Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference ahead of the start of the 2026 Patriots Training Camp at Gillette Stadium:
Opening Statement:
“Welcome everybody. It’s good to see you guys. Something that we did last year, obviously the first day of training camp was the ‘Pawriots Program’ that Dana Kraft implemented last year and was really successful. Did a lot of really good work, not only for these dogs, but for the families that adopted them. So I think we’ve almost got 60 dogs this year, and so if anybody’s looking to add to their roster at home, we would love for you to be able to adopt these dogs tomorrow. I think some of them are already spoken for. Me and Bibi [the puppy] are making quick friends here. German Shepherd mix, so been working with her all year. She’s going to try to protect me if anybody gets out of control. So we’re going to let her roam around. We’ll see how she does on this podium here. She’s nervous.”
On if he can tell us if Gabe Jacas has reported and kind of give us an update on where things stand with him:
“Well, continuing to work through the contract. I think that those have been positive, obviously, between the club and his representative. And, hopefully, we’ll get him in here sooner rather than later. We’re not going to put a timeline on it or a timeframe. But, spoken to Gabe personally. And again, excited to get him in when he’s under contract.”
On if he has any sense of where he’s at physically based on … ?
“I mean, I can only, go by what he says. And so when he gets here, we’ll evaluate that. Of course, be as smart as we can and as possible just to see because we haven’t seen him with us. But I would say that I’ll use the word cautiously optimistic. But again, those conversations have been great and excited to see where he’s at.”
On what the issue is: ‘He’s the last positional player to sign. These deals aren’t complicated. There’s guaranteed money, laid out in the slot before him, the slot after him. Are you guys balking on guaranteeing some of the money?’
“Again, these are contractual issues that come up. You laid out a lot of things that occur throughout those rookie contracts, but every contract is unique. Every contract is different and it’ll get resolved. I’m positive that it will.”
On if he expected it to be a drawn-out process:
“We try not to have a whole lot of expectations, and every contract is different and whether that’s with a player on our team, with a free agent, or somebody that we draft or a player that we bring in after the draft. So, there’s a negotiation until they have a contract, and we’re working through that.”
On if he suffered some kind of injury between the last time he saw him before the draft and the draft itself:
“We’re not going to get into the injuries. I mentioned that Gabe had, a surgery to take care of some things. And that’s, that’s where we’re at. And again, like Mike said, we’re going to evaluate him when he gets here. And, I know that Jim and Frank have been in contact with him throughout the summer.”
On the fact they have C.J. [Dippre] on PUP, and Terrell [Jennings] on NFI, and how else is attendance:
“Yeah, everybody’s reported. Yeah, everybody reported. Brendan Schooler will go on active NFI. So he may be, away for a little bit or out for a little bit. Those players on PUP and NFI can be involved in the meetings and then do their rehab and return to play with the trainers. And then when they’re ready to get on the practice field and practice with the team, they will. Run tests went well. Nothing really to report there. Which is probably the best thing to say is that there were no issues and, looking forward to getting started tomorrow.”
On how he feels about the edge given the situation with Gabe [Jacas] and also Harold [Landry]?
“Same way I felt about it in the spring. I think we’ve got a lot of guys that we’re going to take advantage of the opportunity, that they’re going to earn reps and continue to improve. Some young guys that we had on the roster last year and some players that we’ve added in in free agency.”
On where things stand with Christian Gonzalez, and if he expects him to be here and a full participant tomorrow:
“I would expect him to be here. He is here and I would expect him to participate. And so, those contract negotiations are ongoing between the club and his agents. And, I’m excited about having Christian back here with us and the impact that he can make on our football team. And really enjoy the person, enjoy the player. And that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
On his eligibility to be able to sign a new contract, if he’s waiting on things that are outside of his control, i.e., Devin Witherspoon’s waiting for a contract in Seattle:
“No, I don’t think those things … I mean, again, I don’t think they have anything to do with one another. We’re not negotiating with the Seahawks. We’re negotiating with Christian’s representatives. And I don’t think that there’s anything different than just our communication with them.”
On when Gabe does sign his contract, if he knows if he’s going to be ready – recovered from whatever he had, if he’s going to be ready to go, and if he knows how ready he is to play football:
“Again, I would be speculating. So until I see the player, just like I saw these players that came back from the time away from minicamp, I think until he’s here, and I think we admittedly will be somewhat cautious just because it’s a unique situation. And I think that that’s what we’ve called this, not being here in the offseason. And when he is here, then we’ll evaluate him physically and make sure that he’s ready to practice football and to make sure that he’s good mentally.”
On if he expects him to participate more than he did during minicamp:
“Yeah. We’re getting ready to, prepare to win. And that’s what this is going to take through training camp. We talked about this last year. Earning a role, building a team, and preparing to win. And players have an opportunity to earn a role. Coaches are going to be there to help them. We all have to build a team, and I have to do my best to prepare us to win by our situations and the way we practice throughout the training camp.”
On the fact we didn’t see much of Morgan [Moses] over the course of the summer— or the course of spring – Where is he at right now physically?
