Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference on Wednesday, June 10th, 2026.
On what he’s seen from the Drake [Maye] and A.J. Brown connection:
“I mean, again, I think that – they found each other a couple times yesterday in the red zone. And I think that’s a work in progress. I think that’s just how it goes from having a player come in, that I think that connection is critical to rely on. A quarterback and receiver have to be on the same page. Practice is critical. The reps are critical. They’re— I think sometimes when you get players that have had success in this league and they come onto your team, you get an opportunity to learn maybe what’s worked for them and what they’ve been able to pick up over the years of doing it. And so there’s some professional initiative. I think we have that in every facet of our program. When the players go out there, whether it’s, Kevin Byard or Draymond Jones, and say, ‘Can we do it this way?’ ‘Yeah, sure. As long as we’re all on the same page.’ And so I think that’ll happen with Drake and A.J. as well, that there’ll be some things that maybe he’s done before that he likes, and there’ll be things that we’ll add new to him.”
On how much does it help in year 2 with him and his staff, and many of the players returning for minicamp like this:
“Well, we’ve— what you guys have seen is really what we’ve done. It’s just a little bit, maybe a few extra, maybe an hour and a half longer day. But that’s what a normal OTA looks like, an OTA practice. It’s just, we’ve got to get them out of here in a certain time. And so we have a little bit more time for meetings and a walkthrough. But that’s kind of what it’s looked like. And I think that that’s, to your point, it’s probably looked better in the spring. That doesn’t mean a whole lot other than that maybe that they understand how we need to practice or how— what we want to do and how we – the urgency and tempo in which we practice and all those habits that we try to create that are positive now. To that point, today will probably look a little different. Probably won’t be as much speed stuff, but we’ll come back and get that same speed that we had yesterday further down in the red zone tomorrow. So it’ll look a little different today just by design as far as the pace that you’ll see. But I guess to your point, I was happy with whatever pace we had yesterday.”
On Morgan Moses, we saw him leave OTs early last week and then wasn’t out there yesterday, and if he’s dealing with an injury or is this more of like just kind of veteran rest:
“Yeah, it was just managing Morgan and excited that he’s so committed to our football team and the people here. Just a positive addition last year, and he’ll have a plan through training camp. It’s a long season. He was important to us. He’ll be very important to us going forward. So just trying to make sure that we manage him and figure every rep now is probably one less that he may take in the season. So, want to try to get him to a point where he’s ready to go. Give each guy exactly what they need, and everybody will have a plan.”
On how has Lomu adjusted to being on the right side:
“You know, I think that he— again, he’s getting a lot of reps. I love the versatility. I think when you get a young player, the willingness to learn and just kind of adapt and adjust, there hasn’t been, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so used to this.’ I think it’s all new to him. So, his flexibility and versatility has been something that I think has stood out, learns quickly, usually doesn’t make the same mistake twice. And it is different. So the guys that you’re trying to put in different places and say, ‘You got to get as much reps on the left as you do on the right, that’s important.’ And so he’s done a nice job of that.”
On as a player and a coach, how important the mental aspect of this game is, and how good is this group now in its second year of absorbing what he teaches them in the classroom and translating it to what they do on the field:
“Well, I mean, I think there’s always going to be mistakes. I think our job is to coach and correct mistakes and find ways to teach them. The things that are non-negotiable are just the way that we play, and our style, and the conditioning, and our ability to finish consistently when you do make a mistake. And some of the most instinctive players that I’ve been around have been able to do that. They’ve been able to make a mistake early on in the play formationally, but get it fixed, get it adjusted, run the wrong route, block the wrong guy, but still find a way to salvage the play. So those are the things that we’re working on. We can coach mistakes and we can correct them. We just can’t make too many of the same mistakes.”
On if he’d like to add a tight end after Julian [Hill]’s injury:
“Yeah, I think that’s— just from a numbers standpoint in camp, I think that’s somewhere we’ll probably have to evaluate the numbers. There’s 90 guys, 91 guys on every team. So we’ll just have to take a look at that. But I would say that that’s probably somewhere where we would have to address.”
On what his impressions of Eli Raridon have been so far:
“Willing, conscientious, wants to learn. I think there’s a lot of new things that coming from college, and terminology is different and there’s a lot of things that are new to him. But I would say that he picks things up quickly and when he’s able to play with the speed that he has available to him in his body, that’s kind of showed out. And then with a lot of these young guys, just the terminology, the routes, the coverage, just try to eliminate and allow them to play as fast as possible. So in the spring it’s like, ‘hey, let’s try to play out of control, let’s play too fast. And then if you make a mistake, like, that’s fine, but we got to start training that play speed so that when we do grasp everything really well, the play speed is there. You know, it’s not something that we should learn what to do and to go slow. We have to play at a play speed that we’re going to need in the games and the ability to to separate or get open.’ And so that’s just been a focus that we’ve tried to ask him to do is, as you learn, is play a little faster and if you make mistakes, we’ll coach them. But we have to play with a certain speed.
