TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Press Conference Transcript 8/7

Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference on Friday, August 7, 2026.

On Romeo Doubs’ absence and if there’s anything that might be longer term:

“Nope, Romeo’s back today. It was a personal thing. If he wants to address it, it’s all very positive, but back and ready to work.”

“And today, I know Stacy [James] mentioned to you a little bit about what the schedule would be, but I’ll just clean it up. We had the second annual blue-white scrimmage. We split the coaching staff up, had a draft. Terrell Williams will be the head coach on the white team. The blue team will be led by Tony Dews.”

“The offensive coordinators for the game will be Todd Downing and Ashton Grant, and then calling defenses will be Scott Booker and Justin Hamilton. And then we split Jeremy Springer and Tom Quinn up. So Stretch [John Streicher] and I will be the officials if there’s any issues there. But then we held a draft and, excited about just getting out there and playing and competing and putting them in the same situations that we’ve been here working through camp.”

On how much of a grind it’s been at this point with some extra padded practices and just kind of like what he saw yesterday and—

“Grind? My body feels the same every day that I wake up. So I don’t know what the grind is for me. I guess you’d have to ask the players. We try to put a good schedule together, one that allows them to get the work in that they need and then try to find a way to recover the best that we can, but also continue on with training camp installation and things that have to get covered this time of year. So, I mean, I think it’s— everybody’s doing the same thing all around the National Football League and in colleges and everything else. So the grind is part of it.”

“I had a coach tell me one time, ‘The grind is going to get to everybody sooner or later. Some guys it’s sooner and some guys it’s later.’ So the grind will get you eventually, but we hope that it doesn’t happen anytime soon.

On the fact we’ve seen Will [Campbell] the last couple days with a brace on his left arm, and if he’s going to be limited in any way, and if it’s going to be a long-term thing:

“I think he’ll be ready to go after the weekend. I don’t know if he’ll participate this morning.”

On Brendan Schooler, if it’s a long-term thing:

“I think it’s hard to tell. I think it’s that we just want to be very cautious with. He’s got such a specific, unique role, and yes, he wants to be involved in defense and use those reps to improve what his number one role is on our football team, which is to be an elite special teams player, which he did last year. You’d see him out there playing safety because he wanted to practice open field tackling and all these things, which is great. And so until he’s back, I don’t think there’s any real reason to push that or force that issue. We want to make sure that he’s healthy. So, still a large part of what we want to do and what we’re planning on doing. I just don’t think there’s any reason to rush him back right now until he’s as close to 100% as he possibly can be.”

On the fact Kyle Williams was an offseason award winner, but what more does he have to do on the field to get more opportunity:

“Again, all these opportunities … and he’ll continue to earn opportunities. I really, really know that Kyle is going to help us. His speed is going to help us. And I don’t want to use this and get this to be overblown, but— and I’m going to use the word ‘scheme’ or ‘speed’ – I mean, he’s got a skill set, right? We’re going to find ways to get him the ball. And it may be outside of just a normal installation place, but that’s my responsibility. That’s Josh’s responsibility. That’s Todd’s responsibility, to put him in those positions where we see the speed that showed up last year. And so I know that he is going to be a large part of what we’re going to do. And those opportunities will continue to come. His release skills, his speed, his vertical speed, those are all things that we have to continue to take advantage of as we progress. And it’s a great room. It’s a good, competitive room. And by competing and getting out there every single day, those will, by nature, increase his opportunities.”

On that room and with the competition, he has 7 fairly established guys. it looks to be a little bit of a crowded room, and if he ever has to consider that the uncertainty facing these guys could just be affecting their daily performance and things like that:

“Well, I think that’s – uncertainty in professional sports, it’s a large part of what you have to deal with. And we ask them and try to help them not to focus on what things that they can’t control. Focus on trying to come in every day, compete, figure out what they need to do to get better, take the coaching from yesterday, not make the same mistakes twice, figure out what their role is, and then usually everything kind of takes care of it after that. This isn’t the first time that that a team’s had good depth at a position. I can go back to when I played here and showed up, and there was 8 linebackers that had all started for teams the previous year, and nobody asked a whole lot of questions. It was just practice your ass off and earn a role.”

On with Will [Campbell] being limited yesterday, Marcus Bryant stepped in and was playing that left tackle spot, and what is he seeing from him:

“I think the same improvement that we’ve seen from a lot of the first-to-second-year players has been really good. And you can’t— everybody can’t win an offseason award. Marcus was here a lot. Marcus got stronger. He’s a very long-levered offensive tackle but really moved a lot of weight and got stronger for a guy that is tall and has got long legs, long arms, and still be able to move a lot of weight and get stronger. And I think that that showed up. I think it showed up in the run game. And again, I just get excited about guys that have improved and are continuing to improve. And I can’t lose sight of that. I can’t get frustrated about whatever, throwing interceptions in 2-minute drill or giving up a big play on defense. Yes, I can be frustrated, but I also have to have the ability to look at all these guys that have improved and know that that’s going to pay dividends. When we get going.”

