Mike Vrabel: “So You Want to be Aggressive, Certainly Not Reckless.” | Patriots Press Conference

Mike Vrabel: “So You Want to be Aggressive, Certainly Not Reckless.” | Patriots Press Conference

Hi Teresa. Hi Karen. Hi. Um, how do you feel uh since he’s taken over Zach has kind of progressed in the in his play calling duties? I think everybody over there has done a you know really good job as far as just organizationally uh the communication to put the plan together, the efficiency um to to put a plan together and the practice preparation and everything else. And I, you know, I think he’s, you know, again, there’s no perfect call. I’ve said this millions of times. And I, as long as that our personnel is in the game and the call gets in there and it’s uh decisive and one that the players understand, uh, then it’s a good call and we’ll have good execution and sometimes we won’t have such great execution. But, I mean, I do think that we haven’t had any trouble uh, with those. We haven’t been um, you know, pressed. We’ve been in two-minute situations. We’ve been in, you know, third down. We’ve been, you know, we’ve stayed in personnel groups. We’ve changed personnel groups. So, you know, I think Zach’s um, you know, doing doing a good job and we’ll need to do a great job this week for what they do uh, offensively. Mike, you’ve talked to us about your input um, here and there on offense. What’s your level of involvement with the defensive game planning? I think it stays the same. It’s I’m try to be in a lot of different places and try to uh, help where I can. I enjoy being, you know, defensively and um certainly help offensively when I can. So, special teams wise, I think I I try to help where I can. You talked about working guys harder after a win, you know, being able to do that in the past. How do you handle an emotional game like that as far as getting them back mentally? Practice and you, you know, you go through meetings, you focus on new opponent. We don’t really know uh this opponent. I would say this is new for a lot of um players here and maybe some coaches here as far as you know their personnel and what they do and their skilled players offensively and you know Shahed and how good Kamar is and Miller coming on and running as hard as he did. Um they got all all their tight ends are available and up ready to go. So we’ll have to understand the difference between Jennings and you know when when Taesm’s in the game or Maro and you know right on down the line defensively it’s a it’s a big physical front I’ve always you know appreciated the way Deario Davis plays the game and you know corners are active big long play of football at 24 PBUS on a season as a defense so they’re creating turnovers and that was the difference in last week’s What are some of the traits that Terrell Jennings has that has helped him stick around? Well, one, I think he’s a great teammate. I think he cares about the team. He’s able to play um on special teams. He’s able to play on fourth down. I think he’s got a toughness to him and I think he’s improved. Mike, when you put yourself uh in the shoes of the players, uh can it be a challenge to um show the same energy and resolve the week after having such a big week and a big emotional win on Sunday night? Going to be tough to match that the coming week. You know, we have a job to do. It’s same every week. you know, we try to do I think that if we are consistent each and every week and I think it allows us to, you know, get past some of those things. We’re disappointed after we lost, disappointed after, you know, happy when we won, disappointed when we lost. And you know, I think we’ve responded and you know, we’ll have to, you know, make sure that we’re we’re doing everything that we we possibly can to prepare to go on and handle another tough environment just, you know, being able to handle the road environment and the crowd noise and everything else. I’m sure they’ll be excited. You know, they played really well last week and I’m sure they’ll have uh the same great support that they always have in the dome. Mike, I know you guys added a running back to the practice squad yesterday, but is that a position you would continue to look to to add to with Gibson’s injury? I mean, we’re continue I think they’ll probably hopefully look everywhere or we if there’s somebody that we feel like can help us, whether that’s at running back or any other position, but right now nothing new to add. I think Woodson leads the team in defensive. I know a lot of lead to league over the course of the season. But what are some things that he’s done to earn your trust playing back? Uh I think he, you know, good communicator. He’s good in know, you know, open field. He’s been able to handle a lot of volume, take care of his body. you know, hasn’t been been perfect, but you know, feel like he’s just, you know, some snaps I’m sure he’d like to have back, but there’s been a too big for him and he and he stayed, you know, stayed healthy, so that’s the biggest thing. Mike, what are some of the things that you’ve seen Spencer Radler do that uh that have made him Ball comes out really quick. I think that they um he’s decisive with the football and I I think he also is really good when he runs it. you know, they designed some plays for him to run. He’s been good in that regard. And uh then he’s also there’s been some play extensions where, you know, he’s been able to get out of there pretty quickly and and so I think the decisiveness is uh continuing to show up and improve and, you know, they played well um in Buffalo and had you know, it was a one-sore game in the fourth quarter. They roughed the punter and that was pretty much the end of it. Um and then obviously they got down last week. I think it was it’s an impressive um job on their parts and and Kell’s job and be down 143 and and come storming back and hit a big play and uh then create some turnovers. Alvin Camaro specifically looking back on this last game. How how was the defense able to um stop James Cook and how you’re not getting the message yourself the louder? No, we’re just worried about Alvin Kamar and Miller. Well, I’m saying how can you build a c up? We’ll have to do it over again and we’ll have to to work through the week to build a wall to set an edge and to swarm and tackle and be able to fit the runs up that they’ll probably have in a scheme and everything else. But, you know, what you did one week certainly doesn’t guarantee what you’re going to do the next week um positively or negatively. So, um you know, they do a good job. They’re on the ball. They have, you know, runs out of tempo. They have shots out of tempo. Um, you know, they’re under center. They’re in the gun and the pistol. So, that’s there’s a lot a lot to to be able to get ready for formationally. So, things that we’ll have to be ready for. Seems like it seems like a few of the defensive touchdowns allowed to