{"id":161527,"date":"2025-06-27T02:49:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T02:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/161527\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T02:49:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T02:49:26","slug":"patriots-harold-landry-always-expected-to-win-with-mike-vrabel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/161527\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots’ Harold Landry always expected to win with Mike Vrabel"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBORO \u2014 The decision was an easy one for Harold Landry after he was released by the Titans in early March.<\/p>\n

A free agent for the first time in his career, Landry liked what his former head coach, Mike Vrabel, was building<\/a> with the Patriots.<\/p>\n

So, he signed a three-year, $43.5 million contract<\/a> with the Patriots on the eve of free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was definitely a place that I wanted to be,\u201d Landry said Tuesday. \u201cI was getting excited about the staff he was putting together, and I just felt like this was the right place for me. I\u2019m excited to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helps that Landry, who was selected in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Boston College<\/a>, is familiar with the area, as well. He drove around Chestnut Hill with his wife recently and was amazed at the renovations his alma mater had made.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also obvious from hearing Landry talk about his experience with Vrabel why he wanted to play for the former Titans head coach again. The Titans were 54-45 under Vrabel during Landry\u2019s tenure, making the playoffs three straight seasons from 2019 -21.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like one of the main jobs for a head coach is to make sure your team\u2019s prepared situationally,\u201d Landry said. \u201cAnd all I know is, as long as I played for Vrabes, there was never a situation I wasn\u2019t prepared for. Like, I don\u2019t care what the score was in the fourth quarter. I don\u2019t know. We just always had a feeling that we was going to pull this out. Didn\u2019t matter what the score was going into the fourth and we just always found a way to win. It\u2019s crazy. We just found a way to win. And that was just kind of the mentality. We just didn\u2019t think we could lose, to be honest, no matter what was going on in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Patriots didn\u2019t have reason to believe that last season when they went 4-13 under head coach Jerod Mayo. They went 4-13 under Bill Belichick in 2023, as well, and haven\u2019t made the postseason since 2021.<\/p>\n

Patriots cornerback Marcus Jones had a more brief encounter with Vrabel, taking a pre-draft visit with the Titans in 2022. He\u2019s also come away with a strong impression of his new head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy, when I met him back then, and I\u2019m happy to be back in the building,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd he brings that excitement. And then also he\u2019s one of those guys to where whenever we are doing something, he likes to be hands-on. So just having that in the building, and this, you know, the excitement, having the music playing and everything like that, in the hallways it\u2019s great to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones expects Vrabel to keep up his tradition of getting involved in practice drills by grabbing a blocking pad to help out the defensive line.<\/p>\n

Vrabel doesn\u2019t just bring the energy on the practice field. Landry sees his head coach as an \u201cupbeat\u201d personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants everybody to be excited when they come to work,\u201d Landry said. \u201cHe\u2019s big on that. He\u2019s big on energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody looks at him as this head coach, but he really, he\u2019s really just one of the boys, a locker room guy. I really mean that. He wants to get to know you, know about your family and everything that goes along with being in a relationship with you. \u2026 He\u2019s big on treating you how you treat the team. You treat the team with respect, he\u2019s got nothing but respect for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landry said another primary reason why he wanted to play under Vrabel again was the coach\u2019s ability to put him in the best position to succeed.<\/p>\n

\"TennesseeTennessee Titans outside linebacker Harold Landry takes a drink of water during an NFL joint training camp practice with the Seattle Seahawks, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo\/George Walker IV)<\/p>\n

The edge defender played five seasons under Vrabel (he missed 2022 with a torn ACL) and registered 41.5 sacks, two interceptions, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, 326 tackles, 55 tackles for loss and 87 QB hits from 2018 to 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited to come back because he knows my skill set,\u201d Landry said. \u201cHe knows how I operate, and I think throughout my career, he and his staff have done a great job of putting me in positions to go out and be productive and help the team, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking forward to, and that was one of the main reasons why I came here, because I knew Vrabes and his staff knew me, the familiarity with the scheme and all of it, it just fits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: April 8, 2025 at 4:17 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2014 The decision was an easy one for Harold Landry after he was released by the Titans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2061],"tags":[80,833,839,7,287,838,249,6,15,835,832,208,836,834,831,837,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-161527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","9":"tag-drake-maye","10":"tag-eliot-wolf","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-harold-landry","13":"tag-mike-vrabel","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nfl-draft","17":"tag-nfl-news","18":"tag-nfl-rumors","19":"tag-patriots","20":"tag-patriots-2025","21":"tag-patriots-news","22":"tag-patriots-rumors","23":"tag-robert-kraft","24":"tag-tennessee","25":"tag-tennessee-titans","26":"tag-tennesseetitans","27":"tag-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114753055628425096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161527","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=161527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}