Mike Vrabel on Facing the Bills: “This is a Very Good Football Team.” | Patriots Press Conference

Mike Vrabel on Facing the Bills: “This is a Very Good Football Team.” | Patriots Press Conference

Guys, how are you? How are you? You great. Did you miss us? Yeah, I think I did. We’ll find out in a second. Karen, uh Mike, you played Buffalo last week five, I believe. And has a how much has changed since then or or is that film for that game still viable to you? Well, I mean, I think it’s always viable. There’s a lot that’s changed. mic. Um, but I think you can kind of see some of the, you know, play styles, matchups, you know, things that they, you know, they may come back to or things that we need to be more prepared for and then, you know, kind of use that as a place to kind of go from. And then, you know, again, some of the things that they’ve done really well, I’m sure they’ll continue to do and add wrinkles and, you know, it’s a great challenge. Mike, do you emphasize or bring up a hat and t-shirt game this week for your team? No, I don’t use a hat and t-shirt. Like, we’re just trying to play for the championship that we have available this week. And I think it’s a great uh testament to to our players that have put us in this position to be able to do that. And again, that’s it’s not going to be easy. This is a very good football team. There’s a reason that they’ve won this division five years in a row. A lot of respect for them. Um, you know, they’re never out of it, never down. They may be down and just like last week, you know, it’s a football team that understands that, you know, somebody’s going to make a play. Um, and then they, you know, the quarterback is is going to give them a chance to the very end. You’re 6 and0 as a head coach coming off the bot with the understanding that it’s different years, different teams, different opponents, all that. Are there any sort of commonalities when it comes to player focus? Well, I think that, you know, I mean, these guys have played well and, you know, that’s the most important thing is focusing on what we can realistically try to improve and kind of enhance the stuff that we’ve been doing okay with um is what we try to do today. And you know, I know these guys got some some rest, much needed rest, and you know, but we got to crank this thing back up. The bicep still late in the year. Um, do you learn just a little bit about yourself selfcout or is it things that you look back on this more? Uh, I mean, I think you kind of know by the way that the season’s going, but um, you know, it’s always a good time to take a take a look at, you know, what you’ve done and what they’re looking at. um analytically and try to, you know, figure some of that out and and or just say, “Hey, we’re we’re this is a staple of who we are and this is what we’re going to do.” And, you know, try to be good at it. Mike, you mentioned before the buy that you’re expecting some players back after this week. Do you have any injury updates on specific players? Um, yeah, some of those guys may practice today. I think for sure Wednesday, you know, some of those guys that weren’t available and we’ll kind of just see where they’re at today. But I think we’ll be okay come Wednesday. Teams relied on a lot of rookies this year. What went right in the free drive process that you brought in solid? Um, I think we’ll get into player evaluation and scouting and principles and all that stuff later. You know, I think you just you have to rely on uh, you know, young guys that you draft you hopefully, you know, you can develop them and and have them ready. Some of them have played a larger role than others and some of them were kind of coming on and you know that they understand their role that they you know have confidence and uh continue to improve. I think by and large the group has done that. We we’ll need you know a lot of a lot more from them as we move on as we continue especially this week. Um, you know, and then we could talk about, you know, how we target players and things like that later. Your experience as a player and a coach, red zone offense, what what are some of the common threats you’ve seen over the years that make a successful red zone offense other than obvious scoring touchdowns? Like what what do you Well, I mean, you you have to have positive plays. You can’t go backwards. You can’t have penalties that derail drives. Um, precision is critical. You know, precision is critical that, you know, space is limited. Things happen so much quicker uh down there. So, we’ll we’ll have to score and turn those opportunities into touchdowns and and we’ll have to to do a better job uh defensively when they do get down there. Mike, when uh Drake was first drafted, there’s a lot of comparisons made to Josh Allen. Now that things have kind of played out a bit, do you see them being more similar or dissimilar in how they approach the game? I think they’re both really good at what they do. Um, you know, Josh probably got a couple LBs on them and can kind of throw his his shoulder in there probably a little bit more than I would ra want Drake to. Um, but I think they’re both great competitors. I think they’re uh, you know, a lot of respect for Josh and just his ability to make something out of nothing. I’ve