How Mike Vrabel galvanized Patriots to top of AFC in a year
Mike ReissDec 1, 2025, 06:00 AM ETCloseMike Reiss is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the New England Patriots. Reiss has covered the Patriots since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2009. In 2019, he was named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Roughly 11 months ago, after a second straight season in which the New England Patriots were one of the NFL’s worst teams, owner Robert Kraft touted what he believed would spark a turnaround.On the day Kraft introduced Mike Vrabel, 50, as the 16th head coach in franchise history, Kraft complimented his playing and coaching experience and shared how Vrabel detailed to him a “clear and focused strategy to get us back to a championship way.”Kraft didn’t mention a timeline that day. Nor did Vrabel.All the former NFL linebacker promised was to deliver a shot of energy.”I want to galvanize our football team. I want to galvanize this building. I want to galvanize our fans,” he said Jan. 13.With discipline and sticking to a multiyear vision to ensure success doesn’t dip beyond 2025, Vrabel has already accomplished that goal. In the process, he has accelerated the timeline for three things he promised his “program” would strive to accomplish: win the AFC East, host home playoff games and compete for championships.The 10-2 Patriots enter Monday’s game against the visiting New York Giants (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN) tied for the best record in the AFC with the Denver Broncos and riding an NFL-best nine-game win streak. New England has done it with shrewd free agent signings and a productive draft class, focusing on team chemistry, having one of the NFL’s more favorable schedules and, of course, quarterback Drake Maye’s ascension to MVP candidate in his second season.Editor’s Picks2 Related”I came here because of Drake,” Vrabel said on the Amazon Prime postgame show Nov. 13. “I knew what he would be. That’s who I wanted to coach.”Vrabel used free agency and the NFL draft to build around the franchise quarterback, who is completing 71% of his passes, with 21 touchdowns and 6 interceptions while adding 307 rushing yards and 2 rushing scores. Maye is second behind only Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford in MVP odds, according to DraftKings.”His ownership and command of the line of scrimmage has dominated the season,” ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky said. “His pocket movement and presence/feel has become one of the best in the NFL.”Stiffer challenges await should the Patriots continue their momentum into the playoffs, but to this point, they are one of the NFL’s most surprising teams.”Building a program is about putting great people around your really good players. That’s what Drake is for us. We have a lot of those guys,” Vrabel said after a Week 11 win against the New York Jets.”When we went through this process in the offseason, we were just trying to get the right people in the building at the right time. Talent obviously wins, but character and who you are is important in building a football team.”Vrabel built the Patriots around Maye by adding receivers and offensive line help last offseason. Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesWHEN CORNERBACK CARLTON Davis III arrived for a team meeting around the start of training camp in late July, he recalled one of Vrabel’s requests to players as outside the norm.”‘Don’t take yourself too serious(ly) in this building.”Davis, 28, quickly saw the trickle-down effect of Vrabel’s message.”That kind of alleviated all of the tension that may come into a football building,” he said. “He came off being a cool guy, personable, players coach. Everybody kind of bought into it, and we kind of created this quick brotherhood and this bond between each other, where we want to play for each other. But we also want to play for him.”Vrabel introduced the “4 H’s” in team meetings, as players and coaches shared powerful stories about their hometown, heartbreak, hero and hope. Connection was, and remains, an ongoing theme.”He talked about how he would walk into the team cafeteria when he first got here and it would be quiet, (players) would tense up a little bit. He didn’t like it and brought it to our attention,” Davis said.”He wanted everyone to be comfortable because you get the best out of everybody when they are not all tensed up and scared to make a mistake, on edge. I guess everybody kind of felt him in that moment. He’s the same way. It’s not like he’s saying something he’s not doing. He comes in and cracks jokes. He’s always on point on what’s going on.”One day in the spring, Vrabel oversaw a team-building activity in the family room at Gillette Stadium that Davis said matched players who normally wouldn’t be close to each other. Davis, for example, was blindfolded in an obstacle course and paired with receiver DeMario “Pop” Douglas, who gave him instructions on how to navigate his way through it.Best of NFL Nation• How Vrabel galvanized Patriots• Giants try to keep Dart upright• Ireland’s Smyth smashes Saints debut• Schottenheimer has Cowboys believing• Packers’ Wicks impressed the official
