown. And a really big kick in a really big moment. Making them then have to score a touchdown is a heck of a lot different than a field goal. I think you guys can see, we all see around the league, the impact that the kickers have at the end of the game, the distance. You really don’t have much to defend nowadays. It used to be 32, 35-yard line. Now it’s some of these cross midfield or close to it.”
On now that we’re getting a feel for how he goes through some of these decisions during the game, it doesn’t feel like it’s black or white for him like aggressive versus not aggressive, like he goes for in the fourth down early. And on the fourth and four late in the second quarter, if he thought about going for it:
“I just wanted to get some points there. Just felt like points were important there and coming away with that. It had been closer, probably. But I think it was two-fold. I felt like, Let’s get Andy [Borregales] one through. And again, get him jump-started knowing that we’re going to need him in this game. But also, fourth and four on the four gets to be a little dicey. It’s not really a 50-50 proposition there. So love the execution on the two-point conversion. Wanted to be decisive and aggressive, and I felt like we were early on. You could see how we played in short yardage. Situationally, you could see the ball coming out on fourth and three and Diggsy [Stefon Diggs] being able to snap down, get it, whatever the situation called for. So there’s a lot of really good examples of us doing that.”
On Hunter Henry becoming fifth all-time in receiving for the franchise and what that means to this team, especially to do it in such a short amount of time here:
“Well, I think Hunter is just reliable, he’s consistent. You can always… Any adjustments or tweaks that you may have with a game plan or a scheme he’s able to handle, I think you see those things. And that’s what I appreciate it about him, is his ability to not only be productive, but also adjust to things as you make changes or, ‘Hey, this is what we need,’ or, ‘This is the coverage.’ I thought Drake might have had him. The ball was tipped down there in the end zone or down in the red zone. So again, he provides leadership, and there’s a very consistent presence to him.”
On the fact they’ve had tackling issues the first couple of games and if those are physical, mental, or both:
“Well, I don’t think we tackled terribly in the first week. Yesterday was a tough task. We missed far too many tackles. So debate whether we tackled well the first week or not. It’s always physical. I think mentally, it puts you in the right position, puts you in the right frame of mind of what we’re asking out of each tackle, right? And where are you? Are you in space and we need to come to balance? Are we in close quarters where we can run through somebody and run our feet on contact and be able to wrap? Are we using the sidelines? A lot of things that we want to avoid, and make sure that we practice and continue to practice. We have. We’ll need to do more of it this week. And they put you into a space game. A team like Miami put you into a space game, and they don’t have any… There’s no shortage of skilled players that are good with the ball in their hands. So we’ll have to be better and be able to use the right technique and the right mentality, and then also having everybody else coming full tilt to the tackle to, again, sometimes make up a tone for some of those misses.”
One more decision question, on throwing out of the two minute …
“Yeah, that’s what happens when it doesn’t work. It’s like, ‘Why did you throw?’ Well, when you throw it and you hit it, just getting pressure and thought we could call, we could catch the corner. They had brought the corner previously a few series before. They brought both corners. Thought maybe we could catch them on one. It didn’t work out. Knew we would need a first down to end it there, and I thought maybe we could catch them on one. It didn’t work. So again, do not want to be results-based there. Just went with the call. I knew we needed a first down, and it didn’t work out in that situation.”
On that second down that Phil [Perry] was mentioning, if he or Josh had any conversation with Drake [Maye], ‘If it’s not there, don’t just throw it away, maybe take a sack and keep the clock running:’
“I don’t know if the sack… You’re trying to convert there, right? There’s a fine line. There’s times where we talked about in preseason, we were in Minnesota, and we were in the five minute, and we called a play, and Woolridge, Ben, threw it away. He got pressure. In that instance, we were coaching Drake and Josh on the side, ‘Hey, that’s where we would want to take a sack.’ This thing is so low, and then they burn a timeout or 40 seconds, and then we can punt, its third down. When you start looking at the second down, if it goes to third, and let’s say 12, now that’s probably not your best chance to end the game.”
“And so he would probably have two choices that he could try to go and take off and get up into the pocket and get what he can get or feel like maybe I can get one in there to Mack [Hollins]. So the play didn’t work. It was incomplete. And then we went through, we went to the next play, tried to go for it on a fourth down, and then ultimately kick the field goal.”
“So need to be better there, but proud of the way that we went in there and made the kick and helped us. So Josh and I talked about the call and thought we could try to catch him, and we didn’t.”
On the fact that on the kicker, he had a lot of them in Tennessee and he said on a podcast a couple of years ago, he’s seen them go elsewhere and kick well, and while Parker Romo hit a couple last night, Andy was up and down, but he got the game well and he had confidence in him. How does he go about moving on versus staying with it and standing behind the guy versus going elsewhere in that situation:
“I don’t think we’re ready to have that conversation yet. He’s made every kick in the fourth quarter. He’s made meaningful kicks. That’s where I’m at. I wouldn’t have gone out there with Andy. It wasn’t like I debated long. He knows he has a job to do, and we have full confidence in to do his job. Happy for Parker. Happy for Parker. That’s how it goes. I meant that he went down there, took advantage of his opportunities, and enjoyed my time with him here. I’m happy that he went down there and helped himself.”
On the fact that Rhamondre Stevenson had a career high receiving yards including the big 55 yard catch and how much of a lift he gave them in that area:
“Huge lift. It meant being able to run the football. He did a nice job in the running game. All those backs, I thought, finished runs. I thought that was a huge key. His ability to protect and also catch it out of the backfield, whether that was from the second and long, what we had self-inflicted wounds that forced us in a second and long, Ramondre and others helped us get it back to third and manageable by being able to drop-step in the zone and to knife and get us back into third and less than five. So that was a huge key, and it has to try to continue.”
On his biggest takeaway from Drake [Maye’s] performance:
“That was hugely efficient. The ball went where it was supposed to go. He was decisive. I thought he did a great job of transferring into the pocket, up into the pocket, setting his depth and then transferring up, being really good with the football, being able to pull through with two hands in the pocket when they have edge rushers and we’re on the road. That’s where it’s going to be really critical, is to be able to set the depth of the pocket, get back, keep your eyes downfield, transfer up into the pocket, and deliver the football. He did that on multiple occasions. When you don’t do that, those turn into sacks, hurries, throwaways, strip-sacks. When you can climb the pocket and remain a thrower and keep your eyes downfield, that’s when you can hit some plays. ”
(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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