TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Press Conference 8/1

Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference on August 1, 2026:

On what he’s liked from what he’s seen for the first two practices:

“Well, I thought that we are figuring out how to practice. And again, it’s … The offense – the Patriots won’t always have a good play. You know what I mean? It’s going to be the offense will have a good play or the defense will have a good play. And we fight that battle. What we have to be able to do is, when one side of the ball makes a play or makes a few plays or creates a little bit of momentum, it’s how do we react? How do we come back and respond just like we would have to do in a game? We find ourselves in those moments a lot of times throughout the game, and it’s always a good way, and that’s why we try to practice the way we do. So I think it’s been a good start. We’ve gotten good red zone work. We’ve been able to do some third down. Today will be essentially, a ‘call it’ there’s no script, so the players won’t have what the play is or what the situation is, which we always like to do here and give them an opportunity to go play, get into a little bit of rhythm, get into a little bit of conditioning, create a drive.

“You know, if it’s a 3-and-out, I’ll just make it first down. You just bear with me. Players will probably start to, oh, that was a sack, and now why is it not 3rd-and-15? Why is it 3rd-and-7? And so we just do all those things and I think they understand that that’s really good for the football team. So I’m excited to do that today.”

On the fact that in order to sustain success, he needs good leadership and a guy like Hunter Henry, he sees it every day – seemingly with passion and joy in what he does – how important that is:

“Hunter, obviously we’ve talked about his consistency and production and a few good days. And I think Thomas has done a good job with him to be able to get him exactly what he needs and continue that connection with Drake, continue to find ways to have him help us, whether that be on third down or in the red zone like he showed up yesterday. So I appreciate his consistency, and I think he’s been really good for all those tight ends in there. And Jack, and I saw him go to Jack yesterday after a few plays in the red zone and congratulate him on a block or whatever it was. And helping Eli and Tanner and all the tight ends. And I know CJ, and obviously Reggie is in that room and helps with leadership as well.”

On the consistency and leadership on the other side of the ball, and if he can extend that maybe to Robert [Spillane], given the fact he’s been with him for such a long time and he’s been really one of the steadiest defenders they have had:

“Yeah, I mean, we have a group of guys, and again, we’ve always said there’s no restrictions on leadership, whether that’s Craig Woodson or Kevin Byard. And looking at the age difference in those players or Robert shows up every morning with a great attitude. I think that’s why you practice, and that’s what we talk about: building a team. And you’re going to find guys that have different leadership styles and guys respond differently. And it’s our job as coaches and leaders to find ways to get the best out of everybody.

On if there’s an expectation for someone like Hunter as he’s talking about him helping the younger players? I mean, there’s a huge age difference there and experience….

“I’ve never said, ‘Hey, …. ‘ I mean, I think it just kind of happens. Right? And I think the guys that usually end up doing it are the ones that should end up doing it. And you don’t have to really say anything. I’m sure there’s been cases in however long I’ve tried to do this that maybe had to say something, but very rarely. I mean, I think the guys that are supposed to be doing that and having that role do it.”

On what’s impressed him about Tanner Arkin so far:

“Well, I mean, just the learning each and every day. The competitive spirit. You know what I mean? Going against Dre and Elijah and trying to block and be consistent and try to be physical. He’s learned what to do quickly. I think sometimes young players, when things start to pile on, they can kind of slow down because they’re thinking a little bit, and I haven’t seen that. So hopefully that continues.”

On the fact they signed Julian Hill, a real veteran player to kind of fill the role that he envisioned there. Now that he’s gone down, if he thinks a youngster can kind of handle that role, or if he still sees it as unsettled:

“Well, I mean, I think that those guys are the ones that have the first crack at it. And I mean, that’s who’s going to be out there today, and we’ll keep looking and seeing what’s available, who’s available, who we feel like could help us. And we’re a long time before the start of the season, but you want to be able to put those guys in a position to try to earn a role and then determine after that which direction we think is best for us to head.”

On with Carlton Davis, we haven’t seen him out there a few days, if he anticipates that being like a longer-term thing or—

“Timelines are tough for me, Soph [Sophie Weller] I know he’s working hard to get back. We’ll have Gabe [Jacas] back today. We’ll get Gabe back today, get that out on social here, guys. I’ll give you a minute there to get you guys’ stuff on there. Be out there in a limited role. We’ve talked to you about the return-to-play protocol that we have, and so now he gets handed over to the coaches, and that’ll be in a limited role.”

“He won’t be involved in the team reps, but hopefully Monday that we’ll see him back out there. There’ll be some other guys that on our third day here of full pads that will probably be limited or won’t be out there as much. I think ABT would be one of those guys. I think Marcus [Jones], I would say, won’t handle his full— Marcus Jones and Gonzo [Christian Gonzalez] probably won’t handle their full rep responsibility, just so that you understand that. Mondre [Rhamondre Stevenson] would be one of those guys. I think Morgan [Moses] will come out for team. I think, again, I’m just giving you a heads up so there’s no surprises. Just trying to have a plan for everybody and try to finish this third day off really good and like we always talk about, whether those guys are out there or not, that provides opportunities for other players. And we’ve seen guys do well with those opportunities that they’ve been given.”

