FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2014 Mike Vrabel was hired as New England Patriots coach seven months ago to recalibrate a team that hasn\u2019t won a playoff game since its most recent Super Bowl win in the 2018 season, and has slumped to 4-13 finishes the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Everything Vrabel has done, from hiring his coaching staff to building out the roster through free agency and the draft, has been about laying a foundation for his first season.<\/p>\n
As important as all those steps and initial spring workouts have been in the process, the work begins in earnest Wednesday with the start of training camp. He said his message to his new team will be simple. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to build a team,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cWe have to start coming together as a football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vrabel arrived at Foxborough having shared history with each of his two predecessors \u2014 winning two Super Bowls as a player under Bill Belichick and then playing his final season in New England alongside Belichick successor Jerod Mayo.<\/p>\n
When he was hired in January, Vrabel said his initial goal would be to put together a team capable of taking advantage of opponents when they play bad football. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s still an ongoing project, but one that he believes they\u2019ve made headway on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re closer than where we were in March or April when we got here. I think we are,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cI think the players are starting to understand. We talk about the good, the bad, and the (stuff) that gets you beat, and I think that they can tell the difference between those three now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Special teamer Brenden Schooler, who earned his first All-Pro selection last season, said the no-nonsense vibe Vrabel has introduced is noticeable around the team facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not scared, but you know he\u2019s not messing around,\u201d Schooler said.<\/p>\n
One thing that has helped Vrabel make an early impression is that he won\u2019t be coaching any players that have links to the Patriots most recent run of success. <\/p>\n
Following the release of long snapper Joe Cardona in April, there are no remaining players on New England\u2019s roster that were on the 2018 Super Bowl team.<\/p>\n
As he begins the process of whittling down the 91 players that will begin camp, Vrabel said he wants to see them not just try to make the roster but carve out a role with the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different levels to what those roles are, and in my 14-year career I\u2019ve had plenty of them: from special teams, multiple-position backup, to starter, a starter that was expected to be productive, to a veteran leader,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cSo, there\u2019s multiple levels of what that role will be, and it\u2019s up to them to earn it.\u201d.<\/p>\n
No limits for Diggs<\/p>\n
Receiver Stefon Diggs passed his physical and will be practicing without limitations nine months after undergoing season-ending knee surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a testament to how hard he worked,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cIs he going to take every single rep of every single period? No, and I don\u2019t think any player will. But I think we\u2019re off to a good start and encouraged by what we saw here in the last couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n
A four-time Pro Bowl selection, Diggs had six straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons for the Vikings and Bills before he was traded from Buffalo to Houston last spring. He had 47 catches for 496 yards and three touchdowns in eight games for the Texans before he tore the ACL in his right knee in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2014 Mike Vrabel was hired as New England Patriots coach seven months ago to recalibrate a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[41907,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,2309],"class_list":{"0":"post-227898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-audio_enabled","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots","16":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114898745683233295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227898","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=227898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}