Mike Vrabel Talks Expectations After the Bye, Prep for Buffalo & More on WEEI | Patriots

Mike Vrabel Talks Expectations After the Bye, Prep for Buffalo & More on WEEI | Patriots

And here here is coach Vel with a victory shot. Here we are. There we go. Here we go. Victory shot. Ah, very good. Horrific uh tradition and we must let it marinate. We must stick with that uh throughout this season. Blueberry chaser. Yeah, have a blueberry chaser for that. No, I’m good. I got my uh Pepsi. Did you get to Do you get to watch any football this weekend? Uh yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Um, what did what what what did you end up watching? Watch the Bills. Bengals. Yeah. Yeah. Bills, Bengals. Um, so you’re in the uh in the uh heart of it here as the uh as the season gets to uh the the uh the third third or what, however you want to describe it. Um third quarter. Third quarter. I guess third say third it. Um, you look ahead to this game and obviously you want to get guys off the by-week and focused on this. How how do you do that as a head coach? Well, I think we’re going to meet this morning and we’re going to go over the stuff that we feel like uh we’ve done well up until this point. Uh talk about the things that we can we can improve that we have to improve, but not lose sight of the things that we’ve done well. Try to be positive but truthful, I think, is something that we’re going to focus on. and then uh you know practice and and go against each other and get moving and and get back to the fundamentals and get back to the things that we know are important especially this time of year. What are those some of those things from your perspective that that you can improve on this football team? Well, you try to look at it positionally and I think that, you know, whether it’s the offensive line and being able to get into the line of scrimmage or just focus on pad level, you know, talking about pass rush games and then continuing to do what we’ve done well, stay inside out. You know, our combinations have improved wide receivers. talk about just the this time of year being strong at the top of the route, being able to to play through the contact and the grabby and the contested catches with the weather and all those things, you know. So, there’s a a litany of things at each position that we’ll try to go over and review, you know. I think continue to try to to stay complimentary and get these guys to keep feeding off each other is is something that’s important. And then just the little things in each phases, you know, short yardage, red zone, uh, you know, just th those are the things that I think we’ll continue to focus on. Our kickoff return on special teams. You you’re very intentional in in what you say uh everywhere. So, uh, it was of interest to me that you used the word champion twice uh this past week. once once uh with the guys after the game uh and once uh talking to the media on Tuesday. Um and some would say, “Oh, I’m reluctant to say that.” What what’s the intention there? Well, it’s what we’re playing for. We’re playing for a championship this week. Each week, uh you have a new opportunity, a new message, and you know, this is a championship week for us, an opportunity to win the the AFC East, something that this team hasn’t done in five years, uh or the Buffalo has done it five years in a row. So, you know, to do that, there’s you have to go out and and play a certain way and you have to do things um and continue to improve. And so, I don’t I mean, we didn’t start and say, “Oh, we’re going to win the Super Bowl in November, the end of November.” It’s not that. It’s just conversations that I have with the team and try to focus on things that we need to try to do and want to do and and understand that this is a great opportunity for us this week here at home. And you know, since the last time we’ve played, they’ve changed. We’ve changed, hopefully, it’s going to be a fantastic game. You know, that team’s not going away. They have a quarterback who is an MVP quarterback that under any circumstances is going to be ready to to either win the football game with whatever running or throwing that he has to do, and then whenever they need a play, he seems to to make it. Mike, you guys obviously that getting the buy is great for guys to get some time off, but what what’s the thing that you’ll be paying close attention to today, especially at practice when guys get back? I mean, whether they’re, you know, the energy level or I mean, again, we haven’t done anything in a week, so I I am not going to pay attention to anything too closely. I’m going to make sure that we’re that we’re we’re moving the same way that I’m used to us moving in and out of drills and not standing around and that we’re we’re going and moving. Um that that we focus on the the the details in practice, that we take care of each other, that we stay up, that we practice fast. I’ve said this numerous times that, you know, good teams know how to practice uh without pads on, less than full speed or full speed without pads, all these different tempos and things. So, you know, we’ll have to continue to work on that. But your track record coming off of a bye-week as a head coach is excellent. 