TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Press Conference 10/24
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Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference with the media on Friday, November 24, 2025:
On if he has any roster names to give a status on:
“No, just one player, Kyle Dugger, would be questionable. But other than that, pretty quiet.”
On if he did a lot of pre-draft work on [Quinshon }Judkins, and how does he see him as a pro:
“Well, I think that the only thing that matters is what we’ve seen of him as a pro. Physical runner. Good vision, runs hard, breaks a lot of tackles, and he’s really doing a good job for them.
That same thing on Mason Graham:
“Disruptive young player, very athletic, very good scheme fit for them. Doesn’t stay blocked long. Really active and just good flexibility, good athleticism for a guy that size. Just being that big and being able to be athletic and move and stay on your feet, he does a nice job of not staying blocked very long.”
On the fact he already has a good knowledge of them, and how much did last year with the Browns teach him about offense in general:
“I learned a lot. I learned as far as just different schemes or different techniques. Working with Tommy and Kevin or Chad O’Shea about third downs. Everybody’s got things that they believe in about coaching. I think that’s the biggest thing is that it’s what you believe and it’s what you can get the players to believe in. There’s a lot of different a lot of ways to do things, a lot of different ways to run zone or to have a six-man protection or anything like that. It’s having a belief in something, but then also getting the players to believe in it. So there were things that they did that obviously I liked or that was new for me from an experience of being in Tennessee or being around different offenses.”
On what he would say are the core offensive philosophical differences between the West Coast and what he is team is doing here:
“We’re just really focused on Cleveland and not differences or philosophic. We run a lot of different plays. Everybody, you look around the league and there’s a lot of plays that are similar. They’re called something different. They got different wrinkles to it. But what I believe in is fundamentals of blocking, tackling, protecting the quarterback, catching the ball, breaking tackles, ball security. Plays are plays. It’s about the players.”
On the fact that yesterday, Jeremy Springer highlighted Kyle Williams, and his abilities to learn special teams a little bit more and what has he seen from him in that area:
“Working as a returner, he’s catching the ball. He’s worked as gunner, worked as … sometimes you get those receivers that have good releases at the line of scrimage or have some speed and some balance or contact courage with guys that’s sometimes a pretty tough position out there as a gunner or you like it as a plus 50 and to go down there. So he’s been working some of that and understanding those details or being a corner on the… He’s very willing. That’s the thing. As long as they’re willing, we’ll coach them and teach them. Chiz [Efton Chism] was on to… He’s been as a receiver, been on a kickoff team for us, and he’s done some of those things. So whether it’s Chiz or Kyle or any young player.”
On the fact his safety depth has been tested, probably a little bit here the last two, three weeks and how pleased he’s been with that depth chart:
“I’m confident in everybody that’s at that position to go in there and be ready to go, to execute, understand, and prepare as a starter each and every week. I think that that’s hard to do. Maybe if you haven’t had some action or talking about somebody that’s on the practice squad at different positions that we’ve had that we’ve called up, try to get everybody on the roster each and every day and each and every week to prepare as a starter, just knowing that you could get called up, things could happen. We try to do that every position.”
On his pass-rush numbers in terms of pressure rate have been a lot better in third downs than first and second downs and if he has any thoughts on that discrepancy or why that might be:
“We just have to do a better job of transitioning some of the play actions and recognizing the opportunities to rush and to affect the quarterback. We haven’t given up the amount of X plays that we have, but we probably have given up… The quarterback’s probably not held onto the ball as long. So when you create longer yardage situations on third down. And sacks can be funny. I mean, however many we have on offense for like 25 yards. You know what I’m saying? We’ve got our sack numbers. If you just looked at the numbers, they aren’t great, but the amount of yardage that we’ve actually lost, because if the quarterback runs out of bounds for no gain, apparently, sometimes it goes down as a sack. I wish I had more of those 20 years ago, but I didn’t. And so we just have to transition. We got to get into the pocket and recognize those opportunities to rush on first and second down that are there when we see that and there’s indicators.”
