Friday Patriots Notebook 2/6: Vrabel, McDaniels Earn Honors Thursday Night
Patriots' Vrabel Named Coach of the Year, McDaniels Earns Assistant Honor in Historic Season
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The league held its NFL Honors event on Thursday night, which included various awards for players and coaches coming off the 2025 season.
New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was named Coach of the Year during the event, with Vrabel being recognized for turning the Patriots from a 4-13 team into a group that flipped the script this season and went 14-3 as well as winning the AFC Championship.
Vrabel wasn’t on hand to receive the award, but apparently was made aware ahead of time and recorded an acceptance video that played after it was announced.
“Congratulations first to all the amazing award winners tonight,” said Vrabel. ” You’re the reason that our game is so special. It’s an honor to be recognized amongst the great coaches of our league, especially Kyle [Shanahan] and Liam [Cohen], Ben [Johnson], and of course, Mike [Macdonald]. Ultimately, my name will go on this award, but this award belongs to a building. It belongs to a staff, and ultimately, it belongs to the men in the locker room who believed when they couldn’t always see it and also bought in when it wasn’t easy.”
“I appreciate that and everything they do. We did this together, and I’ll always be thankful and grateful to be your coach. I’d like to thank Robert and Jonathan Kraft and everybody in our building that helped us win on and off the field, and to Stretch [John Streicher]. The world may know who you are, but they’ll never know the impact that you made on our team, my family, and obviously me, and for that, I’m grateful. To my amazing friends and family, wonderful wife, Jen, my sons, Tyler and Carter. Appreciate you guys for being along on this ride. It hasn’t always been easy. I love you guys, and thank you.”
There was one glitch when actor Tiffany Hadish, who was there as a presenter for the “Coach of the Year” category, made the announcement . She butchered Vrabel’s name, calling him Mike “Verbal,” which was disappointing.
Clearly, Hadish doesn’t follow the NFL all that closely, and that misstep came as a bit of a surprise. But nevertheless, it was good to see Vrabel be recognized given what he accomplished this season.
Meanwhile, like Vrabel, the players weren’t on hand Thursday night, but they apparently had a video recorded and ready to go for their coach following the news.
Various players took a moment to send a “thank you” to their coach for what’s obviously been an incredible season.
“Just want to appreciate you for changing this year, changing this franchise, changing this organization,” said Drake Maye.
“The things you’ve taught this team, and individually, it’s been everything and more,” said K’Lavon Chaisson.
“The energy that he brings is contagious,” said Will Campbell.
“Haven’t met a more influential coach in my life than him,” said Harold Landry.
“He’s more than just a player’s coach,” said Carlton Davis. “He’s actually in it with you. He makes you feel as if your problems are his problems.”
“You have impacted the season in the most meaningful and loveliest way,” said Leonard Taylor.
“Very inspirational. It makes it easy to come to work every day,” said Mike Onwenu.
“All the work you put in for us, you deserve everything and more, man,” said Hunter Henry.
“He deserves every award or accolade he receives this year,” added Davis.
“I just want to say thank you,” added Taylor.
“You’re just a guy that everybody in that locker room wants to play for,” added Campbell.
“Nobody we would rather play for. I know a lot [of poeple] in the locker room feel the same way,” added Maye.
“Excited for many more years together,” added Henry.
One of the things that has been a topic of discussion this week is the fact the Seahawks’ pass rush remains an area of concern, primarily because they’ve had so much success creating pressure with just four players up front.
It’s a dangerous defense, and they’re also really good at attacking the football. Having had a bye and only playing just two games this postseason, Seattle still forced five fumbles (second in the NFL this postseason) with two recoveries and also had three sacks. In the secondary, the also finished fourth in the league in passes defensed with 14.
Part of their success on defense can be attributed to how well they are running stunts, which Vrabel was asked about on Thursday. He believes that will be one of the key things they’re going to need to be ready for, because it’s definitely a strength of Seattle’s defense.
“Well, I think, one, it’ll be a huge factor in the game,” said Vrabel. “They are really good at it. That’s a strength of what they do. That’s how they are able to apply pressure with a four-man rush. They can straight rush, and guys work off of each other, but then guys work well together to get somebody else free or even be the guy that gets free. They pick, and they drive to the quarterback, and they make it difficult on you.”
“So that’ll be a huge factor in the game, our ability to protect those in passing downs and passing situations, and not let the guy get to the back hip of the lineman and then be able to drive, and then you create a two-on-one.”
Also recognized Thursday night was Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who was named AP Assistant Coach of the Year. It’s been a significant turnaround for New England with McDaniels back in the fold. With him leading the way, the offense scored 490 points this season, which is up from the 289 they scored in 2024 and the most since 2021 (462). Going back even further, it’s also the most points scored by the team since 2011 (513) and the 5th most going back to 2000. … To no one’s surprise, it was Matthew Stafford and not Drake Maye who received the league MVP award Thursday night. Many here in New England hoped it would be Maye, but the overall consensus ahead of Thursday night was that Stafford was the inevitable choice. The Rams QB was there surrounded by his family, and also revealed that he’ll be back next season, which seemed to leave people there, including Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay, pleasantly surprised. … It’s been a long road to get to this point, and when asked about what it’s been like to see the growth of his rookies, Vrabel had plenty of praise and he’s been proud to see them grow not only as players, but as people this year. “I think it’s gone really fast,” said Vrabel. “I think since the time that we drafted them until now, it’s gone really quickly. You have seen them mature. I think you’ve seen them become more comfortable. I think you see TreVeyon [Henderson] talk yesterday about getting married and about just growing up. And you see Will [Campbell] developing in this team, and Jared [Wilson], and Craig [Woodson]. You don’t really even look at them as rookies anymore after Thanksgiving. Now, the team will tell you that they’re going to still be rookies until after their third game next year. But they don’t act like rookies anymore. We don’t look at them as rookies anymore. They’ve been contributors on this football team, and we’re happy that they’ve helped us get here.” … Both Harold Landry and Robert Spillane sounded confident they’ll be out there on Sunday. Landry didn’t practice on Thursday, while Spillane was limited. Having both guys out there would be a huge lift for their defense, which will need all the help it can get against the Seahawks Sunday night. … Vrabel said that the club will practice today and have a walkthrough tomorrow, with the plan then to spend some time with their families ahead of Sunday’s game. “Saturday will be as normal as a normal Saturday as we can make it. We’ll be here,” said Vrabel. “I don’t think we have a whole lot of options. So we’ll be here. We’ll go through our walkthrough. We’ll have an opportunity for our families to be with us and take pictures and do that stuff. We’re not going to be able to go to Levis [Stadium]. We could have as a team, but need to go somewhere where our families can be a part of that and everybody that means so much to us, allow them to enjoy that hour, whatever that process is, to take pictures and see the team and take pictures with the people that they came here to support.”
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