enjoyed watching Jake Drake’s growth here. Um, but yeah, not going to say one’s certain way and one’s the other. I just huge challenge going against a quarterback that’s um under control. He’s got command and just it doesn’t look panicked or rattled and when you rush him or gets him into the right play call and whatever that may be just a excellent, you know, obviously MVP quarterback said Mike, you guys are playing for a division championship this weekend. I’m I’m curious though, you referred to your players, both of us, and then with them after the game on Monday as champions or you know, you competed like champions. Champions are never satisfied. Why Why use that word when referring to your team? I think you’re probably just reading too much into it. You guys got too much time since the last time we talked. I don’t know. I apologize. I could call him something else, but then you guys would yell at me for using that language. Entertaining awful. Like this is a bit of a weird one, but coming out of the by doing something kind of leaguewide on the trend of teams posting after a win at the head locker room thing since you first be a lot of pressure, right? Legitimately like has it changed your mindset at all like going in there knowing that fans are going to see everything you do and say? Well, they don’t. I mean, we I get the final say on, you know what I mean? Like stretch can edit that to make it look as good as you want. Um, no, I think it’s I Here’s what I I think that our content team does a fantastic job and the content teams across the the league to to bring our fans really great access uh something that’s inside the locker room as as quickly as they can get that turned around. And so I appreciate what they do. I think it’s fantastic. Um, you know, I I don’t give it much thought until I need to start thinking about it because I don’t want to, you know, look ridiculous. I’m glad that they’ve given me uh plenty of opportunities um to to have some excitement in there. that that’s what I appreciate the most is is from the players giving us an opportunity and then the content team to continue to deliver um really um authentic content to our fans which might do you watch any other coaches and how they do it? Uh no I mean I’m not taking my shirt off. I can promise you that. Do you practice in your office? Nope. I didn’t I’ve not pra I’ve not practiced in the office. Mike, some coaches might not care if the fans have access to that kind of stuff. Why is it important to you for the fans to have a connection? Oh, I mean, this is, you know, we we’re in an entertainment business. We we we that’s it’s a large part of what we do. Um, you know, I think that that’s important that our fans have some connection to our team to be able to come out here to training camp starting, you know, in July. I think that’s important. I think it’s important that that our fans can come into the stadium and watch a scrimmage. I think it’s important that um again they they have things to cheer about uh on Sundays and when we play. I think it’s important that they see our players in the community that not only as as players but but men trying to make a difference and trying to make an impact and help. So the more that we can do and the more that we can share with our fans, the the better. The the strength of the receiver unit is the unit. Why is it so important to spread the ball around defense? Well, I think just, you know, so that they can’t sit there and key on one guy or say, you know, we this is where it’s going. And I think that’s the kind of the way that the group is built. And if you know, some other years it may be different, but that that’s what it is this year. And that’s that’s what I think is best for us and that’s kind of what it’s proven to be. just on those locker room moments I’ve heard you differentiate between motivate and inspire in your job is really the latter not the former. Are those moments moments where you can inspire guys or is that does that happen at a different time? I don’t know if that’s very inspiring. I’m sure they’re looking to get a shower and get the hell out of there. I would imagine that they want that short and sweet. Uh at least I would always want that. Um, you know, that game day is a long day, starts early, especially the night games. Um, you know, I I try to, you know, there there’s some things I say to them before and leading up to the game, and if that plays out and it plays true, then I try to remind them and, you know, thank them for for understanding what it is we were trying to get done. Thanks, guys. Wednesday.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addresses the media on Monday, December 8, 2025.

Subscribe to the New England Patriots YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/2IOD2e9
For More Patriots NFL Action: https://bit.ly/2Y1e9zz

#NewEnglandPatriots #Patriots #NFL

For more Patriots content: pillar.io/patriots
Stay up-to-date on Patriots news: https://www.patriots.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newenglandpatriots/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/patriots
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patriots
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@patriots
Get the app: https://apple.co/2vvd8mU