On the fact Khalil Jacobs has seemed to have a pretty good summer and what he’s seen from him:

“Well, he loves football. One, I can just tell you, I mean, since he’s walked in here, he loves football. He’s here a lot. He was here in offseason through the minicamps early, staying late. He stays late. I see him here all the time. He loves just kind of when you put the ball down and play, when you get to the team periods. You kind of notice his play speed. And I think that’s a great thing to say. I mean, he came here on a visit, and I was trying to just give him a hard time about his 40, and he was like, ‘Oh, that was the timing there. I’m like, ’32 teams timed your 40 run…?’ Just give him a hard time. But to his credit, he plays a lot faster than whatever his 40 was. I don’t even know what it was, but he has a play speed about him, and sometimes he knows where he’s going, and sometimes he doesn’t, but he still kind of goes pretty quick wherever he decides to go.”

On if there’s any update on Carlton [Davis]?

“CD will be out probably until the end of next week. I don’t anticipate seeing him with the joint practices with the Colts or available for that game, but staying engaged. And this is why you love to develop young coaches on your staff. So, let’s say, for example, Justin’s meeting with the corners in the morning as they get ready for practice. And we know that CD is not going to be up for that day of practice. You know, Kevin Richardson can take them into the mobile classroom and go through a specific script and plays and cater to exactly the things that CD needs so that again, he can stay engaged while he’s not in. I’ve always told you, It’s hard to be out dealing with something and then new installations going in, but you’re not getting to rep it physically. So we’re trying to just keep him engaged, and he is. And I’m excited that we have good young coaches that can do that while the other coaches is taking the rest of the group.”

On the scrimmage day, and who was the second pick in the draft:

“I don’t know. You’d have to ask Stretch. He’s the commissioner of the draft. I …”

2 picks in …You can’t remember?

“Jared [Wilson] went— Jared traveled with— You’re assuming that Drake was the first pick? Okay. So T [Terrell Williams] won the coin toss. T took Drake and got Jared. I made— So that was one stipulation that that Jared traveled with Drake and then [Efton Chism] Chizz and Mack [Hollins] had to be on the same team too. Those are the only two stipulations for the draft.”

“I think he took— and then Tony [Dews] got the next two position groups. So I think it was probably Gonzo and AJ. I think— don’t quote me on it, but I think that’s what it was. And so then once we pick a player, we wipe out that position so that we can kind of fill the team. And then Tony got the next pick. So I think it was those two things.”

On Terrell Williams now he’s serving as the assistant head coach, and how has his day-to-day responsibility changed:

“Well, he’s really taken control of that front 7 and something that’s critical to our defense and the way that we want to play and the style that we want to play, and making sure that when we pressure, when we run games, when we’re in different fronts. So that’s kind of really been being able to bring Clint’s guys and Smitty’s guys together so that everybody’s seeing it the same way and that we’re coordinating how we want to rush and the way that we want to rush. So I think that’s one way. Still continuing to support Zak [Kuhr] and the defensive staff and then continue to support me as I try to reach guys. And I’ve always said he’s got a really special quality of being able to reach a lot of different players, whether that’s on defense or offense. And he’s already made bonds with guys like Caleb Lomu and Eli. He’s seen a lot of football in this league and been around a lot of different players. So I see him spend a lot of time with guys. I always like that when guys that have experience on one side of the ball and they have the capability of doing it, of reaching players on the other side of the ball that maybe his position goes against, and they can tell him the things that they’re doing well or anything to be able to encourage him.”

On Efton Chism and Mack Hollins and what about their relationship is so special, and how does he feel it helps Efton to have that veteran presence:

“I mean, it’s unbelievable. I mean, you come in there, and they’re in the pool, the rehab pool, and they’re playing, like, pool games. It’s like summer camp. They’re throwing stuff and got goggles on and they swim down and pick up things on the bottom of the pool. They study all the time. They work out, they train, they compete, they push each other. It is a— it’s a really cool thing to see a guy that had been in this league a long time, played with a couple of different teams, and a kid from Western out in Washington and a small school, and they come together, and I think they’ve helped. They both help each other”

On the fact he’s said really good things about all the receivers that they have in camp and he’s got 7 of them in that room, and if he can envision a scenario where they would break camp keeping all 7 of them:

“Sure. Yeah, I mean, all we have to do is figure out the best way to keep guys that are going to help us win and that have roles on this team and that help us win. And that’s our job. That’s me, and Eliot [Wolf] and Ryan [Cowden] and Stretch, and everybody’s job is to try to find ways to keep the guys that give us the best chance to win, however that may be.”

On the fact one of his former teammates [Adam Vinatieri] is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend, and if he has a favorite Adam Vinatieri story, and then maybe kind of talk about his legacy across the—

“Well, I think the favorite story is he showed up one offseason with a yellow Lamborghini or Ferrari or something, and we crushed him. And I think he took it back and then got a normal color.”

“But the kick in the snow meant— if you were there, you were on that field— to be able to think that, that could somehow be done. I struggled to run on that field that day, and he was able to make the kick that he made. It was always just – anytime we got into those situations, we knew if we can just get it to the 35-yard line that we were going to win the football game. And so for him to be able to do that in the biggest moments was a pleasure.”

“You know, he trained hard. He had a routine, engaged with – he wasn’t off, wasn’t the lonely kicker, wasn’t by himself. Like he was part of the football team.”

On the fact Richard [Seymour] has been inducted. Ty [Law] has been inducted. Now Adam, and how special it is to see those guys get honored:

“Well, I think when you have success as a team, I think everybody gets celebrated and rightfully so. So to be able to have spent time with all those players as teammates and people and former players and be excited to see them this season, hopefully as many that can come back for the 25-year anniversary of that 2001 team. That’ll be something that I’m looking forward to.”

(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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