6 and 0. Do you have a secret sauce that you use for guys coming off a buy to make sure that they’re not coming off sluggish? I did. I sure as hell wouldn’t tell. That is true. That is true. I know. And you might have jinxed it. No, come on. Greg’s the jinx. Jinx. But how do you make sure that these guys the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny, which are both real? What? The guy that said the media was the one that got your players hurt after that game. Did you think I was ser? Did you really think I was ser? You guys don’t know me that well. My god. But how do you make sure that they are motivated? I just Well, motivated. I I’ve been through this. Do we think that professional athletes need to be motivated? The new athletes. Some people wonder. I think they need to be inspired. Okay. And you try to inspire them by giving them confidence and the trust in doing their job when they go out there that they know what to do. They trust the guy next to them that they’re prepared and that they feel like this is going to give them a chance to win. I the motivation I I used to say that and then I ran into some guy somebody talked somewhere and he talked about they’re motivated whether they’re motivated by winning money dating some the cheerleader in high school be starting quarterback they’re all mo there’s some motivating factor we have to be able to inspire them to do their job better Mike what did that Sunday night game in Buffalo do if anything to your expectations of this team because I feel like for everybody outside of this holding. That was a moment that said, “Wow, this team is different than the ones we’ve seen recently.” Well, I think I don’t know if it did anything for our expectations. I think it gave us, you know, some some confidence to be able to go and play on that stage and play on the road and and beat a an undefeated team at the time and which we all know is is a good football team, which is fundamentally sound football team, one that you know, you really every time you you beat them, you have you’re going to earn it and they’re not going to usually hand it to you. Um, you know, so that’s that’s a long time ago, but I don’t know if it changed the expectation, you know, in my mind. I think it just gave us some, you know, some confidence moving forward. Devin McCordi was talking this week about being here for the Monday night game and what an advantage he he feels like the crowd is here. Um and he was saying it’s a little bit different now than uh dynasty time because the fans then would kind of expect it. Um but they are they’re into it. They are an advantage for the team. You feel the same way? Absolutely. And I’ve said this, I think that uh we have to give continue to give them things to to cheer about and be excited about and be into. And you know, I think a lot of that is effort plays. I think a lot of that is their physicality. it’s the X plays, it’s negative plays on defense or you know obviously turnovers or returns, all these things that um you know it leads to leads to excitement to their excitement and their enjoyment. Mike, I I don’t know how many guys on the team have been around success and winning, but you’ve been there before as a guy who was able to win your first year and then win a few more championships as a player. What type of advice would you give to some of these guys that might not have experienced the success that you’re having now for them to kind of keep their eye on the prize and maybe not get caught up with all the hoopla of what we’re saying about the expectation of this team? Um, just focus on what we’ve been doing. You know what I mean? That’s what we said when you take a nap, no naps. you know, you take a nap and and you lose or the quarterback fumbles the ball or they score on defense and you know, you just can’t take any breaks in this league. It’s too competitive. Um, I think we’ve done a good job of understanding that whatever we did last week isn’t going to be, you know, good for this week and we have to start back over and, you know, continue to build throughout the week and have a plan and however the game unfolds, you know, being ready to play it in that manner, right? Whether it’s we need a situation at the end of the half, we need a situation at the end of the game or we we get out early and whatever, however the game plays out, it’s going to we have to be ready for it. After last week when we talked to you about Will Campbell, there were a lot of people that took what you said, your response about not rushing him back and thought that maybe his injury was worse than what we first expected. Is there any way that