Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel addresses the media on Monday, July 28, 2025.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Where you guys good.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I care if you were a rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers,
I believe in your first padded practice you might have
gotten into a fight. Should I assume that you don't
want your rookies doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I don't want any of us doing that. It's a
long time ago, Karen, you're going to follow up, of course,
I mean we don't. I mean we want to be
able to practice the same way we have to play,
which is physical and within the rules, and I have
(00:40):
a great play demeanor and finished through the whistle and
all those things. And you know, if you throw a punch,
you're get kicked out of the game, which is going
to cross the team. So I don't anticipate any of that.
I I want us to celebrate with our team and
the defensive unit, celebrate with each other, offensive unit get
excited and celebrate with each other, not get into the
(01:01):
taunting and the things that we would you know that
we can't have during the game. I think I did.
It's it's it's a it's a good story about don't
use the fight, but the about a veteran player. Greg
Lloyd was a very dominant player, imposing figure and I
(01:23):
got drafted in April, and he didn't say a word
to me through OTAs and I'm on the defense, mind you,
and so I didn't say a word to me the
entire offseason. We go to training camp. You know, there
was a fight with me and a tight end and
I'm exhausted after practice and I see this like shadow
coming over me as I'm sitting in the locker room
(01:45):
and he's like in his deep voice and he's like, yeah,
the next time you want to come up underneath the
face mask. And I was like, you just now are
going to talk to me. He's like, yeah, I just
wanted to make sure you weren't like a punk, and
then then I would talk to you. So it's a
good example of just a veteran make sure that you know,
rookies kind of earned their stripes. I guess a little bit,
but to the point of yeah, I think. So you know,
(02:11):
this will be you know, truthfold will be down in
the red zone. We'll be getting a lot of work
in the red zone. Things happen a lot quicker down there. Uh,
tighter windows, just the speed of everything it can just
gets sped up. And so that'll be good for us.
To move on to that situation as well as to
see how we you know, start to practice and pads
and our pad level, our fundamentals, our hands and those
(02:34):
types of things. Mike, as you share that story and
talking about the guy and not talking to you for
a couple of months while you're together, do you feel
like it's different in the NFL or with this specific team. Well,
I just think that that was a Greg That was
a Greg Lloyd type of thing. I think that's that
was certainly his personality. I think that there's you know,
you're always trying to, you know, prove yourself to to
(02:57):
your teammates, especially as a young player, and Greg probably
took it a little to extreme. Four days without pad.
Your assignment level today maybe on a scale from one
to ten. I just think coming off of a day off,
I think this is just another step and in in
our program. So I try to come out here with
(03:19):
the same excitement and and give him everything I got
and and help them. So this is just another important
step throughout the process of preparation. Go ahead, don't you
Williams back out there with the team. Well, you know,
(03:39):
he has an energy to him, There's there's you know,
the players are. You know, they respond well to him
and when he you know, he has his clips that
he shows them and the things that he thinks are
important as a coordinator. You know, I think that they're
believing in what we want to do in our style
of play, and so just keep moving in ahead. And
(04:00):
but it's it's great to have him back, just his
personality and demeanor.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Like if you were in our shoes, what would you
think you'd say? You know, you guys should really watch this.
You've been doing this for a long time, you know how.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I mean if I was the part of the media, Yeah,
if you would, like say you, I don't think there's
ever a scenario where that would happen.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Oh, that's absolutely a matter of time. You already did
stuff with Felga fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
As soon as I'm done with this, I'm gonna be
in the witness protection and you want to you will
never find me, all right, Well, you would help us.
