TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Press Conference 2/25
Mike Vrabel speaks to the media at the NFL Combine on Wednesday.
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Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say while speaking with reporters on Wednesday.
Like yesterday, the reporter microphones weren’t great. It made the questions incredibly difficult to hear, so I did the best I could with these:
[Inaudible – On the decision to the changes/promotions on defense:]
“Well, I think there’s a lot of things in play there. I think we’re just trying to figure out what’s best defensively for us, what’s best for the staff organizationally, and being able to get everybody’s strengths where they need to be. So I know that Terrell will be able to help me in a lot of things, help the football team, help the defense, continue to be a big role in that, and then just seeing where things progress with Zak and the comfort level that we had there. So that’s where we ended up. And I think we have still a great staff. There’ll be some guys that we’ll add or people that we’ll add going through this process. Happy for guys like Robert Kugler, who was able to go and be a tight ends coach in Pittsburgh and some of those things.
On if Terrell [Williams] has a title:
“Again, he will when I get back to Foxborough. I don’t want to sit here and misspeak and figure out where that ends up. I’ve got a plan for them, and I think that that’s… A vision is better than the title, necessarily. I don’t want to say something and not have that be an accurate depiction of what ends up happening once we work through a lot of different things.”
On how he views Stefon Diggs’ future:
“Well, not only his future, but what he was able to do for us and come in and provide leadership, work extremely hard in the time that he was rehabbing from the knee. I think just a really good presence each and every week. And so as we look to evaluate the football team, we’re doing that constantly. We’re doing that, Eliot and myself and Ryan and Stretch and Eliot’s staff, and just being a little bit behind of where we were, just how long the season went, where those conversations for each and every player are happening in the meetings in between that we have with the draft players here. So there’s a lot of things that we’ll do between now and the time that the football season starts. So that’s going to be the same with, I would say, most every player on our roster.”
On the fact he has a hearing scheduled for after the start of free agency (April 1st):
“Yeah. Well, I think that there’s probably some things that go into making decisions. And again, we want our players to make great decisions. And again, we’ve tried to support those players that have some things that have come up, whether those are accusations. We’re going to let the legal process run its course, just like we said before. And then those players, whether that’s Stefon or anybody else that has something, has done exactly what they’re supposed to do, be where they’re supposed to be, communicate with the court when they’re supposed to communicate with them. We’re going to let all that take care of itself, and then we’ll have to see what the judgments are in those particular cases.”
On what his impression is of this draft class:
“Well, I think that there’s… Just looking across the board, I think there’s volume at the tight-end class. Whether they’re premium players or what people would say that they’re first-round picks, I just know that when you go, and you evaluate other teams, and you get ready to play for them, there’s a bunch of fourth and fifth-round tight ends that end up starting and playing and contributing. So wherever that value is, I just think that there’s some names there. And myself personally, I have to do a better job of evaluating that position that I can then give input to the rest of the personnel staff and kind of the vision that we have for that position. I think we’ve met with a bunch of edge players. There’s depth there. So we’ll continue to work our way across the board and enjoy these meetings. And I’ll have to go back and continue to watch.”
On the rookie class and if it set them for the next couple of years:
“Well, I think every year is different, and so we’ll have to have a really good rookie class next year. We hope that the players that we drafted, the ones that played a lot, the ones that played 50 or 60% of the play time, are the ones that maybe didn’t play as much, that they all need to develop. They need to continue to grow and develop not only physically, but in our program, mentally and emotionally, and become more that foundation that we talked about. Playing and winning 17 games as a rookie is only good if you can continue to improve and use those experiences to your benefit that would then help the team.”
On if he talked to Arthur Smith during his hiring process, and his thoughts on him going to Ohio State:
“Arthur is a friend, so I talk to him often. I got a lot of respect for him as a coach, but not only that, as a person, as a friend. For all the Ohio State fans, I guess we have somebody to complain to if they don’t score 50 points a game like every other Buckeye fan does. I’m excited for him to be in Columbus. Obviously, that place means a lot to me personally and my family. Having gone there and lived there and support him.”
On his reaction to the competition committee and the lack of staffing when it comes to league officiating for prime time games:
Well, we should never have a reason for volume and staff. We need to evaluate staffing at that level to find out and make sure that every game is treated the same, whether it’s the primetime game on Sunday night, it’s the primetime game on Monday or Thursday, or those one o’clock games that is the lifeblood of our league. I think that if we need to figure out what staffing issues that need to be taken care of so that those things are looked at and we’re not letting anything slip, we need to be really good in replay. There’s going to be mistakes on the field, just like there’s mistakes in execution by the players, mistakes by the coaches. There’s going to be mistakes by the officials. There are. They need to be decisive. They need to believe in what they’re calling. But saying that there’s going to be mistakes. We have to get to a system in replay that is close to 100% accurate as possible.”
