{"id":48407,"date":"2025-05-14T03:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T03:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/48407\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T03:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T03:26:10","slug":"new-patriots-star-reveals-why-mike-vrabel-called-him-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/48407\/","title":{"rendered":"New Patriots Star Reveals Why Mike Vrabel Called Him Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots made the biggest financial investment in franchise history to Milton Williams this offseason. <\/p>\n<p>That will bring massive expectations for the standout defensive tackle, who signed a four-year, $104 million pact with the Patriots after winning the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles, to perform to the highest level, even during a conditioning drill in the first week of the team\u2019s offseason program.<\/p>\n<p>Williams relayed a story to reporters Tuesday about how Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel got on him about not having a strong finish to a run. Players were expected to run from the goal line to a certain point on the field and back in a predetermined time set by Vrabel.<\/p>\n<p>Williams was having no problem making it in time, but cruised at the end. Vrabel noticed and didn\u2019t hold back from calling out Williams. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe let me know, like, \u2018Hey, if you\u2019re going to be here, you need to set the standard,&#8217;\u201d Williams told reporters, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2025\/05\/13\/sports\/patriots-notebook-mike-vrabel-milton-williams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">per The Boston Globe\u2019s Nicole Yang<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Don\u2019t let them catch you. If you can make it faster, make it.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018All right,\u2019 so every rep since then I\u2019m trying to make sure I\u2019m the first one back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like that\u2019s going to help me, just push me to get where I want to be. And the guys that are running with me, that\u2019s going to push them to run even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Williams didn\u2019t take issue with being challenged by Vrabel in that manner, helping further set the tone for these new-look Patriots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just gives you more energy to do what you got to do and put it all on the line for him,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m bigger than the next person. I don\u2019t mind getting called out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams started all 17 games for the Eagles a season ago and was a defensive difference-maker despite playing just 48% of the team\u2019s defensive snap in a vaunted unit. Williams totaled seven tackles for loss, 10 quarterback hits and five sacks in his fourth NFL season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s expected Williams <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/03\/patriots-top-free-agent-addition-ready-to-prove-narrative-wrong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">will play a much larger role<\/a> in the Patriots defense this upcoming season and he\u2019s eager to show he\u2019s someone the team can rely on no matter the situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can trust me to do my job, whatever they need me to do,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI\u2019m not really a rah-rah guy. Just whatever they ask us to do, do it. Just lead by example. Hopefully, the guys see me working and they\u2019ll want to follow suit. Just try to bring everybody along to what we\u2019re trying to build here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots made the biggest financial investment in franchise history to Milton Williams this offseason. That&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,838,7891,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-48407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mike-vrabel","10":"tag-milton-williams","11":"tag-new-england","12":"tag-new-england-patriots","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114504059099345578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48407","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=48407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}