Mike Vrabel at Patriots OTA practice.
Photo by Alex Barth/98.5 The Sports HubAn early-eighties R&B number, “Before I Let Go” by Maze and the late Frankie Beverly, led off the song list for Wednesday’s Patriots OTA, as head coach Mike Vrabel rounded on several defensive linemen during the team’s warmup period.
He started with Milton Williams, the $104-million free-agent newcomer from Philadelphia, at the far end of the main practice field. They shook hands and exchanged a few words, even while Williams high-stepped forward in a column of teammates. Vrabel moved on to Keion White closer to the goal line, leaning in to share a few thoughts. The coach then righted himself and sought out a kneeling, stretching Christian Barmore in the deep left corner of the end zone.
Practice was just getting started, and so was Vrabel.
Since the pre-draft scouting process, much attention has been paid to Vrabel’s frequent hands-on involvement in workouts and drills. He has been known to slip on a chest protector, resembling a circa-1970s American League umpire, to engage blockers at age 49. Will Campbell, the Pats’ top draft pick left his mark on Vrabel by knocking him on his derrière in a pre-draft workout. Vrabel has also been seen frequently donning a mesh pinnie as a scout-team stand-in during practices.
Beyond Vrabel’s often center-of-it-all coaching approach, my interest was piqued after the team’s first media-accessible OTA eight days earlier by the ways he also works the periphery – of practice fields and position groups, connecting to everyone from QB 1 to the roster’s 90th man. So last Wednesday, tracking his movements became my focal point.
It helps that Vrabel can't hide in a crowd, even when the crowd consists of 300-pound offensive linemen or defensive counterparts built to the same scale. He is every bit of 6-foot-4 and close enough to his 261-pound playing weight as a Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker to appear game-ready despite some facial lines and his now greying hair. Plus, the long red sleeves he wears more than stick out from the arm holes of his navy blue vest.
By the way, if you haven’t noticed, the vest — Wednesday's was a nylon full zip-up — is as much of a personal fashion statement for Vrabel as a tattered hoodie was for his predecessor Bill Belichick. Seriously, Google “Vrabel” and “vest” and see for yourself. In seven sizes, from XS to XXXL.
Gone, however, was the stubble Vrabel had worn since his January hiring, his salt-and-pepper beard shaved away in one of his most recent acts of wiping the slate clean. It’s what he and his staff have been doing since day one on the job in January, reducing the Pats’ list of returning captains from Jerod Mayo’s 2024 squad to just two – both of whom were mid-season appointees – and letting go of the last holdovers from Belichick’s final Super Bowl roster.
Until now, Vrabel’s first four and a half months went as smoothly as a hot lather shave erasing days-old growth. Staff hires. Free agency. The draft. The schedule. Every phase of the spring had sprung nothing but good vibes for ‘Vrabes’ — as ex-Pat Matt Chatham calls his pal — and company.
But then the video of receiver Stefon Diggs handing over an unidentified substance to several fellow partygoers on a boat surfaced, and now Vrabel is dealing with the first real bump of his tenure. Listening to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Hardy,” it sounds like the situation could potentially cause more than temporary irritation.
Asked to address the matter before Wednesday’s practice by MassLive reporter Karen Guregian, Vrabel said his message to players is to “make great decisions on and off the field.” He did not disclose anything said between him and Diggs, before redirecting his response.
“Everything that we're going to do, Karen, is we're going to coach the guys that show up at 8:00 a.m.,” he said. “The ones that say, ‘Hey, I've got a situation, we'll be here at 8:05 a.m.,’ we'll coach those as well. This is a voluntary part of our off-season program. Every player that's not here, which there aren't many, have been in communication with me and their position coaches.”
It was 11:56 a.m. when Vrabel finished his 10-minute session, excusing himself to go coach the guys that had shown up. He jogged onto the main upper-grass field behind Gillette Stadium, where three centers snapped to three quarterbacks who handed off to three tailbacks.
One of the centers was Wes Schweitzer, a veteran journeyman who mostly plays guard. At one point, Vrabel appeared to deliver a tip to Schweitzer, which the coach then demonstrated on the next rep by mimicking a defensive tackle’s actions. The play ended with a closing thought from Vrabel received by Scweitzer nodding his head.