“At the moment, I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ But through that, you saw guys come together and create camaraderie,” said Davis, who spent the first six years of his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and last year with the Detroit Lions.”I can’t say I’ve had a stronger bond anywhere else.”That was on display after a last-minute win in Cincinnati during Week 12, when the players gathered in the locker room and held up a phone to FaceTime with veteran linebacker Jahlani Tavai, who missed the game because of undisclosed personal reasons. They dedicated the win to Tavai, who didn’t return to the team until this past Friday.Kraft said in a recent radio interview that togetherness has been a driving force for the team in a league driven by parity.”I was talking with Coach and just saying how you have to try to find the little things that give us a competitive advantage. It’s interpersonal things, and relationship things because we all (are under the same salary cap),” he said.Tight ends coach/passing-game coordinator Thomas Brown, who won a Super Bowl as a member of Sean McVay’s Rams staff (2020-22) and was interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers (2023) and Chicago Bears (2024) before joining the Patriots this season, has noted Vrabel’s tone-setting in another way.”When you have a consistent message, and lead people and treat people the right way, you have an opportunity to set the expectation and standard from Day 1,” Brown said. “What you want to have eventually as a coach is that your message echoes throughout the locker room and then your players communicate the same thing you want to emphasize — the team. They take ownership of it.”When your players have the opportunity to control the locker room and take charge, and create an environment of positive peer pressure, then you have an opportunity to be special.”Vrabel has built a bond in the locker room among coaches and players. Billie Weiss/Getty ImagesWHEN PLAYERS ENTERED the locker room a few weeks ago, they each had a gift from Vrabel draped over the chairs in front of their stalls. It was a customized blue “mechanic” work shirt with a patch on the left chest that included their name or nickname.Vrabel proudly wears one; it has “Vrabes” on the patch.The shirts, in some ways, mirror the type of blue-collar, no-frills players Vrabel had the personnel staff target in free agency and draft to help galvanize a roster that had fallen short in recent years.Special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer, at his weekly press conference, wears the shirt that coach Mike Vrabel gifted players and coaches.”I love them. Feels like when you put it on, you’re at work,” he says. pic.twitter.com/FdezjjdPee— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) November 28, 2025 “We’ve had players that have been released before, so they know what that feels like to be cut, and they don’t want to feel that again. They do everything they possibly can to not let that happen again. Maybe they don’t take things for granted,” he said.Perhaps no one fits that profile more than linebacker Robert Spillane, who signed a three-year, $33 million contract in March as one of the team’s prized free agents. Spillane entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2018 with Vrabel’s Titans, had been released twice by the Titans and later the Pittsburgh Steelers, and is one of six New England captains. He leads the team with 95 tackles (12th in the NFL entering Week 13) and embodies the No. 1 item on Vrabel’s ideal team identity — “effort and finish”. (The others are ball security/ball disruption; details, technique and fundamentals; and making great decisions.)Fellow linebacker Jack Gibbens, who wasn’t tendered a contract by the Titans as a restricted free agent and then signed a one-year, $1.8 million deal in New England in March, is tied for second on the Patriots with 10 special teams tackles and has been a key reserve on defense (35% of the snaps; 39 tackles). As he departed the locker room earlier this month, he donned his worker’s shirt with the nickname “Gibby” on the patch.Even defensive tackle Milton Williams, who signed a franchise record four-year, $104 million contract after four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, fit Vrabel’s vision. That was apparent during the first week of the voluntary offseason program when Vrabel called Williams out in front of teammates for not sprinting back to the starting line — after finishing a sprint.Williams, who entered the NFL as a third-round pick out of Louisiana Tech and played in the shadow of more highly touted Eagles teammates Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, embraced Vrabel’s motivational ways by saying: “Every rep since then, I’m trying to make sure I’m the first one back. I feel like it’s going to push me to where I want to be.”Williams, before being placed on injured reserve because of a high ankle sprain Nov. 15, had been arguably the team’s best defensive player. He ranked No. 3 among defensive tackles in ESPN’s pass rush win rate (14%) entering Week 13, behind only Tennessee’s Jeffery Simmons (21%) and Kansas City’s Chris Jones (17%).Veteran receiver Stefon Diggs, who signed a three-year, $69 million deal, has produced similar results as he leads the team with 61 receptions (11th in the NFL) for 679 yards (18th in the NFL) and 3 touchdowns.Diggs flashed a smile recently, saying of Vrabel: “I don’t know how he does it. He got me to buy in, I’ll tell you that.”Veteran receiver Stefon Diggs has been a big part of Vrabel’s offense and team identity. Kevin Sabitus/Getty ImagesThe Patriots have also received across-the-board contributions from their 11-member draft class, a group led by No. 4 pick Will Campbell at left tackle. Campbell, who started the first 12 games of the season before injuring his right knee last week in Cincinnati, won over