Fox Sports\u2019 David Helman released<\/a> one player from each AFC team he expects to have a breakout season. And for the Patriots, it\u2019s someone they added this offseason who has a connection to head coach Mike Vrabel.<\/p>\nLinebacker Jack Gibbens signed with the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent out University of Minnesota, and immediately made an impression on Vrabel. So much so that Vrabel gave him the nickname \u201cDr. Gibby.\u201d<\/p>\n
And with Gibbens being reunited with Vrabel after a season away, Helman thinks this is exactly what the linebacker needs to excel. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love to connect the dots when I\u2019m doing an exercise like this,\u201d he wrote. \u201cGibbens got his first crack as an NFL starter in 2023 from then-Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. Two years later, it\u2019s no surprise to see him pop up with Vrabel in New England. He\u2019s smart, tough, and has a knack for making tackles, which has to remind Vrabel of himself a little bit. Marquee free-agent signing\u00a0Robert Spillane\u00a0owns one of the starting linebacker jobs in New England, but there\u2019s plenty of room for Gibbens to make an impression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
Gibbens praised the program Vrabel establishes wherever he is.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely just really appreciate the type of program that he builds, where it\u2019s built on effort and knowing what to do, playing really hard, being accountable to your teammates,\u201d Gibbens said in May. \u201cHe holds everyone to the same standard, and I think he gives opportunities. He always says that they\u2019re going to treat you how you treat the team. And I really appreciated that with my time in Tennessee, and that\u2019s a big reason why I wanted to come out here. I just love the accountability and you get what you work for here.\u201d<\/p>\n
With these two together, it\u2019s a recipe for success!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots emphasized bringing in players who had connections with the coaching staff this offseason, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,10286,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-140277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jack-gibbens","10":"tag-mike-vrabel","11":"tag-new-england","12":"tag-new-england-patriots","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114705814730925668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}