FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The proper aspect of Mike Vrabel’s face paid the value.
In early August, he was standing behind the New England Patriots’ offense throughout a joint apply with the Washington Commanders when he noticed rookie working again TreVeyon Henderson step up with a block and get twisted up with a defender on the bottom. As they wrestled with one another, extra gamers joined in. After which, so did Vrabel — with different gamers piling on prime of him.
The previous 14-year NFL linebacker who grew to become a head coach emerged with a bloody minimize on his cheek, holding a big bag of ice on it as apply continued.
If there was a second that finest captures Vrabel’s intense management type and the way gamers have responded to it since he was employed because the sixteenth head coach in Patriots historical past in January, this was it.
“That is what we’re attempting to construct, and it begins with the pinnacle coach,” quarterback Drake Maye mentioned. “The depth, bringing it every single day, taking no crap after we’re on the market on the sector.”
“He is proper there with us. I believe that participant comes out in him,” added tight finish Hunter Henry. “You need to love a coach that has aggressive juices like us.”
Vrabel’s presence has lit a firecracker contained in the Patriots group along with his dive-headfirst-in-the-pile strategy, an emphasis on gamers understanding one another, and a clearly outlined imaginative and prescient for the kind of workforce he desires to discipline — and the “violent” type it’ll play. His return to the franchise for which he performed from 2001 to 2008, as an integral a part of three Tremendous Bowl championship groups, sparks hope that New England will quickly be competing for Tremendous Bowl championships once more after back-to-back four-win seasons.
Proprietor Robert Kraft is relying on Vrabel being the reply after referring to the previous two seasons — with Invoice Belichick, then Jerod Mayo — because the worst in his 31-year tenure.
Vrabel’s debut comes Sept. 7 at residence towards the Las Vegas Raiders (1 p.m. ET, CBS), nearly one month to the day his bloodied cheek was heard throughout the NFL.
“I texted him as a result of I needed the visible proof of how dangerous the harm was,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell mentioned with a smile. “He despatched me an image again instantly. It was an up shut and private image of Vrabe’s face. I hadn’t seen him like that in a very long time.”
Becoming, after all. Vrabel was by no means shy of getting in one other participant’s face within the warmth of competitors.
As a coach, he has combined that strategy with a softer contact.
VRABEL PINPOINTED TEAM bonding as one among his three aims for a profitable coaching camp and preseason. The others are incomes a task and making ready to win.
So he turned to the “4 H’s,” with gamers relaying poignant tales in conferences about their hometown, heartbreak, hero and hope.
“Simply attending to know your brothers outdoors of the locker room, what they are going by means of in life,” defined offensive deal with Morgan Moses, who enters his twelfth NFL season and first in New England. “Adversity in life comes from in all places. If you realize your brother’s story, and also you’re ready to share these issues together with your brothers, you possibly can battle for one another. These are the closest groups.”
Vrabel’s “4 H’s” have tried to personalize what can be a transactional enterprise.
“We’d like [players] to place the workforce first and we’ll ask all people to make powerful choices,” Vrabel mentioned of his give attention to connectivity. “Hopefully, the higher you realize someone and perceive who they’re taking part in for, and attempting to help, the issues occurring outdoors of [football], there’s a number of similarities, and I believe the higher it’s to work with them.”
Henderson, the 2025 second-round choose from Ohio State who was the workforce’s most electrical performer of the preseason, shared that these connections have helped in his transition to the NFL.
“This workforce, I really feel prefer it’s so shut. Coach Vrabel and the Patriots group have performed a terrific job bringing us collectively, serving to be taught one another’s tales and issues like that,” Henderson mentioned. “One thing that I am going by once I play this sport is I play for God and for the love of my brothers. Simply to listen to these guys’ tales, it simply makes you need to go the additional mile.”
Moses, who at 34 is the oldest participant on the roster, referred to as the rookie class led by first-round choose Will Campbell and Henderson the most effective he has been round in maturity and humility.
He mentioned all gamers’ willingness to share a few of their most private tales has constructed momentum within the formation of a workforce in Vrabel’s picture.
“Whenever you hear different folks’s takes on issues, it opens alternative so that you can communicate and a number of these messages you hear, they resonate with you. We’re not cliqued up on this locker room. We’re a household. That is a part of the tradition that Mike Vrabel has introduced and been part of.”
His snicker will get us each time 😂@NFL | #NEPats pic.twitter.com/KhP9AjSveK
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 16, 2025
VRABEL WAS LAUGHING in ache because the Patriots ready to face the Vikings on Aug. 16 at U.S. Financial institution Stadium in Minnesota.
As he typically does at apply or as a part of draft exercises with Campbell when he went 1-on-1 with the eventual first-round choose and was knocked on his bottom, Vrabel put a blocking pad over his chest and inserted himself into the motion. This time it was with fifth-year defensive deal with Christian Barmore, the 6-foot-5, 315-pound defensive deal with.