On his thoughts on John Harbaugh:
“Well, again, I’ve never played for him. I’ve never coached with him. I would say just his record speaks for itself. I have a lot of respect for what he’s done. I don’t have his secret sauce. I wish I did, and to be able to do it at one place for 18 years. But I know that his teams, they’re physical, they’re sound, they play great defense, they force you into mistakes. But other than that, I’m only looking at it from being against them.”
On what advice he would give for a first-time head coach:
Just know that you’re going to make some mistakes. Hopefully, don’t make too many of them. You don’t want to make the same mistakes twice. It’s important to be around the building. It’s important to make sure everybody in the organization knows that their job is critical to our success.”
[Inaudible – On if he remembers any mistakes … ]
“No, I’m sure I made a bunch of them.”
[Inaudible – on his relationship with AJ Brown:]
“I think the relationship with players, and specifically, you asked about AJ, has meant a lot. I’ve watched him grow. I’ve watched him mature. I’m proud of him . I’m proud the father that he is, I’m proud of the husband, and that has nothing to do with where he plays or where he played. Those are the things that are important. We reach out and text each other during the things that happened good to each other, and sometimes things don’t go so well for the people that you’re close with, and you text those as well. It’s a two-way street of support and reminders of what got us to where we are here today.”
On the interviews at the Combine and how much he can get out of a 15 minute interview:
“Get as much as you guys can get, I guess. It’s about the same time. It depends what questions you ask. You get 18 minutes, some teams go over, and then they come rushing in, and then the next team’s late. So that’s the process. It’s how long you can keep them past 18 minutes for the person that’s taking them to the other room, standing outside the room, banging on it. But some guys have a lot to talk about, some guys have … not as much. I think everybody has a story, everybody has a journey. Some players have a little bit more in their journey that you have to unpack. Sometimes you have to do… There’s obviously follow-up, and this is a good first setting with 45 players.”
On how he would describe what the Patriots’ approach will be in free agency:
“Well, I don’t want to tell you what it is because we’re still working through it. We want to have a plan, and we want to bring in really talented players that we have a vision for, that we also believe in the type of character that they have as we build this team and improve on what we did this year. We know how difficult that will be. So right now, the plan is to evaluate everybody that we can, have communication and conversations. When those times come with the agents, we approach the tampering window. But right now, it’s about gaining information from our scouting department and having our coaches look at it and then figuring out a few players at each position that may help us.”
On if he’d prefer to go into that process with more cap space:
“I’ve never really tried to get focused… If I shop at Niemann Marcus or Nordstrom or something, I’ve gotten to the point now in my life where if I want something, I can usually buy it. I’m sure Richard Miller and Eliot, and Matt Groh will work and do everything that they can to help us sign the players within certain exceptions. I haven’t even gotten that far. If you like something, you usually just try to buy it.”
On his thoughts on his quarterback being on a rookie contract and his approach to spending:
“Well, I think there’s always time to be aggressive but not reckless. We certainly understand what premium quarterbacks cost in this league and where they get to and what they should be compensated. We’ll do our best to build and continue to build a roster worthy of competing for a championship.”
[Inaudible – On the Super Bowl loss as a coach and if it affects his view of the team]
“Again, I’ve tried to say that this is a terrible ending to a pretty fantastic season, one that I enjoyed probably as much as any other season that I’ve been a part of, just from building it and enjoying coming to work and the relationships and bringing together people that were there in place and people that we brought in new and players that were there and staff that was there, and then also adding to that and knowing how delicate that can be. I enjoyed all that. So didn’t enjoy losing. Certainly not that game. And then there’s work to do. We’re already back at the combine, and this thing is rolling, and players will come in on April 20th. And again, we’ll have to have a program in place that’s modified from the one they just went through, and however modifications that we make to that.
On after such a successful season, if part of his job is to manage expectations:
“I think expectations should always be high. They were high when we started this thing just a little over a year ago. We’ll look at the schedule, see where we go, see when we go to Seattle, see when we go to LA. Just everything’s a different challenge, but that’s a little far out. I think right now it’s about, from a coaching standpoint, what we did well, how we can enhance it, the new ideas. We have to have fresh ideas to what we’re doing in all three phases. That’s been my direction to the staff is to go through and focus on what we can do to enhance the core concepts. But also I need to see some new ideas that maybe forces us to push ourselves in a different direction. And not a wholesale change, but things that we feel like can help us, but that are also new.”
On Arthur Smith and what makes him a good offensive coordinator:
“I think Arthur’s got a physicality to him, a toughness to him that he wants to put on to the football field offensively. He’s creative enough. He’s worked with a number of different players, that I think they enjoy some of the wrinkles that he has. I think he’s got some core concepts that he enjoys. He’s always been an aggressive play caller.”
On what he needs to know going from the professional level to the college level:
“My first job was at Ohio State. I didn’t know anything, so I’m certainly not going to tell him, give him any advice. I think what he does is going to be plenty. That’s to put the players first, make connections with them, do what the players do best.”
