Sturm said of making the trek to Foxborough<\/a>. \u201cI think the last time I\u2019ve been here, I was a player with the Bruins \u2014 so over 20 years ago. Things are definitely nicer, bigger. <\/p>\n\u201cBut, yeah, it\u2019s just nice for me to see \u2014 you can see already that it\u2019s getting a little bit more intense now. The season opener is pretty soon. \u2026 You can tell guys are focused and guys are getting ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Sturm and Vrabel are going to be handed similar tasks when it comes to trying to right the ship for their respective teams. <\/p>\n
While Vrabel has more experience as a head coach after coaching the Titans from 2018-23, he has his work cut out for him when it comes to building up a New England roster that posted just four wins in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
So far, Sturm has been impressed with what he\u2019s seen from Vrabel as he begins his first year at the helm in Foxborough. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great. I mean, the first time I met him was today. Really good. Seems like a really good football guy, lots of energy, ready to work every day,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cI remember him as a player, and I feel like that\u2019s exactly how he coaches, too. So I think the Patriots and us as fans \u2014 and the media \u2014 are going to be really happy to have a guy like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sturm also has a sizable undertaking in front of him as well when it comes to building up a new core in Boston \u2014 especially after the Bruins bottomed out last season with a 33-39-10 record.<\/p>\n
Given the state of the respective rosters in Foxborough and Boston, Sturm stressed the importance of having an intense coach like Vrabel in place ahead of a season that should have some expected growing pains. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou still need a guy who pushes you every day,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cSeems like in every sport, the athletes are getting younger and younger. So it\u2019s a little bit up to the leadership group and also up to the coaches, up to us, to push those guys every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sturm is not the first Boston coach to make a pit stop over at Foxborough this summer, as Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla also made an appearance during training camp in July. <\/p>\n
\u201cJoe is fantastic,\u201d Vrabel said of Mazzulla in July. \u201cWe\u2019re probably different personalities, and that\u2019s what I appreciate most about him. He\u2019s always trying to learn and gain knowledge, different ways about building a team, about strategy, about scheme, and inspiring players to do their job better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“I think the Patriots and us as fans \u2014 and the media \u2014 are going to be really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[433,787,59761,7,4247,1167,249,2326,2094,9666,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-323698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-bruins-head-coach-marco-sturm-meets-mike-vrabel-at-patriots-practice","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-new-england","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-newengland","16":"tag-newenglandpatriots","17":"tag-newsbreak","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115105086033829103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323698","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=323698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}