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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 Tuesday, February 3, 2026.
On the fact Robert Kraft is still on the outside looking in on the Hall of Fame and his thoughts:
“I would just say that that’s unfortunate. I would say that in my experiences with Robert, he’s more than deserving, and he’ll be in the Hall of Fame. I’m not in charge of deciding when that happens. I appreciate the relationship that I’ve had with him and the success as a player and now as a coach. He’s done everything that we’ve needed and the support and provided the support that we’ve needed as a staff and as a team. I’m glad that he’s back here and continuing to help us do things that will help the team win and ultimately allow him to be recognized.”
On paternity leave being in the news with Kwesi Adofo-Mensah taking two weeks to work remotely, and if that news shocked him, and how does he decide when it’s a good time to stop thinking about football?
“Well, I don’t think there’s ever a time to stop thinking about football. Football has been a part of my life since I was 12 years old and started to be able to play. We do everything that we possibly can to support the people in our building, on and off the field, our coaches, and I’m really trying to do everything that we can to support the men and women in our building, and that’s where my focus is.”
On Drake Maye and what has he seen in practice where he’s seen him have that improvement in his second year in the NFL:
“Well, I think it all starts with talent. I think he’s extremely talented. I think he’s athletic. I think he plays the position athletically and allows him to be accurate with the football, whether that’s in the pocket or extending plays. He’s a competitor. He’s always trying to learn. Continues to build and develop as a leader. So his success and his performance is a large part of why we’re here.”
On Drake, he said last night that he thought he turned a corner Sunday on the flight. Felt really good, threw at practice, and on how he’s doing and how the illness and the shoulder are coming along.
“I think that he spoke for himself on how he feels. I can’t determine how he feels. I know that practice yesterday was good for him and for everybody to get out there and get moving around. We appreciate everybody at Stanford for providing us the facility that we have. I think we got the week off to a great start.”
On what’s the hardest adversity he’s had to overcome as a coach:
“Well, first of all, thank you for the question. I also appreciate everybody supporting us last night and coming out last night to ask our questions, our players’ questions, and get to know them a little bit better. I think probably early on, just going from a player to a coach, having an idea of what coaching was. But I tell this to every person I interview, nobody’s going to have a worse first interview than I did. I wasn’t prepared. I sat down with Urban Meyer in front of a staff, interviewed for a position, and completely bombed it, and had no idea, wasn’t prepared, didn’t have a teaching progression. He gave me about eight hours to go back in my office, didn’t sleep, didn’t go home to prepare for the next day at 6:00 in the morning. That’s probably the first adversity that I faced was like, ‘Am I really going to do this? I better go back and formulate my thoughts and have a teaching progression to what I was going to do.’ Nobody’s going to have a worse first interview than I did.”
On the fact he’s looking to become the fifth coach to win a Super Bowl, both as a player and a head coach, and he would be the only one that also has a sack and a touchdown reception, But is there anything, any lessons that he thinks he can instill in these guys, specifically from his time as a player in these games that translate also as a head coach:
“I think I always try to use every experience that I’ve had over the course of close to 30 years in this league, whether that’s as a player or a coach, to try to help the team and help individual players do their job. I think you have to be ready for every situation that occurs and the opportunities present themselves in these types of games. You only have so many opportunities to make a play, so you always have to be ready.”
On this storyline about the two teams that are in the Super Bowl not necessarily being the favorites at the start of the season. There’s that poster where they have the two quarterbacks way back. Maybe that’s symbolic. …
“Or either they’re really far away or really close. I’m not sure which one. It depends which way you look at it.”
I wanted to ask you, why do you think Americans or people in general like to see underdogs do well, teams that aren’t expected to do something. Was there any point during the season where you had one of these coaching talks telling your team, ‘No one expects you to do this, prove them wrong’ type thing?
“No, we’ve always tried to focus on how things are going to go right and not worry about what could happen and go wrong. As far as America, I think I would say the majority of Americans or a majority of people probably are more underdogs than they are favorites. Favorites are the talented elite top 10%, and most groups are made out of a lot of people that are average in 80%, and we’re trying to make the 80% a little bit better. Talent is talent. There’s a lot of things that are God-given. We try to focus on things that we can realistically improve.”
On the fact a lot has changed over the nation’s landscape since the last time the Patriots were in their Super Bowl. We’ve seen the rise of sports gambling, prediction markets, sweeps, and if he can talk a little bit about the pressure that puts on the team and the staff, what they’re dealing with going into the Super Bowl:
“Yeah, the pressure in our business is always going to be there, whether people wager on it legally or not. We understand the nature of this business and how competitive it is. As you can see, the turnover in coaching staffs, turnovers in rosters, the draft every year, how competitive this business is as it starts to bleed into college and the landscape that we’re starting to see. So gambling has nothing to do with our willingness to work and the pressure that we’re under and the expectations.”
