Mike Vrabel on Joe Flacco: “He Doesn’t Seem to Get Rattled Too Easy.” | Patriots Press Conference

Mike Vrabel on Joe Flacco: “He Doesn’t Seem to Get Rattled Too Easy.” | Patriots Press Conference

Hi. Hi, Mike. We got We got a writing question. That’s okay. She didn’t get to do that yet. She isn’t writing. Nicole, what do you got? How are you? Good. How are you? Good. With Jamar Chase suspended, what have you seen from T Higgins and the rest of the Well, I mean, again, talent. Plenty of talent. It’s just the opportunities probably haven’t been there, but when they’ve um been given the opportunity and they’ve gone to them, you know, whether that’s Yoshi Vas, that’s Tinsley down the field, obviously T um deep threat, you know, took a slant to the house against Pittsburgh. Uh tight window, you know, split the safeties, you know, so I don’t think that they they lack in talent. I think it’s just been opportunity. So again, we’ll have to do a, you know, a great job, you know, trying to to defend them. Um, whether that be Brown or Higgins or anybody else, it’s just a it’s a big challenge offensively. Mike, question from Karen for you. Okay. Uh, Cole, I’m good. Thanks, Carassie. Since you became a head coach, how, if at all, have you changed how you managed your individual relationships with players over the years? I mean, again, I’m my job is to have a, you know, a relationship or connection with with everybody here, um, players and staff included. Some of those relationships are stronger than others. That’s kind of the nature uh, of this. But, you know, I think for me it’s just been um having something in each room or part of the game plan in each phase that will at least allow me to have a conversation uh about the game plan about their, you know, job or technique and which is the best way, you know, to be able to have that connection through the week. Um, you know, and then again, just try to be as genuine as as I possibly can. Like, was that something that you you needed, wanted, got when you were a player and something you felt like was important to you? I don’t know if it was that needed. I mean, it was just kind of different. I think it was just different. And I haven’t coached anybody any differently from the from the three years that I spent at Ohio State. um going to Houston, they were maybe a year or two older and back then they made more money. Now they’re just a year or two older and some of them make about the same amount of money. So, um I appreciate where they all come from. I appreciate their backgrounds. Um you can see the type of people they are by when you meet their families. I think that’s something that you know really shows and the pride that they have and um you know how you know we we do this to to provide for our family. So you know outside of winning that’s let’s let’s be honest like that’s that’s why we do this. So I enjoy meeting their families and I enjoy meeting the people that they care about and we always said things that are important to them should be important to us. Mike, as a player you were known sort of as an enforcer. Um, and I know accountability is super important to you now. So, as a coach, you know, how have you evolved in creating accountability? And I think my job, I’ve said this, is to try to protect the team and stay consistent and try to hold the best players the most accountable. That way, it sets a clear message to everybody. um you know throughout not you know if the quarterback makes a mistake or Drake makes a mistake I’m doesn’t really do me any good to sit there and coach up Tommy you know Devito um just go right to the source and I think the players appreciate the consistency Mike the uh stability of the offensive line in their performance this season seems like it’s led to a lot of the team success can you talk about what that group and the coaching staff and uh Doug Doug has meant to the success. Well, Doug, I mean, that’s a good group in there. You know what I mean? Doug Doug’s um in charge, but but Jason, Hoting, Hos, and you know, Cougs, I think we’re lucky. I think those guys really do a good job. Um, like I said when I talked about the staff, they can all take a group and and coach them and pre-practice individual. Uh so you see a lot of that is you know split up and guys are getting work and reps and uh so there’s a lot of confidence there. I think the players are are building some confidence. I think that you know that the more that we get into this thing and they understand kind of the design of the play and kind of how Drake’s gonna operate whether that’s you trying to climb the pocket or you know the extension and everything else. I think it all you know goes hand in hand. I think they communicate well and you know the more that we’ve been able to be out there as a unit has led to you know some good results with the Mandre um possibly nearing the return. Um you’ve had Trayvon kind of be that main back in the last few games. Do you have a is there a plan kind of to have a better balance between the two of them when they’re both ready to play or when is healthy? I think we’ll probably have to have that conversation, you know, when it’s, you know, certain that we’re going to have Raandre. He’s going to work through practice today and, you know, we’ll see where things go. Um, you know, Trevon’s helped us, Raandre’s helped us, Terrell’s helped us. You know, disappointed that Dearest couldn’t, you know, have a couple more carries. We we gained some good yards on a whatever they s thought was a holding penalty and go from there. So, um, we’ll try to have them all help us, but it’s been good to see Tayvon continue to to run hard and and take care of the football and and everything