I mean I just think that how maybe some of
these uh you know, to me, it's that's it's it's
critical at a lot of scrimmage, right just being able
to make contact. There's gonna be a stalemate. There's two
professional players lined up across from each other. Who can
(04:45):
re engage, who can reset their feet, maybe get a
little extra movement? You know, how do how do we
play on it? Do we stay on our feet? Can
we practice like this and stand our feet? We got
a bunch of guys falling on the ground and rather
not see that. I just don't think that that good
teams end up practicing that way. Uh. And again, just
(05:06):
the urgency in which we move around practice that there's
we're in and out of the huddle, the players are
running on and off the field. Those are all things
that I think are critical. I think that translate to
the field, Uh, to the game. Excuse me? Right where
you know? You don't you're not standing ten yards behind
the ball, You're you're coming from the sideline, and we're
communicating the personnel and the quarterback has to echo that.
(05:29):
Those are the types of things right now that we're
trying to build a pretty strong camp soon. What have
you seen from him? What have you learned about him
with this offseason? Right? Great energy, great Demeanor're very coachable.
One of our off season award winners, so we obviously
worked extremely hard. Was what was here? Uh? Every day,
(05:51):
ready to learn, ready to you know, earn a role.
And I love being around pop. He's got a great,
great energy and has got a lot of respect from
everybody around here. One a little bit the other day.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
How much of that period is for experimentation with new
moves or techniques versus.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
The evaluation where guys are really obviously trying to win
every ret Yeah, I watch it a little bit. I
do think that that's probably a great question. One of the
players I coached in Houston, Whitney Merciless. You know, we
went through some developmental things with him. He was a
very talented player. One thing I always respected about Whitney
was his willingness to try new moves during practice and
(06:33):
you know, some of them wouldn't work, some of them
were he needed to see at full speed for him
to say, you know, that's not something that I'm going
to commit a lot of time too. And then others
that you know worked and he would commit time to.
So that's exactly why you do practice, is so that
you can, you know, sometimes figure out what doesn't work,
and you can eliminate some things and you can move on.
Especially as a pass rusher. Right you're trying to have
(06:54):
a couple of different pitches, not too many, but I
certainly needed some a fastball and some off speed pitches
and some counters. So this is why we practice, is
to be able to go out there and do that.
And I understand, you know a lot of those things,
and you know when you get to the team periods
and you get to the games and you can see
how guys pass rush. But you know, I think that's
(07:16):
obviously a good thing. The offensive linemen are going to
work on different techniques and things like that, so they're
not doing the same thing every single snap. Displayed a
real level of consistency over the course it was three
four years here in New England.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
What is it from your standpoint that's allowed him to
have that level of consistency.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, it's very, very, very comfortable player. I would very
similar to Kevin Byron. And you know, I'm not big
on comparisons and just talking about personalities, right, Like Kevin
was really confident and comfortable. He never looked stressed. And
you would look and see some younger players maybe at
the same position, and they would, I mean they'd be
(07:55):
sweating before the players 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.
And I feel the same about Hunter. I think that
he's anything that you ask him to do, it comes
very easy, and he's very instinctive. Uh, and he's got
a good feel for the game. So yeah, that's that's all.
(08:20):
Those are all positives, and I think that that leads
to his consistency.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Get back to those one on one situations with the
guys on the line.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
What are you hoping to see from from Will Campbell today?
What you know, what would you need to see to
look back on the table we'd go for every one
of our offensive linemen is that we're getting into the
line of scrimmage when we're running it, we're standing inside
out when we throw it. You know, the it's gonna
be the same for for every offensive lineman that we have.
You asked me a question about mill Williams. I'm gonna
(08:48):
tell you the same thing for every defensive lineman. You know,
we're gonna coach them all the same and continue to
do what we've been doing here the first couple of days,
Like when.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
We talked to the guys from the offense here, players
and coaches, very few of them have experience in Josh
McDaniel's playing for him and his offense.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What's that like? Having kind of a whole team learning
the offense and system together A lows people to stay engaged.
And there's modifications that we make and you know we'll
do that defensively and offensively. It puts something in and
then and then you always have the ability to adjust it.
And you know Josh is working well and they're all
working well together offensively about how we want to get
things done, you know. And that's I think when when
(09:30):
something's new, put a little bit more time into it
just so that you can kind of get the details
and you don't maybe take things for granted. Thank you.