On as he’s assessed Sam Darnold getting ready for this game, and how he would describe the way he’s handled pressure this year:
“I think he’s handled it well. I think that, again, there’s a willingness to stand in the pocket, and there’s a willingness to progress through. A lot of talent. I think his courage to stand in there… I mean, the Rams nailed him, and he completed an unbelievable pass to Cooper on the sideline. So he didn’t shy away, didn’t duck, didn’t fade back. He stood there and faced the fire, which is what you have to do in this league if you’re going to be an elite quarterback.”
On the fact this Seattle defense is top three in quarterback pressures…
“They’re top three in a lot of things.”
Yeah, but they do actually give up the second-most yards after the catch. So when you’re looking at the profile of this defense, what they present, how does that shape the way that you think about attacking them on Sunday?
“Well, we’ll have to stay balanced. Our best games, we’re able to provide some semblance of run game, and we’re able to marry some of the play-action passes. I don’t think in this league you want to turn things into a drop-back passing game. That makes it really difficult. They’re good up front. They play a lot of people. They’re disruptive. They work well together with games. They don’t give up many X plays. I think that those numbers, whichever you’re alluding to, isn’t because they’re not good tacklers. They’re really good tacklers. It’s just sometimes in the shell that they’re in, some of the underneath coverage is a little bit deeper. But I think they’re a very good tackling football team, and you can tell the fundamentals that they play with across the board.”
On the fact on defense, he obviously brought in a lot of new people at all three levels. In free agency, he had the coordinator switch that you did not expect early in the season, and how proud he is of these guys to come together at exactly the right time? Because it’s like, as the season went along, it seemed like the defense just got better and better:
“Well, they’ve been continuing to improve. I think most of the people on our team, our coaching staff, has continued to improve. That’s what you have to do for the teams that want to be here. Talked about the ones that are playing the best football late are the ones that are usually in the playoffs, and that continues to happen. I give them a lot of credit defensively for what they’ve done, and we’ll need our best effort on Sunday in order to help us win the football game.”
On the fact it’s unusual for a team to have a rookie starting a left tackle and left guard. What’s led to and allowed Will [Campbell] and Jared [Wilson] to have success this year:
“I think they’re talented. I think that they’ve worked. I think they’ve tried to get better each and every week. There’s some matchups in this league that are tough. They’ve had some really good plays. They’ve had some plays that they’d like to have back, but they’re out there for the most part all the time, practicing and proving, working together. We never really looked at it as rookie players on the left side. I don’t really get into that much. We talk about maturity. Maturity is based on experience, not age. They have a lot of experience here this entire year. They’ve both missed a few games, but they’ve been in there the majority of the time.”
On when it comes to dynasty, if that’s something that he embraces when it comes to his team or he tries to ignore? Also, I’m from Little Rock, Arkansas, hometown of Hunter Henry. What has he meant to this team? Can you speak to him just who he is as a player and as a person?
“I don’t know where the dynasty would come from. Maybe the teams that I was a part of in the past, you could consider that, but we’re just trying to build a program. First year of the program, we ended up here, and we’re excited about it, and we’re ready to go, or we will be ready to go.”
“Hunter, as I’ve always said, this has been consistent. He’s been one of the most consistent players on our football team as it relates to his daily attitude, but also his performance. You understand what you’re going to get each and every day. And then when his number is called, he usually always comes through for us.”
On when a team moves on from him as a head coach, which Tennessee did, were there any moments of any self-doubt or introspection? And if he feels a level of redemption in any way being here:
“No, I’m grateful for the opportunity, whether it’s a player that gets released and then picked up by another team, or it’s a coach that somebody moves on from or fires. I think you just are grateful for the opportunity that you have the next time, and you try to do everything that you can not to let that happen. As far as emotions go, I think there’s plenty of emotion, whether that’s being traded to Kansas City as a player or that’s being fired as a coach. There’s a lot of emotions that you go through, and sometimes that takes a little longer to get over than others.”
On Terrell Williams. There was a report that he’s cancer-free before the trip. What’s it like to have him here and be able to celebrate such a big accomplishment? This this week of all weeks?
“Yep. Thank you for asking about Terrell. He’s doing great. He is cancer-free, and he was able to come in and be a part of things that we were doing late in the season based on how he was feeling. It was great to have him around, based on his health and what he felt. Certainly great to have him out here this week. I would say that he has a reach to all three phases in the players on our team and through our staff. So I’m glad that he can be out here to enjoy this and also help us prepare.”
(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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