Vrabel braced himself for impression, his proper foot stepped ahead, the quantity “00” the goal throughout his chest for Barmore to thrust his fingers into at shoulder stage.
“That is it!” Vrabel yelled out with a smile as Barmore crunched him.
When Barmore delivered a second strike, Vrabel may solely snicker.
Gamers say the 50-year-old Vrabel is a “hands-on” coach. His pregame drill with Barmore even caught the eye of his assistants.
“Rocking him. Hitting him. He simply loves the sport of soccer,” outdoors linebackers coach Mike Smith mentioned of Vrabel taking these strikes from the 26-year-old Barmore.
Smith shared his viewpoint that Vrabel is just like Chiefs coach Andy Reid, for whom he labored from 2016 to 2018.
“Andy won’t get on the market and put that stuff on and won’t yell as a lot, however they’re each very clear of their plan. There isn’t a grey space,” Smith mentioned. “Coach Reid used to steer the assembly and say, ‘Does everybody know the place we’re at and the place we’re going?’ That is the factor with Vrabel … you realize precisely how he feels. I simply respect that half. There isn’t any hidden agenda. What you see is what you get.”
Vrabel has recognized 4 pillars of what he desires the Patriots’ id to be and has erected indicators contained in the workforce assembly room as a reminder:
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Effort and end
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Ball safety and ball disruption
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Particulars, method and fundamentals
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Making nice choices
“He units the tone with the play type that he desires, and he hammers it every single day,” mentioned inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr, who additionally labored for Vrabel in Tennessee and pinpointed “violence” and taking part in on the other aspect of the road of scrimmage as core tenets of Vrabel’s defensive philosophy.
Vrabel had preached an identical strategy throughout his time as Tennessee Titans head coach (2018-23), when he was fired by proprietor Amy Adams Strunk after a 6-11 season and two years after successful the AP Coach of the Yr. He spent 2024 as a marketing consultant on Kevin Stefanski’s Cleveland Browns employees and mentioned he discovered how a lot he missed main a workforce.
In his first full day as Patriots coach, Vrabel mentioned merely at his introductory information convention in January: “We simply need to be adequate to reap the benefits of dangerous soccer.”
Kraft remembers experiencing such directness from Vrabel as a participant.
“He was a little bit bit powerful; he represented the [players’] union,” Kraft mentioned. “That is the one stadium that’s totally non-public, and we needed to spend money on the land round it to hopefully get financial exercise to justify our doing this. He needed the income to enter the union for the [salary] cap.
“I keep in mind duking it out with him. Now that we now have completely aligned pursuits, [I hope] he can deliver that [same] spirit and vitality.”
TWO OF VRABEL’S prime objectives have been achieved. A workforce has been shaped. Roles have been earned with an id coming into focus.
Subsequent comes execution and on-field outcomes.
Summing up his ideas on the path of his franchise and what it would be capable to accomplish underneath Vrabel in 2025, Kraft struck an optimistic observe.
“He is had the expertise teaching and, I believe, did an excellent job in Tennessee. We have been in a position to herald a bunch of younger free brokers, and I like our draft, and a few actual veterans that I believe can hopefully make it occur,” he mentioned. “I be ok with the muse of what we now have. Now we now have to go execute and make it occur.”
On the identical time, Kraft acknowledged that some in his household have informed him to mood these expectations based mostly on the time it typically takes to rebuild from a four-win season.
ESPN Analytics tasks a bump for the Patriots to eight.1 wins, which is tied with the Jacksonville Jaguars for twentieth within the NFL. Moreover, New England has the third-easiest energy of schedule, in accordance with ESPN Analytics — behind the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints.
The Patriots’ win complete at ESPN BET Sportsbook is 8.5. The plus-4.5 projected enhance in wins is tied with the 49ers for the biggest anticipated enhance within the NFL.
Vrabel has set the Patriots’ big-picture expectations excessive, saying the objective is to win the AFC East, host residence playoff video games and play for championships. He has pressured to gamers the significance of taking part in to their id and being ready to win shut video games.
Veteran heart Garrett Bradbury believes it is too early to inform what the Patriots would possibly turn out to be.
“That is [Year] 7 for me and there is been years the place I did not assume we had been going to be excellent and we win a bunch of video games, and vice versa,” he mentioned. “Coach talks about it on a regular basis — there’s so many one-score video games within the NFL. Some say it is whether or not the ball bounces your method or not. Some say it is simply benefiting from alternatives.
“That is why Coach Vrabel is on us about method and particulars. Certain, there may be 70 offensive snaps, however 1-2 would possibly change the sport. We now have to be as locked in as we will and ensure we win these shut video games.”
Gamers have taken Vrabel’s cue.
“Coach is attempting to construct a workforce that is bringing it each play,” Maye mentioned. “No performs off. No days off.”