Where you guys good.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I care if you were a rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers,
I believe in your first padded practice you might have
gotten into a fight. Should I assume that you don't
want your rookies doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I don't want any of us doing that. It's a
long time ago, Karen, you're going to follow up, of course,
I mean we don't. I mean we want to be
able to practice the same way we have to play,
which is physical and within the rules, and I have
(00:40):
a great play demeanor and finished through the whistle and
all those things. And you know, if you throw a punch,
you're get kicked out of the game, which is going
to cross the team. So I don't anticipate any of that.
I I want us to celebrate with our team and
the defensive unit, celebrate with each other, offensive unit get
excited and celebrate with each other, not get into the
(01:01):
taunting and the things that we would you know that
we can't have during the game. I think I did.
It's it's it's a it's a good story about don't
use the fight, but the about a veteran player. Greg
Lloyd was a very dominant player, imposing figure and I
(01:23):
got drafted in April, and he didn't say a word
to me through OTAs and I'm on the defense, mind you,
and so I didn't say a word to me the
entire offseason. We go to training camp. You know, there
was a fight with me and a tight end and
I'm exhausted after practice and I see this like shadow
coming over me as I'm sitting in the locker room
(01:45):
and he's like in his deep voice and he's like, yeah,
the next time you want to come up underneath the
face mask. And I was like, you just now are
going to talk to me. He's like, yeah, I just
wanted to make sure you weren't like a punk, and
then then I would talk to you. So it's a
good example of just a veteran make sure that you know,
rookies kind of earned their stripes. I guess a little bit,
but to the point of yeah, I think. So you know,
(02:11):
this will be you know, truthfold will be down in
the red zone. We'll be getting a lot of work
in the red zone. Things happen a lot quicker down there. Uh,
tighter windows, just the speed of everything it can just
gets sped up. And so that'll be good for us.
To move on to that situation as well as to
see how we you know, start to practice and pads
and our pad level, our fundamentals, our hands and those
(02:34):
types of things. Mike, as you share that story and
talking about the guy and not talking to you for
a couple of months while you're together, do you feel
like it's different in the NFL or with this specific team. Well,
I just think that that was a Greg That was
a Greg Lloyd type of thing. I think that's that
was certainly his personality. I think that there's you know,
you're always trying to, you know, prove yourself to to
(02:57):
your teammates, especially as a young player, and Greg probably
took it a little to extreme. Four days without pad.
Your assignment level today maybe on a scale from one
to ten. I just think coming off of a day off,
I think this is just another step and in in
our program. So I try to come out here with
(03:19):
the same excitement and and give him everything I got
and and help them. So this is just another important
step throughout the process of preparation. Go ahead, don't you
Williams back out there with the team. Well, you know,
(03:39):
he has an energy to him, There's there's you know,
the players are. You know, they respond well to him
and when he you know, he has his clips that
he shows them and the things that he thinks are
important as a coordinator. You know, I think that they're
believing in what we want to do in our style
of play, and so just keep moving in ahead. And
(04:00):
but it's it's great to have him back, just his
personality and demeanor.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Like if you were in our shoes, what would you
think you'd say? You know, you guys should really watch this.
You've been doing this for a long time, you know how.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I mean if I was the part of the media, Yeah,
if you would, like say you, I don't think there's
ever a scenario where that would happen.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Oh, that's absolutely a matter of time. You already did
stuff with Felga fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
As soon as I'm done with this, I'm gonna be
in the witness protection and you want to you will
never find me, all right, Well, you would help us.