Vrabel by knocking him on his backside in a predraft workout.Fourth-round pick Craig Woodson, who spent six seasons at Cal and earned the nickname “The Eraser” because his intelligence and instincts put him in position to clean up mistakes, has been thrown into the fire at safety. He leads the team with 97.8% of the defensive snaps and is second with 57 tackles. The patch on his work shirt reads “Top Flight” — a lighthearted reference to the movie “Friday After Next” and the characters playing the role of “Top Flight Security”, which Woodson also provides to New England’s defense.At the start of the season, veteran offensive tackle Morgan Moses, who is in his first season in New England and 12th in the NFL, said: “This is probably one of the best rookie classes I’ve been around. Especially now, with the NIL and all those things, these guys come in with money already. But we’ve got rookies that are humble, willing to learn.”Striking the right mix between free agency and the draft, but not mortgaging the future, has been at the core of Vrabel’s approach, along with that of director of football operations/game strategy John Streicher (Vrabel’s right-hand man going back to their time with the Titans), executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden.This was evident at the early-November trade deadline when they were the only contender to deal players to other teams — sending safety Kyle Dugger to Pittsburgh, and defensive lineman Keion White to San Francisco.Vrabel also noted the longer-range vision earlier in the season when he explained why the Patriots weren’t aggressively pursuing veterans who were in contract stalemates with their respective teams, such as Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson and Washington Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin.”We’ve tried to be as close to the plan as we could going through free agency and how we wanted to allocate it over the next two years — when we look at the (salary) cap,” Vrabel said in September.The Patriots are in a strong financial position with a league-leading $52 million of salary cap space, according to Over The Cap. They project to carry over a significant amount of that into 2026 to leave themselves flexibility to continue to build the roster in Vrabel’s image.Kraft made an aggressive decision to fire Jerod Mayo after one 4-13 season and hire Vrabel within a week — but it’s paying off. AP Photo/Gene J. PuskarKRAFT HAS ACKNOWLEDGED something else that has helped the Patriots in their quick ascension to the NFL’s upper tier.”If you do well, you draft lower and you play a tougher schedule. We have a little bit of an advantage coming off these last couple of years (at 4-13),” he said.The Patriots entered 2025 with the third-easiest strength of schedule (based on 2024 winning percentage) and that explains, in part, why ESPN’s Football Power Index ranks them 15th in the NFL. After Monday’s home game against the Giants (17th in FPI), the Patriots have their bye week before a rematch against the Bills (eighth in FPI) at home and a road contest vs. the Ravens (ninth in FPI). The Patriots finish the season on the road against the Jets (29th) and at home vs. the Dolphins (24th).Nonetheless, a few areas could come back to haunt New England in the playoffs as the margin for error tightens. The Patriots ranked 27th in the NFL in rushing average (3.9 yards) and goal-to-go efficiency (65%) despite having the most goal-to-go rushes in the league (34) entering Week 13. They also have started slowly on defense, allowing touchdowns on opening drives in six games, and join the Texans as the only defenses to allow TDs on every goal-to-go drive against them.”There’s a lot more that we can do. We can play better. We can play with better details,” Vrabel said, leading up to Monday’s game. “So, we’ll have to kind of keep that fine balance of understanding that wins are important, but improving at this time of the year is what’s most important.”Catch up on NFL Week 13• Takeaways, questions from each game »• Graziano overreacts to Week 13 »• Highlights » | Scoreboard » | More »
Injuries are also mounting after a run of mostly good fortune through the first 10 weeks of the season.Williams was the first starter to be placed on injured reserve after hurting his ankle early in a Week 11 win over the Jets. Then, last Sunday in Cincinnati, Campbell (right knee) and left guard Jared Wilson (right ankle) were carted off.The Patriots, who had started the same offensive linemen in 10 of the first 11 games, will now have their O-line depth tested. The line ranks 20th in pass block win rate — a significant improvement from the 31st and 32nd rankings of the previous two seasons — and now turns to four-year veterans Vederian Lowe at left tackle and Ben Brown at left guard.Furthermore, All-Pro special-teamer Brenden Schooler went down because of a left ankle injury Sunday and won’t play against the Giants. Defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga — starting in place of Williams — was ruled out after taking a shot to the ribs in the second quarter and is officially questionable to face the Giants.Vrabel’s mantra to players is “to prepare as a starter.””It’s a part of the game. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” said Vrabel, whose team has a long-awaited Week 14 bye before the highly anticipated games against the Bills and Ravens.”The confidence that we gain in practice is really critical. Each and every week in this league, you have to go out and be ready.”
已发布: 2025-12-01 13:50:00
来源: www.espn.com
