FOXBORO \u2014 During Mike Vrabel\u2019s six seasons as head coach in Tennessee, one of his most accomplished players was Kevin Byard, the two-time All-Pro safety.<\/p>\n
Though they play different positions on different sides of the ball, Vrabel sees a lot of Byard in one of the Patriots veterans he now coaches: tight end Hunter Henry.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Henry is) a very comfortable player,\u201d Vrabel said before Monday\u2019s training camp practice. \u201cVery similar to Kevin Byard. And you know I\u2019m not big on comparisons, just talking about personalities. Kevin was really confident and comfortable. He never looked stressed. You would look and see some younger players maybe at the same position and they\u2019d be sweating before the play would start. They were making checks and everything else and running. And Kevin just always had a very calm, confident demeanor and was an excellent player for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the same about Hunter. I think that he\u2019s, anything that you ask him to do, it comes very easy and he\u2019s very instinctive and he\u2019s got a good feel for the game. So, those are all positives, and I think that leads to his consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry said he appreciated that praise from his head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot that he would say that,\u201d he said. \u201cI try to bring that every single day. I try to be the same guy in the building, out here, at home with my wife and kids. \u2026 It\u2019s an honor for him to say that, but it\u2019s all the people around me, and definitely my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry is coming off the best statistical season of his career, setting personal bests in catches (66; tied for most of the team) and receiving yards (team-high 674). The 30-year-old was a reliable target for quarterback Drake Maye \u2014 as he was for Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe in previous years \u2014 and a team captain. But the Patriots went 4-13 and fielded a below-average offense, just as they did in 2023.<\/p>\n
Those struggles, Henry said, helped him become the unflappable player that Vrabel described.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think I\u2019ve grown more in the last two years than I have in the last, probably, 28 years of my life, to be honest,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n
As both a trusted weapon for Maye and one of the few current Patriots with experience playing under offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels (with whom he overlapped in 2021), Henry again will play a key role in New England\u2019s passing game this season.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 28, 2025 at 1:55 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2014 During Mike Vrabel\u2019s six seasons as head coach in Tennessee, one of his most accomplished players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[7,290,4861,838,249,6,208,20419,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-244073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hunter-henry","10":"tag-kevin-byard","11":"tag-mike-vrabel","12":"tag-new-england-patriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-patriots","15":"tag-patriots-training-camp","16":"tag-tennessee","17":"tag-tennessee-titans","18":"tag-tennesseetitans","19":"tag-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114933797166763055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244073","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=244073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}