“Good. Great. I mean, he ran every— all the conditioning tests and Morgan’s played a lot of football and Morgan’s going to be one of those players that’s going to have a unique plan. We’ll have to figure out what that is. And, I’ve been hesitant to just say, ‘Hey, you’re going to go on these days, you’re not going to go on these days.’ I’d like to kind of see how they respond and really what he needs. And Morgan’s at a point where it may just be individual one day, or it may just be the team reps one day, or it may be nothing one day. And so you guys, I think, have learned that through the course of last year’s training camp, that everybody’s going to have a plan and you have to trust that they’re all working. That’s my responsibility to make sure that everybody’s doing something each and every day that, that helps the football team, whether you see them or you don’t. And there’ll be other players like that as well. But what that does do is it gives other young players opportunities to get reps, maybe from the third team to the second team or the second team to the first team. But judging by his appearance today, and again, that was a lot of that was between Morgan and I, and that our conversations led to where he was in the offseason.”
On the wide receiver room, what he’s looking for throughout camp from those guys and what he’s looking for them to stand out:
“I would say, obviously the same thing, as we always talk about. There has to be a level of versatility. The way that you play the game at receiver, there’s a lot of different skill sets, a lot of different play styles. DeAndre Hopkins is here with us kind of in a ‘just to kind of check things out’ as far as what he wants to do as far as coaching. And you’ll see him on the field and whether that’s personnel. And so I use him as an example because he wasn’t the fastest receiver, but he had an unbelievable play style and a play strength and a route craft that allowed him to succeed. And so each player at that position has to kind of find out what it is that they do well. Kyle Williams is a much different receiver than Mack Hollins, or AJ [Brown] is a much different receiver than Pop [Douglas]. And then our job is to make sure that we’re putting the best players and the ones that can help us win in the right spots and the right personnel group. So I’m excited about the group. I said this last year, Todd [Downing] did a great job coming in and coaching that group last year. And it was the reason that we had a lot of success was because of that group and our quarterback play and everything else. So that has to continue to improve. It has to be better than what it was last year.”
On how the situation with Hopkins came about:
“He asked if he could come hang out for a couple of days and be around the coaches and be around the personnel department. And I called the league and made sure that that was going to be okay. And then I invited him back, and that’s where he’s been the last couple of days, and he’ll be here for the next couple of days.”
On, just to be totally clear on that, that’s in like a coaching personnel capacity, not interested in trying out to be a player on the team?
“Tried to say it as clearly as I could twice, and I can say it for a third time, but he has coaching gear on, and he is helping out the offensive coaches and meeting with our personnel guys and just trying to find— I mean, he loves football. People that love football and have played the game for the length of time that he did want to explore the opportunities and what that looks like after his playing career is over.”
On the fact last year during training camp, he was taking over a team that hadn’t won many games, he was establishing a new culture. This year he’s now in his second year and coming off a Super Bowl, and how different is his messaging and just the tenor of training camp:
“I don’t think the messaging will be much different. I think that it’s got to be consistent. We have to be able to build each and every year. We have to start over and figure out the things that we do well and what we like and what the players have confidence in. And we have to be able to push the envelope on some things that we weren’t very good at last year and how we improve and how we build. So that starts over each and every training camp. And I think that to try to make it as simple as I can, you talk about earning a role, building a team, the camaraderie, spend a lot of time together, prepare for the journey and then be able to prepare to win and different situations that will come up throughout the season. And then we’ll start tomorrow with, first and second down, and then we’ll continue to build and add on as we go through training camp.”
On Hunter Henry, and if he’s someone he’d like to see the team extend:
“Yeah, I love being around Hunter. I mean, I talked about his consistency and his production. And, again, we’re not going to go down the road of talking about contracts. The other guys that you mentioned. So we’re not going to start there, but the more that I can be around Hunter Henry, the better, because he’s been a great football player. He’s a great leader for us, a very consistent player.”
On how much he enjoys tomorrow, renewing and getting everybody together:
“Just being around the guys, it was fun to be around the younger guys for a few days. It was fun to get the coaching staff back together. But now, we’ve got the bulk of the team that will be out there tomorrow, and that pace and the urgency has to look much different than it did in the spring. And I’m confident that it will. And again, all those things that Ben [Volin] alluded to about, we learned how to win and but the journey that we’re getting ready to go on is going to be – it’s not always going to be smooth sailing. It’s, would love to say we’re going to win 10 games in a row. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but there’s going to be things on the field that we’re going to have to deal with. There’s going to be things off the field, personally, professionally. And that’s what we do. And we’re going to start tomorrow by building and then teaching and then going out the next day and making sure that we get it fixed.”
On the fact there’s been a lot of discussion about playing on turf and playing on grass and what his take is on that:
“My take is we play anywhere we possibly have to. That’s my take. It’s the kind of football team that I want to create. One that doesn’t make excuses, that doesn’t care what the environment is. We’re going to go open the season in a great environment in Seattle, and we’re going to play on grass, we’re going to play on turf. It’s going to rain, it’s going to snow. There’s a lot of things that are going to come up. And my job is to make sure that we’re prepared for whatever does happen.”
On the fact there’s a level of excitement around the fans because of all the success last year. And if there’s a different feeling or an excitement about this camp because of that success and trying to achieve the ultimate goal this year of winning the Super Bowl:
“I was just excited as last year and whenever I got to coach. I mean, this is a— everybody’s undefeated. That’s what I tell our fans when they ask, ‘How’s the team look?’ It looks undefeated, just like every other team in the National Football League. And now we all get an opportunity to build our teams, to strengthen our rosters, to improve our players, to develop the players that need to be developed, and then continue to try to prepare to win.”
“Thanks, guys. See you tomorrow.”
(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.
