Mike Vrabel Talks Drake Maye’s Efficiency in Win Over Miami on WEEI | New England Patriots

Mike Vrabel Talks Drake Maye’s Efficiency in Win Over Miami on WEEI | New England Patriots

Good morning, coach. Good morning. Congratulations on win number one. Thank you. Um, appreciate it. Looked like I mean it looked like you were b you basically did a 40 down the sideline. What would you guess your time was? Uh, five 5.8. 58. Yeah, that headset that headset’s a lot heavier than those hamsters ain’t built like they used to be. Be careful. That planner fashion was barking this morning. I saw I saw Steph Dig say that you were slow. He didn’t realize how slow you were. Yeah, it’s a it’s more or endurance than speed. You came out of the gate hot. It’s built for the long haul. It’s like a All you need is a pass rush is a get off. You don’t need only seven, eight yards, Max. Well, um big win. I I saw you say last night the the most important takeaway for you was that this team is is is not front running. Um and so and you got I’m interested in in what you saw from Drake yesterday. Well, I mean, again, to touch on your point, it was that’s how some of these games go. We’d love to be up 30 to three. Um, and if they are, then we’ll we’ll plan accordingly and we’ll be we’ll be okay. But, you know, you get into these back and forths and you have to just believe that you’re going to make enough plays in the end uh to win. And I felt like we did that. You and that was good to see. I think we needed to see it. Uh, our players needed to see it and feel it and be in there and say, “Hey, we could have a couple bad plays. Somebody’s going to make a play.” uh which we did numerous times. So, we we answered back. Uh Drake was very efficient. It was something that we’ve talked about for a long time is just putting the ball where you’re supposed to put it where it needs to go based on their coverage and our scheme and thought he did that. I thought he transferred into the pocket well being on the silent count, good edge rushers and guys with good get off. Thought we blocked the games. There was a lot of keys that we had, not a lot, but a couple keys in all three phases, and I felt like we we hit those for the most part. Mike, you we all look at like those elite playmakers on offense, but this is another week where your defensive front seven are able to affect the game and get after the quarterback. You lead the league in sacks, and granted, it’s only two weeks, but you’ve consistently shown, especially in crucial situations, you can make it uncomfortable. H how much of a major factor is that for just your football team in general when you have that capability at the end of games? Yeah, and they play they they they were going hard and it was hot. I mean, it was it was hot. That one was was real yesterday and I appreciated everybody’s efforts in the game and everybody that played or everybody that dressed contributed. So, that was great to see. Uh, and to be able to, you know, continue to, I guess, affect the quarterback and get him to a second read, you know, trying to tie the coverage in. And the X plays are something that we’ll have to continue to to focus on. But when we had to, I felt like we got the drive stop that was either after a drive of theirs that we forced them to kick a field goal or we were able to to get the drive stop before a field goal. leading up to this game when it comes to your defense though, how important was it for the guys to show up for each other and for the team in the absence of Terrell? Like for you, did you feel like they they they did that for him? Uh, no. I I hope that they didn’t. I hope they did it for each other. And and I don’t think that Terrell would would want that either. I think that they are beginning to understand each other and how everything works. And, you know, each week is is a new challenge. And so I I hope that they did that for them and that they played hard for them and that they were selfless for each other. I think that’s the whole goal. But did you feel like the preparation they were able to achieve exactly what Terrell would want them to achieve going into that game? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think that um that’s always the case. I think that there was understanding in practice. There was communication. there was there was an energy to to work and understand how uh to prepare for this football team and the and the motions and everything that goes into it and and it’s a it’s a good test. It is a very good test to to be able to handle all that. Mike, the pass from Drake Materre Stevenson, third and three, minute 50 in the third quarter to me was the play of the game. Perfect throw right in stride. What were your thoughts on that and its meaning to the win? Well, oddly enough, we had a similar um play this week in practice, but it was with Trayvon and we had two two brutal plays to start the day. And um I said, “Fellas, we we whole