Pay attention, New England media, Mike Vrabel’s first training camp as Patriots coach is now in session.
One Boston reporter learned that lesson the hard way Tuesday when they received a scolding from the Patriots’ Super Bowl-winning linebacker-turned-head coach at a press conference after posing a similar question that Vrabel had already answered about how players utilized their time away from the facility.
“I mean, whether you were in a coma when I answered Tom’s [Curran] question, typing on your phone or tweeting, I don’t know, but I spent five minutes answering that question. I can go back through it, but I’d rather not,” Vrabel said.
The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin was on the receiving end of the Vrabel call-out and flagged himself for a “total lack of focus.”
As Tuesday’s press conference continued, Vrabel provided further context on the players’ conditioning and expressed hope that he wouldn’t have to repeat himself down the line.
“We won’t know — we did pretty good on the linear run test, which they practiced; they knew what it was going to be. The big thing will come when they’re in line contact. You’re sitting there, you’re wrestling with a guy, and then the D-lineman’s rushing, he almost gets to the quarterback, but we’re telling him to plant, run and go sprint to the football, and then go do it again. Or, we’re asking Kyle Williams to go run a post, and he didn’t get the ball, but he wanted to get the ball, but he didn’t. Can he run back, get set and know what to do the next play? That’s really where we’ll see. So, I’ll be able to answer that question, again, hopefully only once, in a few days,” he said.
Vrabel, 49, is tasked with restoring the Patriots to their glory days following a string of dreadful seasons under his former coach, Bill Belichick, and fellow New England alum Jerod Mayo, who was fired in January after an embarrassing 4-13 campaign.
He spent the 2024 season as a coaching and personnel consultant with the Browns after being fired by the Titans in January of that year following six seasons at the helm.
A winning culture is at the forefront of Vrabel’s game plan entering training camp.
“I have to continue to teach, develop and make connections with our guys. Through that, preparing them to win, and the situations, getting them to understand that there’s different ways to win a football game. There’s a lot of ways to lose them, but we want to focus on the ways that we’re going to win, and sometimes that’s going to be different each and every week with whatever that plan to win is each and every week. I have to try to do that. I have to get our coaches to do that and get our players to understand that,” he said.
The Patriots open the season at home against the Raiders on Sept. 7.