Patriots Mailbag: Lining up for Mike Vrabel’s return to Tennessee

The New England Patriots begin Week 7 of the 2025 season somewhere they haven't been in almost four years...in first place in the AFC East. With the Buffalo Bills loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night, the Patriots jumped them in the standings via head-to-head tiebreaker.

Granted, there's still plenty of football left to play this season. But early returns have been positive in the first year under head coach Mike Vrabel, who along with quarterback Drake Maye has gotten significant credit for the quick turnaround.

This budding resurgence for the Patriots on the national stage comes as Vrabel is set to make his return to the banks of the Cumberland River and face the Tennessee Titans, who he coached for six years before being fired following the 2023 season.

Vrabel's firing was controversial at the time. Whether or not the Titans organization actually regrets moving on from him, there certainly is reason to. As they get ready to welcome Vrabel back to Nissan Stadium, they'll do so with an interim head coach - they started this week by firing Vrabel's replacement Brian Callahan after just 23 games. Callahan went 4-19 with the Titans.

With coaching on both sides being a major story, let's start there as we get into this week's Patriots Mailbag...

There certainly is somewhat of a trend of teams getting the 'interim bump' after firing a coach mid-season. It's not unrealistic to expect the Titans to come out and play with a different kind of energy, and perhaps even some different wrinkles schematically under interim head coach Mike McCoy.

Still, the Titans' roster talent is what it is. Maybe the game ends up more competitive than it otherwise would be, but given the way the Patriots have been playing it would be disappointing to see them get tripped up simply by an interim coaching boost this week.

In short, the quarterback. Maye is playing at a level right now that none of Vrabel's final quarterbacks in Tennessee, from late-career Ryan Tannehill to rookies Will Levis and Malik Willis, to current Patriots backup Joshua Dobbs, were going to reach.

The longer answer though is that with Ryan Tannehill entering his mid-30s, it looked like the team was considering a reset - highlighted by the 2022 draft-night trade of wide receiver AJ Brown.

That period coincided with a stretch of missed high draft picks, who likely were supposed to be a part of the next core. Such players include cornerback Caleb Farley and wide receiver Treylon Burks.

Ultimately, the rebuild didn't work. Both GMs from that time - Jon Robinson and Ran Carthon - have since been fired by the Titans.

Had that rebuild gone smoother and/or the Titans been more patient, maybe Vrabel would still be there finding more success. Instead, he's now with a team that went through a full rebuilt rather than a reset, and came out stronger on the other side.

The Patriots don't look to be in the process of diluting Rhamondre Stevenson's role. If anything, post-Antonio Gibson's injury things are trending in the other direction. Stevenson played a season-high 71.9% of the Patriots' offensive snaps last week, while TreVeyon Henderson's usage was a season-low 29.7% (a week after he played a season-high 50% against Buffalo).

That being said, their workload was about even. Stevenson had 13 touches in this game while Henderson had 10 (in 19 total offensive snaps).

I thought Henderson did a bit of a better job of being patient and seeing the field last week, but he still has a ways to go after averaging 3.6 yards per touch. Maybe he's starting to make progress, but he's not doing enough to single-handedly jump-star the run game right now.

Meanwhile, Stevenson is struggling as a ballcarrier, with just 18 yards on 13 carries against the Saints. However he's making major impacts in other ways, in particular as a pass blocker. Multiple times in that game the Patriots had him step up and line up just behind the 'A' gap to help in pass protection.

We saw DeMario Douglas take on a similar role - his efforts away from the football, including as a blocker, allowed him to stay on the field and helped him get back on track to the point where he got back in the flow of the offense in a big way against the Saints. Could the same happen with Stevenson?

I do think there's room for the run game to improve naturally, simply on the basis that we've seen most of the players involved - running backs and offensive linemen - play at a higher level than they are right now. Some of it may just be a chemistry thing the team needs to work though in learning a new offensive system. We discussed that on the Patriots Hub Podcast with David Andrews this week.

An external addition could help things, the question is what level of addition are we talking about? Adding a third back to step into Gibson's old role would make a lot of sense - Terrell Jennings was elevated as the third running back last week but didn't play on offense.

A bigger splash? That depends on the fit and cost. I don't think it's a move the Patriots would rush to make, but it's certainly not something I'd rule out if things keep trending this way as the deadline approaches.

Big picture, yes. Based on national reporting it sounds like this year will be a more involved trade deadline than usual, and it would be good to see the Patriots get involved.

Right this second? That's tougher to say. With three wild card teams in each conference now fewer teams are 'out' of the playoffs this early and may not want to sell just yet. To this point just 10 teams are multiple games under .500. Two of those are in the Patriots' own division, and may be hesitant to make an in-division trade.

Two others - the Ravens and Bengals - have been without their superstar starting quarterbacks and may not view themselves as traditional 'sellers.' That group also includes the New York Giants, who probably aren't going to strip pieces away with a rookie quarterback and a coach and GM who may be on the hot seat.

Ultimately the Patriots should be buyers. But the market might look better for them in a week or two compared to right now, and with a couple of weaker opponents coming up they may be able to afford being patient.

Yes.