mentality of just, you know, f it and let’s move on. Like we we have to get going and it takes one play.” And it was Trayvon on that exact route that hit that play in practice and then everybody started getting all juiced up and and it was really odd weird that now it was the same play but Raandre and we hit it and it kind of lifted our spirits and it it kind of got us going again. So um it’s just a good reminder of things that how we want to practice is similar to how we want to play and we we can’t let negative plays snowball on us. Another week though on kind of the negative side, especially with the penalties. What’s kind of going on there? Well, we had false starts, you know what I mean? And again, you can we don’t want penalties, but I’ve I’ve gone down this road before. Penalties are probably the a bad predictor for for win rate. I’d focus on quarterback rating, turnovers, and rushing margin. And and we won all three of those. So, I I would say that the easy thing to say because I’ve lived this world is when I was first starting in Tennessee, um I was the penalty Nazi and then and then I did and then I did a lot of research and I’m like, unfortunately, it looks like it’s 50/50 like whoever has more penalty, you know, there’s critical penalties and we want to make great decisions and we don’t ever want to do things that cost the team. Um and we’ll address those. We’ll address, you know, we had some false starts. One Will didn’t move. Will pointed at the guy, you know, you I mean, Will pointed at the guy that’s rushing and they called false start. You know what I mean? So, again, I’m not going to go through the the crew and the guy that’s first year and, you know, they made some good calls. I’m sure they, you know, the ones that they’d like to have back. And, you know, I’m just, you know, if if we we tell him going in this crew, Dana over there, he he calls the line of scrimmage tight and if he thinks that KC lined up in the neutral zone and he’s not going to warn him and he’s just going to go throw the flag, I guarantee next week and all around the league there’s guys that are three inches in the neutral zone and they tell him the next play, “Hey, back up or I’m going to flag you.” I that that’s how this goes, guys. I I mean, I feel like you should have got the challenge. like I’m on I’m on stretch’s side on that tough uh tough day I guess. Um you know we know how this thing goes that goes to New York and you know there’s one guy looking at three games and there’s one guy looking at another three games and you know they could tell us what they want but you know we it for it to be expedited was shocking. For that to be expedite I I’m okay losing a challenge but you know give me the courtesy of of taking a look at it in in a two-minute you know window. But the ball moved in his hands. It was didn’t didn’t survive the ground. Like we know what the rule is. He’s going to the ground. It wasn’t like he had made a third step and completed it and it and it came off his body. It came loose. Um so we’ll we’ll keep swinging. We we we have a good feel for for how these things go in replay. But again, judgment. After the game, you said to Andre that you had all the confidence in the world for him making that last kick. Do you guys have a kicking problem right now or do you feel confident in him? Yeah. How many times do you want me to answer it? I He answered it yesterday. Missed two extra points and then made the rest of them. Uh if I didn’t feel confident, I wouldn’t have put him out there for a 53 yard. So, it was good to see. Um and he threw me off by Andre. I haven’t called him Andre since the day that we drafted him. Kind of like Andre. Andre. Did we sign somebody? I I like to use first name. No, they call him Andy. Mike, uh, take us into your the thought process of, of throwing the pass, um, I think it might have been on second down towards the end of the game, which was an incomplete, which allows Miami to keep a timeout in the pocket. What What’s the mindset going there? Isn’t Are you thinking just run, run, let them burn their timeouts? Well, you need a first down to try to win the game. So, I thought we, you know, could catch them in, you know, falling asleep there on the crossing route and and unfortunately, we didn’t. And, uh, and that’s how it goes. But we we’re going to need a time a first down uh to uh to win the game there and didn’t didn’t get it. Mike, clearly you were uncomfortable after the game when when Robert Craft came in and was making giving you the game ball. You clearly wanted to deflect immediately and talk about the players, but you’re in pretty rarified air, a guy that played for a team and now coaching for the team. Anything that you want to share about what that what your first feelings were getting your win first time as the head coach? I and I appreciate that, but it was it literally this is about the players. This is about them being confident in what