I mean I just think that how maybe some of
these uh you know, to me, it's that's it's it's
critical at a lot of scrimmage, right just being able
to make contact. There's gonna be a stalemate. There's two
professional players lined up across from each other. Who can
(04:45):
re engage, who can reset their feet, maybe get a
little extra movement? You know, how do how do we
play on it? Do we stay on our feet? Can
we practice like this and stand our feet? We got
a bunch of guys falling on the ground and rather
not see that. I just don't think that that good
teams end up practicing that way. Uh. And again, just
(05:06):
the urgency in which we move around practice that there's
we're in and out of the huddle, the players are
running on and off the field. Those are all things
that I think are critical. I think that translate to
the field, Uh, to the game. Excuse me? Right where
you know? You don't you're not standing ten yards behind
the ball, You're you're coming from the sideline, and we're
communicating the personnel and the quarterback has to echo that.
(05:29):
Those are the types of things right now that we're
trying to build a pretty strong camp soon. What have
you seen from him? What have you learned about him
with this offseason? Right? Great energy, great Demeanor're very coachable.
One of our off season award winners, so we obviously
worked extremely hard. Was what was here? Uh? Every day,
(05:51):
ready to learn, ready to you know, earn a role.
And I love being around pop. He's got a great,
great energy and has got a lot of respect from
everybody around here. One a little bit the other day.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
How much of that period is for experimentation with new
moves or techniques versus.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
The evaluation where guys are really obviously trying to win
every ret Yeah, I watch it a little bit. I
do think that that's probably a great question. One of the
players I coached in Houston, Whitney Merciless. You know, we
went through some developmental things with him. He was a
very talented player. One thing I always respected about Whitney
was his willingness to try new moves during practice and
(06:33):
you know, some of them wouldn't work, some of them
were he needed to see at full speed for him
to say, you know, that's not something that I'm going
to commit a lot of time too. And then others
that you know worked and he would commit time to.
So that's exactly why you do practice, is so that
you can, you know, sometimes figure out what doesn't work,
and you can eliminate some things and you can move on.
Especially as a pass rusher. Right you're trying to have
(06:54):
a couple of different pitches, not too many, but I
certainly needed some a fastball and some off speed pitches
and some counters. So this is why we practice, is
to be able to go out there and do that.
And I understand, you know a lot of those things,
and you know when you get to the team periods
and you get to the games and you can see
how guys pass rush. But you know, I think that's
(07:16):
obviously a good thing. The offensive linemen are going to
work on different techniques and things like that, so they're
not doing the same thing every single snap. Displayed a
real level of consistency over the course it was three
four years here in New England.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
What is it from your standpoint that's allowed him to
have that level of consistency.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, it's very, very, very comfortable player. I would very
similar to Kevin Byron. And you know, I'm not big
on comparisons and just talking about personalities, right, Like Kevin
was really confident and comfortable. He never looked stressed. And
you would look and see some younger players maybe at
the same position, and they would, I mean they'd be
(07:55):
sweating before the players 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.
And I feel the same about Hunter. I think that
he's anything that you ask him to do, it comes
very easy, and he's very instinctive. Uh, and he's got
a good feel for the game. So yeah, that's that's all.
(08:20):
Those are all positives, and I think that that leads
to his consistency.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Get back to those one on one situations with the
guys on the line.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
What are you hoping to see from from Will Campbell today?
What you know, what would you need to see to
look back on the table we'd go for every one
of our offensive linemen is that we're getting into the
line of scrimmage when we're running it, we're standing inside
out when we throw it. You know, the it's gonna
be the same for for every offensive lineman that we have.
You asked me a question about mill Williams. I'm gonna
(08:48):
tell you the same thing for every defensive lineman. You know,
we're gonna coach them all the same and continue to
do what we've been doing here the first couple of days,
Like when.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
We talked to the guys from the offense here, players
and coaches, very few of them have experience in Josh
McDaniel's playing for him and his offense.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
What's that like? Having kind of a whole team learning
the offense and system together A lows people to stay engaged.
And there's modifications that we make and you know we'll
do that defensively and offensively. It puts something in and
then and then you always have the ability to adjust it.
And you know Josh is working well and they're all
working well together offensively about how we want to get
things done, you know. And that's I think when when
(09:30):
something's new, put a little bit more time into it
just so that you can kind of get the details
and you don't maybe take things for granted. Thank you.
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