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Patrots Analysis: Vrabel fits the Bill, but not the Bill you think

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Jan 14, 2025

Mike Vrabel speaks at his introductory press conference at Gillette Stadium on Monday, with part of his Patriots histroy behind him. (AP photo)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Here’s what you need to know about new New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, and let’s see if you agree:

Many might say he’s like Bill Belichick.

Nope.

He’s a lot more like another former Patriots head coach, a guy named Bill Parcells. Remember him?

Vrabel has the wit, the personality, the sly demeanor. His comments are down to earth, but also have a purpose – a message.

And he delivered that message loud and clear on Monday at his first official press conference at Gillette Stadium as the Patriots new head coach.

He did it in different ways. But one had to feel, so much more so than a year ago when Jerod Mayo was hired, that this is Mike Vrabel’s show, plain and simple. He mentioned Player Personnel head Eliot Wolfe a few times in unsolicited remarks, but while this was going on one of his confidants, Ryan Cowden, was being let free of his role in the Giants front office to join the Patriots, reportedly as Wolf’s No. 2 guy. Or, more likely, No. 1 in waiting.

Mayo was guided in his introductory press conference, that came at a tumultous time, a week after the greatest NFL coach ever was let go by the Krafts. Robert Kraft shared the presser with Mayo. But yesterday, after his opening remarks, Kraft stepped aside. No one was calling him “Thunder”. It was Vrabel’s show.

It is Vrabel’s show. A football show.

“In the interview process, Mike showed us that he had a very deep understanding of our current team,” Kraft said, “and most importantly, he had a clear and focused strategy of how to get us back to the championship way that is not only so important to all of us, but also something that I think our fan base really deserves and expects.”

Vrabel was asked about his type of player.

“Eliot [Wolf] is going to laugh,” he said. “I’m going to say good ones. That’s just an inside joke between him and I already just over the weekend and through the interview process. We’re going to ask our players to just do a few things. One is to put the team first, to know what to do and play fast and aggressive. That’s the vision for the type of player. Winners come in all shapes and sizes.”

So do coaches. But now coaches who are really in charge, like Vrabel, are asked more about personnel than ever before at these things. Who picks the players? Who breaks the ties with final say? That’s what everyone wants to know.

The impress we get after Monday is that guy is Mike Vrabel. And if the day comes that it’s not, you can see him saying he’s outta here.

“I think the most important thing is there’s a shared organizational vision for what we want to do and how we want to work and how we want to acquire players,” Vrabel said. “There’s numerous ways to acquire players through free agency, trade, draft, post-draft process, post after training camp. Again, I’m just excited to sit down with Eliot and his staff. I’ve met more with Eliot over the weekend than I have — I’ve had conversations with him, but I need to sit down with his staff and figure out where we’re at, what we need to do.”

Vrabel sidestepped the control issue – as one would expect he would.

“I’m confident that those types of decisions are all going to sort themselves out,” he said. “We don’t always want to be on the same page. That’s not the environment we want to create. But we want to have a shared vision, and there’s also different ways to get there. I’m embracing that everyone’s going to have a different personality. I don’t want my staff to be like me. I don’t want all our players to be similar. We’re going to have diverse ideas, and that’s critical, and to be able to have those types of conversations is something I’m looking forward to.”

You can bet that in the interview Vrabel told Kraft that his team stinks. Especially the offensive line. Guaranteed that he will not send a Patriot team out there with the joke of an offensive line that existed.

“Certainly, you look at the teams that are able to protect the quarterback and dictate the flow of the game offensively, making sure that up front we’re sound, we’re strong, whether that’s through free agency or the draft, that’s something that’s critical,” Vrabel said. “The D-linemen, they’re getting better every year. They’re getting more disruptive. They’re getting bigger, more powerful. So as they try to disrupt our quarterback, we have to have some things that counterbalance that. Obviously personnel is the first way, and then scheme and style and tempo and cadence and all those things …

“But it’s a long process, and those are the things we’re going to ask the players to do — put the team first, know what to do, and play fast and aggressive and play with some speed,” Vrabel said.

Little history lesson: Years ago, after Bill Parcells left the Giants, their GM then elevated their running backs coach,a guy named Ray Handley. Handley was very, very smart. But not people smart; he couldn’t handle the job. Wasn’t ready, and likely never would be.

He was one and done, and then the Giants brought in an experienced coach in Dan Reeves, who knew what he was doing. In the short term, it worked.

This could be the same thing. We think you’ll notice the difference right away.

“The most important thing are the players,” he said. “There’s some of them right here. I want to provide a program that provides their ownership but also their accountability of each other and one that they’ll be proud to be a part of and that they’re going to fight for.

“You guys are going to ask me questions about culture, which I’ll be happy to talk about and discuss. One thing I realized about culture is you can find out what your culture looks like when your family, your business, or your team is at its low point. It’s not when you’re winning Super Bowls. It’s not when you’re 7-1 or 10-1, then everybody’s waving towels and everybody’s happy and they’re excited to come to work.

“But when you get hit in the mouth or you’re down or the chips are against you, then you can take a snapshot of what your company or your team looks like, and then you’ll find out what kind of culture you have.”

And we’ll see what kind of culture the Patriots have after Vrabel gets going through a year or two.

We’re thinking it’s going to be the same type of culture a guy named Parcells had, and it was pretty good.

POWER RANKINGS AFTER WEEK 19

AFC

1.Buffalo (15-3). 2. Kansas City (15-2). 3. Baltimore (13-5) 4. Houston (11-7). 5. Cincinnati (9-8).

NFC

1.Philadelphia (15-3). 2.Detroit (15-2). 3. Washington (13-5). 4. L.A. Rams (11-7). 5.Minnesota (14-4).