we’re doing, them believing in what we’re doing, them believing in each other, feeling like they have the preparation, feeling like they have uh developed some sort of skills that they can go use in the game and be successful. I I promise you. Um and and maybe that’s just having been a player and and had success on a team and and I want the players to be able to experience that. I I promise you I’m I’m good. I I I do this outside of winning is to see guys develop and and and have personal success and that they can help themselves and they can help the team. I I’ll take the ball if you don’t want it. No, I’ll keep it. I mean, it will be like the Super Bowl balls that what I had when they would go home and the kids were little and it would be snowing in Columbus and I’d look out and it’d be like the Super Bowl touchdown catch. I’d be outside just like diving into snow piles. Lock those things up. Ah, go ahead, guys. Have it. Third and goal in the second. You call a timeout. What did you say to Drake May there? Uh, let’s just get this thing. Let’s just get things tightened up here. Let’s let’s let’s make sure that everybody’s getting the call that we’re being efficient. I know it’s tired and we’re subbing and you know, they’re tired, too. However, we feel that they feel. And um it it was just let’s settle everybody down. Let’s take control of the huddle. Uh let’s make sure everybody gets the call and that we’re lined up and that we that we can uh execute here. Mike, you talked about the penalties and how some people might overreact and every coach is different on what they look at. When you look at your success with getting sacks, you guys are doing a good job, but you’re also giving up a lot of explosive plays uh especially in the passing game. Is that something that you start to factor in like, all right, we got to limit these or is this a thing that that’s going to happen in a game? No, I mean there there’s going to be a few and I think maybe um our whole intention was to defend, you know, inside the numbers and and make sure that that was not where it was hurting us. Uh we we did okay there. And then obviously they they felt comfortable throwing those outward breaking routes. And not that I’m accepting of it, but you know, we have to be able to say this is what the game plan was. Um, so I think that there are some plays that we certainly need to correct and we can’t have the ball thrown over our heads on third and, you know, 15 and and Tyreek Hill just blazing out of there. So that’s uh th those are concerns. But the other ones, some of them I are on us and and how we wanted to play the football game, making sure that they were, you know, we were defending the middle middle of the field where they’ve had so much success with the penalties. Morgan Morgan Moses uh had said that he uh will Campbell came up to him after and said, you know, don’t worry about it. It happens. Um I guess Morgan had said that to him last week on the sideline. Do you feel like Will Campbell’s turning into the leader that you want him to? Uh I I think that he shows up every single day and I think he does his job and he cares extremely uh about this football team and so I think that that’s starting to make him a leader. I think he is prepared. I think he executes for the most part in in the game. He knows what to do. So I think that that makes him a leader and and hopefully this trend of you know the these linemen fall starting and then patting each other on the back after the game can can end. And we only have three more linemen to go. So we’re we’re 40% of the way done here with uh you know it happens. Yeah, don’t worry. It happened. You know, hopefully three more weeks we’re done with this. Mike, you have the Steelers this weekend. Uh Tom Brady said this off season that at his peak Aaron Rodgers is the best thrower of the football he’s ever seen. Talk about what you see from Aaron Rogers and would you agree with Tom’s assessment there? I don’t you know Tom knows more about quarterbacks than I do. I just know that it’s going to be a physical football team. They’re always good defensively. Aaron’s provides a lot of challenge just from his operation, his mechanics, the the urgency in which he’s able to command the offense. It puts a lot of stress on you. So stuff that Arthur Smith has done in the past, there’ll also be things plenty of things that that Aaron has that he’ll take advantage of bad football if you’re not ready. It’s interesting that you bring that up because you have such a great relationship with Arthur Smith who was on your staff at one point in time. Does it give you um you know, we always talk about that. Does it give you an advantage that you know a guy or is it a disadvantage because even though you know him, he knows you as well when it comes to you know, putting a scheme together? Yeah, I I mean I think that they’ll have their game plan plays. I haven’t watched uh too much of them, you