involve motion. Wondering is there been any kind of theme in those and what do you have to do basically? just communicate and understand that those are all scheme plays and that, you know, that’s what we’re going to get and we have to do a better job in the red zone of of communicating and anticipating what that is. I don’t think they’re just going to line, you know, line up and um run a play, you know? I mean, there’s going to be something involved that that grabs your eyes, that grabs your attention, you know, misdirection, you know, I don’t know what the plays are. I can just try to explain what the concepts are going to be. You know, they’re going to change them a little bit each week, but you know, when you look around, that’s kind of what it is. With five weeks down now, what do you like about the captains on this team in terms of them setting the standard and the communication between coaches and the rest of team? Yeah, I think they do a good job of uh relaying the message um that we try to create each week. I think they do a good job of bringing some things that maybe some other players or some younger players may have throughout the week uh to me and my job is to listen. My job is to try to make a decision that’s best for the team, but to try to listen to them. Not that I’m always going to do everything that, you know, they ask, but I do appreciate them coming and sharing some of those thoughts uh from the rest of the team. like when it’s only been a five game sample with the new head coach. Do you get a sense at all holistically like how Kellen and his staff want to play games and and win? Yeah. I mean, I think that they want to run the football. I I think they do. I think they want to uh you use tempo on on their terms, which they’ve done a great job of. I think they want to make you prepare for a lot. And I think they they’ve got a lot of speed on the edges and that they’re that they’re trying to create, but also, you know, understand with a with a young quarterback that they, you know, want to be able to try to get it out of his hand just from a numbers wise and not sit there and hold it. So, they’ve been successful with that. Try to keep it in third and third and manageable. Like the running game at this point is like the running game at this point is toward the bottom of the league, 27th ranked. I’m wondering how you can improve on that. Obviously, the passing game has been much stronger. Just keep working at it. You know, I’m with you. We understand that and uh it’s got to be better. You know, it has to be better at the line of scrimmage, at the second level, you know, and then continue to try to finish to to break some of these. And we’ve had some good runs. It’s just the, you know, not enough of them. Not enough um, you know, double digit runs, you know, that help your your average. Um, so again, I think that, you know, we got to stop talking about being one guy away or one block away. I think that was a big theme uh from last week and that’ll have to fix. Mike, when you think you said that you you said that uh you’ve learned that penalties are not a strong indicator of wins. How did that information change your approach to coaching that area? Well, it’s it’s not that um that that we don’t care about penalties, right? We want to make great decisions and um but I also understand that team fouls are ones that happen before the snap. like we have to be better on um you know and Hunter communicating with the official and you know thinking that we got you know hoping we got that cleaned up we don’t want to line up off sides we don’t want to extend drives uh competition fouls and we ask them to play full tilt to the tackle but then there’s a line there and we have to we have to you know we have to play by two things the whistle right I just don’t understand how a professional athlete could could assume that anybody in in this league was down and we’re going to play to the whistle and we’re going to play to two feet in the white and we we have to, you know, pass rush and not hit the quarterback in the head. Can’t hit him in the knees. Um, and then when a, you know, another player has the isn’t has two feet in the white, we we can’t hit him or give the appearance, you know, that we’re we’re hitting him. And I think schooler ran over there and stood there and the same guy got tackled by Marcus and the official saw that and you know so again you just have to understand kind of what they’re looking at. Um but we have to play aggressive. I I think that there has to be an aggressiveness to the way that we play but also that comes into the decision making and when to to make a great decision. And um you know, it’s hard for me to sit here and fault Josh, you know, from last week. And you there’s no whistle and running backs acting like he’s going to flip the ball back to the quarterback. And I I mean certainly would have liked to not had a penalty called, but I can see it both ways. Uh just ask that they, you know, blow the whistle and it’s easy way for for us to say that the play’s over and that that our efforts need to stop. And uh but I don’t know how else to coach it. I don’t know how else to coach professional players in in on defense in this league with the type of athletes that you know you’re going against is it’s hard to bring them down. One guy, they keep running, they bounce in, next thing you know, you know. So again, we’ll keep coaching it. And I it’s not that it’s not important. It’s it’s it’s important. Um but it it’s also there’s a something behind it. I’ll tell you every Xplay run and we only have Taylor track this. Every Xplay run in this league there’s probably a hold. You know what I mean? Like that just that they don’t call that they don’t miss. They don’t see or they don’t feel like they should call it. That’s it’s kind of what happens. And so you want to be aggressive. Uh certainly just not reckless. Mike, last question guys. You have set of players who need to earn their role for the players who are currently on the show team or Scott team. What do they need to do to earn a road to be with the regulars on Sundays? Uh, well, I think it’s twofold. I think it’s one based on who’s in front of them and the health of that player. Uh, two, prepare as a starter each and every week, continue to to improve and and get recognized and, you know, three, take advantage of their opportunities uh, when it comes. And so, you know, we have a lot of guys that are getting better and improving in that area. And I, you know, that’s that’s valuable. It’s valuable for us to be able to rep against them and also valuable very valuable for them to to improve and and get those practice reps. So, um hopefully when we need them or they earn the opportunity, uh they’ll be ready. Thank you.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addresses the media on Wednesday, October 8, 2025.

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