you can steer people in the right direction on where that injury stands? Is he recovering in the right way? And I don’t know what I said and I don’t know how they took it. I apologize, Courtney. But but it’s not it’s not way worse than we thought it was going to. Not season ending. I would hope not. He’s recovering well. So far so good. I haven’t seen him yet today. I mean I guys, I’m I’m pretty entertaining here for you, but I don’t talk much about injuries. So that’s fair. Certainly not going to start here with you guys. No, we we wouldn’t want that when you We would love that. really reverse psychology. I like it. I don’t help yourself to all of my stuff here if you want. When when you you talked about Josh Allen and watching a little bit of that game last night and when you look at the Buffalo Bills and the football team and a guy like that, what what’s the key as a defense that you got to make? I guess it’s excuse me, pick your poison. You don’t want a guy to use his legs, but then again, you don’t want him to have the ability to just have all day in the pocket and pick you apart. Like, what’s the Wiggy has some advice. He’s already shared it on ahead. Coach Wiggins, did you know did you you missed when Wiggy was coaching Brockton High School for a season? The boxes. They didn’t do He got let go after one year. I wasn’t a union guy. That was it. Mutually agreed to part ways. I had a freshman quarterback. We were young. My second year is when we were going to turn things around, but I I wasn’t a union guy. They were like, “Nah, you got to beat it.” His acceptance speech went three hours. Well, the the reason why I say that is I’m watching that game last night, Cincinnati yesterday, and it’s third and 15. And I just go from a defensive standpoint, and I’m listen, I’m no defensive coordinator, but I would rather put pressure on a guy who’s that good of a runner and say, you know, we’re going to get the ball out of your hands and let you beat us throwing it versus I think they pressured him a little bit. Yeah, there was a little bit of pressure, Wiggy, and then he took off and 88 and out the gate. Yeah, I I just there’s a you got to stop the run, you know. I mean, this is a big physical offensive line that does a great job running the ball. Um Cook has got great vision, got great burst. Um they have a very good scheme and then um you know, they mix up personnel, bunch of different personnel, and then obviously the balance of of Josh Allen and you know, 40 yard touchdowns by quarterbacks are are tough to defend and that’ll certainly be a huge challenge for us. you know, every critical play that the ball is in his hand, right? I I know you said you watch a little bit of football. You get to see that Isaiah likely TD get overturned. Is that um weird to you? Like it do you see that play at all? I I did and I think just on first glance it looked like the ball was out before the third step. So, so, okay, we were Wiggy was That’s not Yeah, I didn’t know the third step also they meant that as well in the field of play versus in the end zone cuz I always thought once you showed possession, you got two feet down. I’m like, all right. And that’s when guys get uh they relax and they take a deep breath and they take a nap. And on that third step is um and you’ve seen that before. There was a play that uh Trey McBry had maybe two years ago with with the Steelers as well that he caught it and it was like one two and somebody knocked it out of his hand or you know you see guys finishing and just like we’ve shown our DBs that just just go and finish in the end zone and you never know you know if they’ve completed the process of the catch or not and they they take a deep breath and then all of a sudden it’s two steps and then the ball comes out. I’m getting a signal we got to let you go cuz uh we do one more one more sport. Yeah. Oh, anybody I was a non non football. I I I had to know if Ann Michael May if you’ve tried any of her bake miss. I had the uh there was an apple crisp uh bar. Good. Yeah. Delicious. Okay. Cuz they look good on social media. I wanted to know if they were good. She brings them in for the O linement. So careful with that cuz the sport coat won’t fit anymore. But how was the 5K? I heard that the Oh, it was we walked. Courtney and I walked. She’s pregnant. I’m also I am also but it was great. We had 2,000 people in the seatboard. It was It was awesome. It was great. Um, did you guys run all over the place? Yeah, we went uh ran all the way down past uh like Saver, OP, all the way down down around back uh out by the the docks and everything. It was awesome. Raised some good money. Great money. Yeah. So, all right. Good luck. This is a this is a good one. Uh go get it. That is Mike. Mike Rabel, head coach of the New England Patriots.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show on Monday, December 8, 2025.

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