else. What’s been your impression of Joe Flacco and just the way that Bengals offense has been played? Uh, efficient on time, a lot of um, again, you’re not going to trick him. You’re not going to trick him. You’re going to have to cover them, beat him, you know, rush them. The ball comes out quick. um you know, doesn’t seem to get rattled very easily. It’s not something that’s going to happen. You know, arm strength and accuracy has been great. You know, he kind of knows what he wants to do and where he wants to go with the ball. It’s had a lot of command. Mike, he’s also someone you saw as a player. I I don’t know. I know all those memories are great, but what do you remember about a young Joe Flacko on the other sideline? I mean, about the same. I mean, big, talented, strong. Um, probably ran a little bit more. Um, so just the longevity, a lot of respect for him as a as a person and as a player. I know we’ll get a chance to uh see them out in practice theoretically, but um we talked about his situation, Kan and Christian as well. Is there any updates? Yep. They’ll all work today and we’ll see, you know, how they respond after today and kind of keep moving from there. But no real update. They haven’t done anything that, you know, we’ve pushed through other than that. So hopefully they’re out there and they will be and ready to go and and then we’ll see where they where they go. Decision to CJ to the active roster. Was that similar to like the situation you kind of talked about earlier this week with Braden where it’s someone you put time in with and um want to continue working with? Yeah, there there’s a lot of things that go involved with that and you know certainly those two players were ones that kept showing up as the you know show team players or whether it’s on special teams or offense or defense and so um there you know it’s just kind of what happens when you get to this part in the season and uh you know we’ll see if those guys can can help us and we ask everybody to prepare as a starter when they come in here and I don’t think anything should change or will change for those guys. Mike, you have defended uh the quarterback related tree concept in backto-back weeks. How much is it from is is from uh you know having your SC team running the play simulating during the during the practice versus just a players out there with high awareness and discipline during the game. Well, we’re not going to be able to show them everything. We have a lot of um again admiration, respect, gratitude for the players that uh give us that those looks throughout the week. I think they take great pride in that. We ask them to try to, you know, they’re being evaluated and they’re, you know, we’re trying to put it the best as we can in our language and letting them play football and letting them compete and, you know, try to stay up and take care of each other. We don’t want anything that’s out of control, but I I think improvement has been made by players on those units. U they they give us a fantastic look. Um, and all, you know, first, second, third down, we get to the red zone late in the week. Um, so again, that starts there and then we’re not going to be able to show them every single play uh that they’re going to see in the game. That’s that’s impossible. Nobody’s that good. There’s things that we’ll show them, you know, that they’ll be able to recall, but then it comes down to the 11 guys out there. if there’s an unscouted look or there’s a scout, you know, I mean, there’s a play that, you know, comes up that they haven’t seen or they haven’t run this year that, you know, you kind of use your your tools and use, you know, kind of your rules for the play and what your responsibility is to to go and defend it. Final question. Drake said on the radio the other day that one of the concepts he’s been focused on here is remaining a passer as long as possible, even when he’s taken off. How much progress have you seen with that particular skill or development for him? Yeah, I mean I think that that’s uh something that was, you know, talked about in the offseason that we wanted to try to um allow him to do and let him work on it and um you know, example on the sidelines there with Diggs the other night is maintaining a passer as long as he can still threaten the edge and then if people come out of coverage being able to, you know, make good decisions and great decisions with the football and leads to, you know, 15 extra yards. he wasn’t going to run for 15 yards. Um, so again, those are things that really can put stress on the defense when when you do them positively and you’re not making bad decisions. Mike Keman so accurate this year. What kind of work have you seen him put in to refine or improve that part of playing the position? How much of that just might be innate? I think probably a little bit of both. I think that Josh and Ashton and uh have tried to work hard on that. I also think Drake uh is talented and again it’s like a pitcher. I mean I don’t know there’s a pitching coach that was really taught Greg Maddox how to to to paint the plate and put the ball wherever he wanted it. Uh, so I think there’s some some natural skill there, but then I think that they work on those things and they work on platform and throwing off at different places and still remaining accurate and climbing a pocket and working with a base and all those things. And then, you know, there’s other times where it’s just natural athletic ability and hand eye coordination and putting the ball uh in good spots. Thank you.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addresses the media on Wednesday, November 19, 2025.

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