On what he’s learned about Gabe since he’s been in the building:

“Well, he loves football. He’s been itching to get back. He texts me all the— texts me late at night, hey, am I going to practice tomorrow? I’m like, ‘No, just like I told you at 6:30 last night or tonight that you weren’t going to practice tomorrow. You don’t have to text me at 10 and ask again. The answer is still no, not yet.’ And you want that. You want guys that are looking for ways in as opposed to looking for ways out. And I think he just wants to get out there and get acclimated and be with his teammates. That’s all he wants to do. He just wants to play football.”

On what he’s seen from Behren Morton in his development:

“Well, I mean, I think he’s got a live arm. I think that he learns quickly. I think he’s been able to operate that third group and get those guys going and build a connection with some of the young receivers and their opportunities. They’ll get some opportunities again today to go out there and we’ll see how he responds without a script and not necessarily knowing what play’s coming.”

On the fact it seems like Behren’s getting more opportunities than maybe the third-string quarterback last year. Just curious what goes into giving up those quarterback reps:

“Well, time that we have and what kind of receivers that we have in that group and I just— I think that’s an interesting question. It’s how do you develop a young quarterback? Again, we have time limits here the first couple days of camp, an hour and a half practice, and you have to figure out what the football team needs, or then it goes to an hour and 45. And so those are some things I think about when I’m trying to figure out who gets the reps. But I also want to give those guys a chance to put tape on there. They’ve been in the meetings. They’ve been doing individual drills. And so I think it’s just a balance. It’s just trying to find a balance of how much does Tommy [DeVito] need as the backup and how much does Behren need as a young player that we’re excited about and developing, and then be able to at some point put him in a competition for that job. So I think it’s just a balance. And then we have to, as coaches, we have to provide opportunities for Behren to go and develop into a quarterback in the NFL.”

On whether there has been any progress made with Christian [Gonzalez] in this contract negotiation:

“Listen, we’ve talked about this contract. It’ll either get done, and when it gets done, that’ll be the progress that’s made. Everybody that’s involved is working hard. Can’t express the professionalism that Gonzo has started camp with. It’s clear that he wants to improve. He wants to be the best at his craft and at that position. I think that he’s made that known by the way he’s come out here to practice.”

On if they have a policy that they won’t negotiate with players who aren’t practicing:

“I think we just want to have a policy that we want to re-sign players that we draft or that we covet that we feel like can help us win. That’s our goal. We want to draft really good players and good people, develop them, have them play for us, re-sign them, build a team with them. And so there’s a lot of – whatever policies there are – I think that a lot of things is a case-by-case basis. I just— again, I’ve talked about his professionalism and the way that he’s started camp and how he’s practiced. And always you want your best players to show that on the football field.”

On the process when he’s deciding Elijah [Ponder] and Christian [Gonzalez] and Marcus [Jones], different players and how to manage their workload, if there’s anything different about that process, either in terms of what he’s considering or how that—

“It’s just, it’s a lot of communication. And again, sometimes the player – you hope that you know the player well enough that they can give you some honest feedback. And I have to weigh what I think is best for them and what everybody needs to be ready, and if there is soreness or fatigue or we try to use whatever the analytics is of the GPS and the tracking and the load management, but also try to understand what they need through the football season. I think our coaches also do a good job of trying to manage some of those guys and the reps that they specifically need at practice. So I think it starts with really good communication between Jim and Frank and me and Eliot and Ryan and Stretch and everybody here and then also with the player.

On the fact we’ve seen the guys use tempo after some big plays. Of course, there’s some element during hurry-up or end-of-half situations, and if there are there any other ways that he can use tempo to kind of put the defense on the back foot:

“Well, I think I’ve tried to do the old tempo period where it’s like announcing when there’s a fire drill. It’s not really much of a drill if you know that it’s coming. So, we’ve tried to just build those things into practice, and I think it works a little better when there’s a play that’s 8 or 10 yards the way it works in practice. If it’s no gain, it’s hard to recreate that. Again, we don’t want to just go fast to go fast. We want to try to figure out if that’s something that can help us. And if it is, great. And also help the defense. I’ve been making a big point about not subbing until you see we huddle. If the guy steps across the line and we try to go on the ball, they’re going to stand over. It’s all these little things that we can we can teach the offensive players and making sure that the defense is getting back and getting set. Are they going to snap the ball fast or can we have to be lined up or are they going to just try to see what we’re in?”

“You know, so we try to talk to everybody involved. Like, you kind of have to figure out what kind of tempo it is and adjust and disguise accordingly. So I think we’ll see when there’s opportunities to do that. We haven’t really got into the 2-minute at the end of the half or the 2-minute. That’ll be the next kind of situation that goes in. Just trying to build those opportunities through practice the best that we can. So the players don’t know that it’s coming and the offense can get to the line of scrimmage in a timely fashion.”

(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.)

About Ian Logue

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.

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