On how he would describe what [Josh] Dobbs has brought to the team:
“I’ve always enjoyed being around him. He’s professional. He understands. I think he’s good for the quarterback, good for Drake, good for Tommy [DeVito], and he’s prepared. As much as we’ve talked about those practices on Thursday or our red zone on Friday, that those are competitive reps for everybody. I think those have been great reps for Josh and Tommy to get during the season. So I think that that’s helped. You just don’t get a whole lot of reps, and so you have to use those as your preparation reps and your game reps to read it out. That’s why we’re not highlighting somebody and say, throw the ball here. It’s like, throw to the ball the guy that’s open and play quarterback. We don’t want to practice like that and say this is what they’re going to do. We don’t know what they’re going to do. So I think those reps that he has in practice really help him. And again, it’s good to see that he was prepared last week to go in and execute and help us.”
On the fact he’s been asked a lot about Drake sliding and protecting himself, and how does he feel he’s developed in terms of how he looks in his comfort in the pocket, knowing when to leave, when he has a little bit more time at this point in the season:
“I think it’s improved. I think there are some times, maybe a few weeks ago, that he probably took off and didn’t need to. I think that we’ve worked on it. I think that was some of the drills that I saw Ashton working on with him. Probably don’t want to sit there and wait it out a whole lot this week. This would probably not been the week to try that. I would probably go “One, two … ” and I’d probably look for an exit strategy based on the Browns and their defense and the way they rush. So just have to be, I think, conscious. And again, not staring at the rush, but just having an internal clock and knowing that you don’t want to leave a clean pocket. And if it looks dirty, then I’m going to trust his judgment of if it’s somebody’s flashing in there to extend and be smart with the football.”
On the fact it seems like there’s been a lot of pass-rush situations where they’re sending four but offenses are keeping guys in, chipping and if there are ways around it where they can still affect the quarterback, or if he’s just trusting his coverage in those situations:
“Well, I think that you have to trust what you’ve called. And again, if you live in the world of man, then you can sit there and hug and add on against bigger people, which we’ve done at times. Again, just trying not to give up big plays. And I think that sacks come in bunches. We have to do a better job of affecting the quarterback. I’m not going to say that we need a certain amount of sacks. I think we need to, when they throw check downs, be ready to come up and tackle so that check downs aren’t eight-yard gains, much like that series that we referenced the other day. It was second, whatever it was. [Robert] Spillane makes a good bang-bang tackle coming out of zone coverage, makes it third and one. We do a good job on the coverage on a short yardage, and then we get a sack. So it kind of just is all going into letting each other help. And when the ball gets out quickly and we are in zone coverage that we’re trusting the quarterback looking and the quarterback read, what we can’t have is the quarterback looking over here, patting it, coming back over here. That system, that can’t work. So that would be one where if we start to see that, then we have issues with basically marrying the rush and the coverage up. If the quarterback could sit there, stare it down, pump it, come back and do something over there.”
On the fact he talks about preparing every player to be a starter, but he also emphasizes improving the roster and as the trade deadline approaches, how does he balance improving the current roster versus exploring external options:
“Well, we’ll always continue to try to do that. I would say that the players that are here, we ask to prepare as a starter mentally, so that they’re ready to go and they’re not just checked out and they’re not just reading a card. Again, our coaches will watch. They’ll have breakfast with those guys in the morning. Our young coaches, it’s a great opportunity for them on Saturday morning to tell those guys, ‘Hey, front seven, Milt and Vinnie will be in there watching their defensive snaps from the week.’ Grab some breakfast, come in, have a little meeting before they work out. Same as on offense, whether that’s Kugs, Reilly or Chucky, to be able to get those players in there so that they feel like there’s feedback and they’re getting coached the same way that anybody else would. Then as far as the roster, any opportunities that we have to improve it, whether that’s the practice squad or the 53-man roster, we’ll probably always try to do that.”
On the fact he’s an Ohio guy and if he grew up a Browns fan:
“Of course I did. You don’t grow up in northeast Ohio and not be a Browns fan and have necklaces that are made of dog biscuits. I mean, of course I did. You know what I mean? So I lived that and Bernie Cozar. Again, I’ve said this a lot, but I appreciate the Haslem family, Jimmy, Dee, Andrew, Kevin, that staff. I mean, that was a good experience for me. It was probably the place where I was supposed to be last year. Allowed me tokind of reconnect with a lot of different things as far as whether that’s being back around home and seeing old friends and going to high school football games or spending more time with people that you don’t really spend a lot of time with during the season.”
(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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