FOXBORO \u2014 Before the Patriots took the field for their first training camp practice of the Mike Vrabel era, Robert Kraft expressed his optimism for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, after my family, the most important thing for me is this team winning football games, and it was really tough (the past few years),\u201d the Patriots owner said in a brief news conference Wednesday morning. \u201cSo, it\u2019s my job to do whatever I can to help that happen. I feel good about the foundation of what we have now, and now we\u2019ve got to go execute and make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kraft purchased the franchise in 1994, and the last two seasons were the worst of his ownership tenure \u2014 4-13 under Bill Belichick in 2023 and 4-13 under Jerod Mayo in 2024. He\u2019s hoping Vrabel, a more experienced coaching staff and a revamped roster can return New England to relevance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dreamt about owning the team and trying to create something special,\u201d Kraft said, reiterating his oft-told story about being a Patriots season-ticket holder long before he owned the team, \u201cand except for the last two years, I think we\u2019ve done pretty well. Really, I\u2019m so excited for today and hopefully start a new chapter of our team doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what it\u2019s been like having Vrabel back in New England as head coach, Kraft recalled \u201cduking it out\u201d with the former Patriots linebacker when Vrabel was the team\u2019s NFLPA representative. Vrabel, Kraft said, could be \u201ca little bit tough,\u201d especially when he was arguing that revenue from businesses at the newly constructed Patriot Place should be shared with the union.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I hope, now that we have totally aligned interests, that he can bring that same spirit and energy,\u201d Kraft said. \u201cLook, he won three Super Bowls with us, and he\u2019s had the experience of coaching, and I think did a very good job down in Tennessee. So I\u2019m looking forward to it. We\u2019ve been able to bring in a group of young free agents, and I like our draft, and some real veterans that I think hopefully can make it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know everyone in my family says, \u2018Calm down, Dad,\u2019 but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 23, 2025 at 10:58 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2014 Before the Patriots took the field for their first training camp practice of the Mike Vrabel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[833,7,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,20419,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-230127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-drake-maye","9":"tag-football","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","17":"tag-patriots-training-camp","18":"tag-robert-kraft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114903539040003888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230127","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=230127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}