On what he’s seen from Carlton Davis going into his second year with this team:
“Well, I mean, CD’s a great teammate. He’s a competitive player. As you continue to gain years in this league, you have to continue to find especially at those speed positions, you have to find some different pitches. You have to find some minor adjustments and tweaks. And I know that he’s continuing to focus on that and do that. But he was a competitive player. He’s a competitive person. And excited to have him back.”
On how he envisions Shane Bowen contributing to the staff:
“Well, Shane’s got a lot of experience in how we do things. He’s been very valuable to me personally going back to Houston – excuse me – going back to Ohio State. And we learned how to coach together. And that’s the thing I’ll always appreciate about Shane is that we learned how to coach. And I’m proud of what he’s done in this league and excited about him being here and helping us. He just assists the defense and helps some of the young guys. Excited about Kevin Richardson and B.J. Edmonds, who those are younger coaches on our staff, that those guys can go to Shane and ask him and rely on him to fill in the gaps maybe while some of the other coaches have something going on or they’re meeting with players. But I think just having another guy that’s called plays in this league and has game planned and will be able to provide assistance to offensively, but I think it’ll help us.”
On understanding the attention and maybe gravity that A.J. [Brown] brings at receiver, how much of the playbook has been adjusted for that since he got here:
“I think we’re probably a little early for that. I think that the adjustments can come. It’s been a couple days, you know what I mean? It’s been maybe a week. So I think it’s learning what we do, the formations. There’s so many different formations, personnel groups. I think we have to get that down first before we start going on to adjustments and ‘What are we going to do?’ But that’ll all be part of it.”
On the wide receiver room, they have a lot of young wide receivers and what is it that he’s looking for in these practices to maybe earn a spot on the roster:
“Well, I mean, it’s always being ready for your opportunity. But again, watching and seeing Kyle [William]’s development and Chiz [Efton Chism] taking advantage of his opportunities, and that’s just one position. Then being able to add the guys that we did in the post-draft. Like I told them yesterday, when we have those different periods and they get extra reps that they have to take advantage of them. When you do a good job and a nice job, you get more opportunity. The more positions that you know, I think certainly would help them. And if they don’t, then they just have to learn the ones that they can. But you just never know in a preseason game or a practice or a scrimmage when that opportunity is going to come. Just like Chiz, maybe last year in some of those preseason games, and what he was able to do. So we try to give them the blueprint and then they can make what they can.”
On if they’d ever consider bringing [Stefon] Diggs back:
“I mean, I think we’ve … probably at the number that we would need right now. I wouldn’t say anything is off the table. We would want to add anybody that could help us. I’m not going to give a percentage on it, but I think we’re happy with where we’re at right now with the numbers and the people in the receiver room. I appreciate Stefon as a person and as a player, and what he did for us last year. I’ll value that. Helped us win football games, helped us get to where we got. But right now, I don’t think that that’s something that I think we’re exploring, but I would never say no.”
On the fact he said yesterday on the defensive side, spring is the time to test different plays before paring things down, and what determines a new idea that survives into the training camp, is that player feed, execution, communication, or some other things:
“Well, I think it’s everything. It’s how it fits and what the players can understand. That’s the most important thing, what they’re comfortable with, what they show you on the field and their ability to handle it, to understand it. You don’t want to get too cute when this game is not about getting cute. It’s about having answers and doing some new things and enhancing some things. But we don’t want to get cute when you add ideas, whether that’s offensively or defensively, on special teams. So I think you start by what the players can handle and take a look at it and see how it gets tested over the course of the spring like we talked about. Or when you get to training camp and you’re starting to see more – closer to live action.”
On since the last time he worked with A.J. Brown, if there’s anything that’s kind of surprised you that he’s added to his game or tweaked at all, or has it kind of been ‘Same old, same old’ with him:
“I mean, I think there’s still savvy that has improved. And he was a younger player when we were together that continued to develop and improve. So I don’t— I mean, maybe there’s a little bit of savvy, but I think he showed up with a great attitude and really I’ve enjoyed watching his interactions with the other players on the team. I think that’s probably the thing that I’m most excited about right now.”
On what’s the biggest difference he’s seen in Elijah Ponder from the Super Bowl to the guy he’s working with now:
“I think maybe confidence of,’ I’m actually here. I’m actually doing this again.’ I didn’t go through the post-draft process, and I know what, you know, I’m comfortable with what the practices are going to be in the meetings. And young players that work hard and have a full offseason to train. Sometimes that’s a great window of opportunity for a guy that’s 22, 23 years old to make some significant improvement in their speed and their strength, the explosion. And so I think hopefully that’s what we’ll see. And I would include Bradyn Swinson. I think those two are kind of in the same category. I think Bradyn has done a nice job of working hard in the offseason and knowing what it is that we’re looking for and what he’s going to need to do to help himself and help our football team. ”
(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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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