Vrabel soon checked in with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who, while noticeably trimmer than when he last coached Las Vegas in 2023, maintains his own familiar look. A golf visor shades his eyes, long white sleeves beneath a short-sleeve pullover cover his arms and a whistle regularly twirls from his fingertips.
Funk music started to play – Maze was first up, to be followed by Cameo’s “Candy” from 1986 – stretch lines formed and Vrabel caught up with Williams. Over the next two periods, he observed the punt team on the side field, eyeballed defensive backs and joined offensive linemen flanked by blocking sleds and bags beyond the far end zone.
In Period 5, Vrabel joined offensive assistant Riley Larkin as a role-playing safety in a green pinnie – Vrabel was No. 23, Larkin 24 – while the offense repped plays on the main field. The next period, he shifted from center field on defense to the offensive backfield and shed the pinnie for a pen.
Observing from behind the quarterback, Vrabel made notes with his red Pilot G-2, occasionally spelling out verbally what he was seeing and writing. On a handoff to Antonio Gibson, he followed the back, taking a few steps toward the hole to offer a tip to the lead-blocking lineman Sidy Sow.
So it transpired in each successive period, as the sun pierced the clouds hovering over Gillette, the groove got more contemporary and Vrabel, like the players and assistants, moved about the fields and drills. Carrying papers, he folded them, rolled them up, gestured with them in hand and wrote on them.
He shouted downs and distances to simulate before plays. He demanded, more than suggested, that players, “Drink some water!” He commanded, more than instructed, the offense to pick up its pace: “Let’s go, in and out of the huddle!” And he got on receiver Javon Baker to hurry back to the huddle as he overindulged himself after a play that would have resulted in offensive pass interference had it occurred in a game.
Before practice ended, Vrabel was back in a green pinnie, this time putting on No. 5 - “He needs to stop wearing my number,” quipped Jabrill Peppers, who wears a “5” in the defense’s blue shirts - and back to coaching both sides of offensive-defensive line matchups.
When he spotted something worth pointing out to guard Michael Onwenu, even as a play was still unfolding, Vrabel moved in to pass it along. When he thought of something else to say to White, while Keion stood behind him, Vrabel turned over his left shoulder and mentioned it.
Vrabel does a lot of that, one notices: literally going forward to coach up someone involved in a play, before then looking back to make sure others don’t miss out on their opportunity to learn. It's also clear that no aspect of the game is foreign to a guy who shined in all three phases as a Patriot and has coached offensive and defensive positions in Houston, Tennessee and Cleveland.
At any time, any player, in any one position, is apt to receive one-on-one instruction from his head coach. On Wednesday, Schweitzer, Onwenu and White were among the individuals who felt Vrabel’s coaching touch. The week before, they included undrafted rookie Elijah Ponder and third tight end Jaheim Bell.
“I think it's important," Vrabel said Wednesday when I followed up a question about his role in Maye’s development by asking why it’s important that he has a hand in every player’s progression. "One, I enjoy it. I like it. I love it. I try to be as knowledgeable at every position as I possibly can. Some more than others. We referenced the quarterback. But having something at each position group that can maybe translate from my perspective to help the player.
“But then I also think that where the head coach is, is probably what the players think (is) important. So, I try to be a little bit everywhere.”
That bears repeating: Where the head coach is, is probably what the players think is important. So, I try to be a little bit everywhere.
Vrabel and his staff are trying to create a healthy team culture. To me, part of their mission is making sure everybody knows that everyone’s role, that everyone, period, is essential to everybody’s success.
And that everyone, especially the ones being counted on and paid the most, make great decisions. On off days, and at work.
Toward the end of Wednesday’s OTA, there was a brief ruckus involving some pushing and shoving between a couple of offensive-and-defensive teammates. In a game, one or both would have been flagged for a personal foul.
When the practice concluded and the Patriots coalesced around Vrabel, he delivered his final coaching points of the session. Seeing Vrabel amidst the huddle, occasionally checking his notes, it was easy to imagine that one of them had to do with the steep cost of committing penalties, particularly 15-yarders.
He had, after all, transformed his first Titans team into the NFL’s least penalized squad in 2018. And he had, just two hours earlier, talked about his first Patriots team's need to make great decisions, on and off the field.
Nope. No way, I thought, the coach who hadn’t appeared to miss much of anything roving between fields and position groups would miss this chance to reiterate the day's - and season's - most important message before letting the players go.