know, just getting here started. get uh get going on them here as soon as we finish with you guys. But um you know, they’ll Arthur will have his core concepts and his what he believes and then Aaron will have his things that he’s always liked and that he’s wanted to do. So, we’ll have to kind of see where that blend is. Difficult week in in this country. Did you address that at all with the team? No. No, I I I didn’t I I didn’t I didn’t I did not uh talk about the the the things that kind of have gone on here this past week. When we talk about leadership, I know Courtney was talking about Will Campbell, but one guy that I really think does a tremendous job and I’ve always liked the way he played since his time at Boston College is Harold Landry. Talk a little bit about what he brings to the team and what he brings to the defense when it comes to leadership. A very consistent player. You know, I think he has a very consistent routine. I’ve known Harold for a long time. I’m excited that the players voted him captain. Uh this is his first time being a captain. I think he has shown that when he got here, he wanted that was important to him was to was to lead. He’s always a a versatile player. We put a lot on his plate. Anything that is a game plan specific type thing for that position, you know, we have a tendency to put it on Herold because he’ll understand, you know, he’ll be able to get it quickly in a few days of practice. So, um, yeah, we’re going to need him and everybody else to to continue to play play well and and try to help us and get some consistency going. It seemed like Drake was being himself, not sort of tentative or outside the pocket. Seemed like in week one, he was very hesitant, sort of sliding outside the pocket, not running downfield. Was there any change in the communication you had between week one and week two? And what did you see from Drake in terms of composure yesterday? Well, I meant sliding. And I think he slid in week one because they they got to him quicker. I mean, I don’t think he was going to slide because we told him just to go a yard and slide. That’s not what we want. We we want him to be as aggressive as possible and make sure that he takes care of himself. Um, which he did yesterday. Maybe he just was running faster yesterday. Where does I think I it we we we talk about it with you know from the outside knowing nothing about what’s going on and and so it just you know appeared from the outside week one that maybe he was uh being overly cautious when when you know making the decision to run the football and and good to hear you say that that’s I mean no I don’t think that’s ever the case that’s if it’s you know progress through and you can only make so many progressions based on the pass rush I wouldn’t make the I wouldn’t get to the third read sometimes times. Again, that’s based on how the protection is and um you know, just being decisive. And so, um we we don’t want our players to ever have to second guessess what they want to do. The whole be decisive and aggressive at the line of scrimmage, block pressure, block movement. They pressured a lot. They moved. We were able to do that. Covered them up. Had some good runs. Cool to be able to run the two-point conversion in. Most of our guys are in the end zone scoring with their guys. and if they score with their man, then we’re obviously going to score. So, those are some cool things to be able to show um our guys. I know you said last week that Christian Gonzalez continues to improve. Is there a chance that we could see him going into this week? There’s a chance. A good one. I wanted to ask Courtney got a big ring. She got a rich husband. She does have a pretty big ring there. It’s pretty big. What’s he do, Courtney? He does commercial real estate. Oh, he does. Wow. Highrises and all. He’s actually St. John’s prep guy. Hey, do you see that rock over there? I mean, it was like that thing is bright as the sun, man. As bright as the sun. So, a good chance. So, a good chance for Christian. Good chance. All right. Well, there’s a chance to I don’t think I don’t think you said anything this this morning that they’ll be all over you about I knew that was coming. I knew it was free publicity for you guys. It was great. Could you mention my name when you’re doing it? I promise you, you’ll be the LA the fourth name that I mentioned. Um, I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell if it was the 6:30 start time or the actual segment that you were kind of grousing about a little bit there. Oh, no. It was just the fact that anything I say can and will be used against me in the corner wall. All right. Well, we will we’ll try to help you with that. That is Mike Brael, the head coach of the New England Patriots.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show on Monday, September 15, 2025 following their week 2 win against the Miami Dolphins.

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