[Inaudible – on the player interviews here:]
“It really changes, each and every interview for me. I kind of sit there and listen for a little bit, and just try to go in any direction and try to chime in where I can. But I don’t have a set list of questions. I’m one of those reporters, Karen [Gurgeian], that kind of goes with the flow. I feed off their answer, then I go, I don’t have a list. You guys, you come up and you have a list of questions that you have to ask me. I ask questions based off the answers I get.
On if there’s anything he’s looking for:
“Just trying to be authentic and open up about, again, things that have happened, and their growth, their maturity, things that they need, that they feel like they need to be successful, from support people or coaching and where they feel like their development is. We don’t spend a bunch of time on Xs and O’s in 18 minutes. We don’t. We’ll have an opportunity to do that down the line.”
On how he balanced his preparation for free agency and the combine here these last two weeks:
Just try to look at it. I really haven’t looked at much of the draft guys, personally, outside of what we looked at briefly in Foxborough before we came, but try to look at the free agents, try to understand while we’re here who these players are. A lot of these guys I meet and really are excited to look at their film just based on their energy and just how they presented themselves and the passion in which they spoke. I’m excited to go and watch them.”
On when he’s evaluating edge rushers, what he’s looking for:
“Well, I think that there’s got to be a violence. There’s got to be ability to move off the football and to create some sort of disruption. You have to be able to factor in on the quarterback. You have to be able to make plays on the football. We know the quarterback is responsible for the most turnovers in football. So can they affect the quarterback? And then the ability to set the edge, rush, and have enough coverage, accumen that the few times we ask them to do it, that they can do it.”
[Inaudible: On how he’d describe the balance with his staff:]
“It’s probably gotten better. You know what I mean? Again, I just want to make sure that our staff has time with their families in the offseason. I tell them all the time, if there’s stuff that they need to do in the offseason, now is the time to do it. Don’t miss something and blame me because that’s not accurate. If they tell their wife or they tell their kid, ‘Hey, I couldn’t come because Coach Vrabel said, ‘No,” that’s a lie. I want them to be able to do those things. We put a lot of work in. It was a long season, and we were excited to work as long as we did. But you have to be able to get away. You have to be able to spend time with people that care about you. They went on this journey with us, too, that lasted until February. They were wearing it, too. Their anxiety, their nerves, all their feelings that we had, they had as well.”
On edge rusher and where the line is between being violent and overly aggressive:
“Well, I don’t think that that’s… You’re probably talking about two different things. I think your actions and the style of play has to always mirror with what we’re doing as a defense. But we don’t want to take away their ability to make a play. If the tackle oversets, come inside. Know who the quarterback is. If a lineman maybe reaches you too much and you can come under and you can create a play in the backfield, those are things we want them to do. We don’t want to coach robots. That’s not going to get it done. But we can’t have guys that are just doing their own thing with a mobile quarterback in a certain coverage, and then now we give up an X-Play, or just making sure that everybody’s on the same page is the most important thing.”
On the fact that Roger Goodell has talked about diversity in coaching, and the fact it doesn’t appear to be an issue on his staff and what he’s done to cast a wider net:
“Well, the thing for me that’s really critical is the diversity of ideas and backgrounds of race allows us to make sure that every one of the 90 players that we have or 91 players that we’ll take to camp, doesn’t fall through any crack. That if they need something, if they need some extra teaching, if they need something off the field, whether it’s, whoever it is, that one of those players doesn’t fall through the cracks. That’s really important to me. We want the best coaches and we want the best people, but the diversity of ideas, backgrounds, and race is critical because our players are coming from… We’re getting players from everywhere, across the country, and even, we’ll add an international player as well. So thank you.”
[Inaudible]
“Briefly, they talked about the idea and how we have to, as a league, prepare and what we need to do, just like on our football team and everybody else’s football team, that they’re preparing for things that may come up. Some of those things don’t end up happening, but we always have to have a plan and be prepared for anything that could come up, especially one that we’re aware of, which is in a negotiation.”
On the depth at tight end and all the different body types and skillsets at that position, if there’s any non-negotiables, regardless of role, he looks for:
“Well, I mean, again, there’s going to be different styles of tight-end. Right? Ones that are going to be maybe better pass catchers and harder, tougher matchups for defenses. There’s going to be guys that are more suited at the line of scrimmage. There’s going to be guys that are suited to more movement blocks. You see these, as I talk about it, being able to create some movement before the snap going laterally that then could transition into getting in the line of scrimmage. So you see these tight-end blocks that are changing and evolving, and we have to be conscious of who we have and how we need to run the football and ideas that we can give them.”
[Inaudible – on the ideas he talked about and where he encourages them to look for them]
“At all levels of football, and whether that’s in the collegiate level, at all different levels, around the league, very few coaches come up with their own ideas. I’ll tell you that. Everybody wants to be a guru, but you look around, and a lot of these things look the same, and, there’s a lot of good ideas. I think I tell them it’s only crazy if it doesn’t work.”
(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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