PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
April 15, 2025
MV: First of all, I just want to, on behalf of the football team and the organization, send our condolences to Betsy Hasselbeck, to Matthew, to Tim and Nathaniel, obviously their grandchildren. One thing I would say, talking about a successful man is someone that raises genuine, caring, thoughtful children, and that's something that Don [Hasselbeck] certainly did. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hasselbeck family. Former player here, former NFL player union representative. He was always around town when I was here, and got to have interactions with him and know his children, so I want to send our regards to them. Been exciting here with the players being in town. It's unique with the draft preparation and the timing of all this, so there's certainly a great energy that's around our building. Want to continue to take advantage of that, to build on that, to grow that. Excited about bringing great young players or great, some of them, I think, with the COVID years, are a little older now than what they used to be, but rookie players, onto our football team through the draft and the post-draft process. So, with that, Karen [Guregian], what do you got?
Q: With the draft a week or so away, I was curious if you have received many, if any, calls from teams looking to move up to number four?
MV: Well, I'd say it's probably a little early for that. In my experience, probably a little early for those conversations. A lot of those happen next week as we get a little closer to the draft. I think there's still some preparation and some managing that goes on and the coaches reports. It's probably a little early for some of those conversations to happen.
Q: Mike, to follow that up with what Karen said, in those situations, have you been a guy that, if you see a guy that you want, you're willing to trade up?
MV: Well, as far as manipulating the draft and the board and the value, and if we've gone up and gone down in the places that I've been. I think you're just looking for the best value and you're trying to find players that are obviously talented and what we feel like are a great fit here for us and can help our football team at different levels. That happens at the top of the draft. That'll happen in the middle parts. Obviously, as you get towards the end and there's somebody that you want and you may get, or somebody gives you an offer you're trying to get a little bit more draft capital.
Q: The fact that you've put a premium on high character guys in free agency, also good football players…
MV: I think that's the most important thing, but yes.
Q: Does that translate to the draft, or do you feel like because you brought in guys like Morgan Moses, maybe you can take a risk in the draft because you feel like you're locker room's strong?
MV: Well, we don't want to take risks. I mean, I think we want to be aggressive. I think there's a difference between taking risks and being aggressive and adding quality players and people to the roster. That'll happen throughout player acquisition. I think that's something that's important, but certainly the talent of the player has to be evaluated first. Then you go through a lot of different exercises and conversations and just try to figure out the type of person. You can't win and you can't do what we want to do with just a bunch of good dudes. That's not going to get it done.
Q: You had Abdul Carter in for the visit this week. I'm curious what you've seen from him on tape and what you learned from him in that visit?
MV: Well, we're not going to discuss any of the interactions in the 30 visit, but I appreciate the knowledge of him being here. I don't think he took too many of them, but I would say that the tape is dynamic. There's a lot of great qualities of a disruptive pass rusher. Very slippery, loose, sudden player. It was a fun tape to watch.
Q: Mike, what's your overall goal and what do you hope to accomplish with this first draft class for you here?
MV: Well, I think it's to add as many quality players and quality people. You want to come out of it with some starters. You want to come out of it with some depth and role players that can build the strength and the depth of the roster, the backup players and the situational players. There's trying to find a fit for all these different players, where they are and what we see them doing. Ultimately they'll come in and define their role. The post-draft process is trying to find some players that may have fallen through the draft that we have an affinity for, or we feel like that we can develop, they have some traits that we can develop. That's something that we believe strongly in as well once you get through the draft.
Q: Mike, the fact that you're the one doing this pre-draft press conference, does that reflect that you have final say over the draft?
MV: No, I think that would just reflect that I was the person chosen to talk to you guys today. We're excited about where we were in free agency and Eliot [Wolf], myself, Ryan [Cowden], Matt [Groh] and Cam [Williams]. I want to thank all of them for their efforts thus far, the scouts. I've always enjoyed sitting down with them, asking them questions. These are the men and women that have been around these players and at practices for the last two years and have seen them interact with their teammates. They've seen them practice, so I want to thank them. I want to thank the coaches for their involvement in the draft process and in free agency and evaluating them. They're getting ready for our players to come in and they're evaluating players. As a coach, sometimes as an assistant coach, you evaluate players and you don't end up getting the guy that you've spent a bunch of hours evaluating and you might've liked, and that's how it goes. Then you go to the next year, but we're always trying to bridge that gap. I'm getting around to that between coaching and personnel. The longer that I do this, I always see that there's players that the personnel side may really like, and there's players that the coaching staff may covet for different reasons. My job, Eliot's job and Ryan's job is to bridge that gap. Then to come up with a player that we feel like is best for our football team at that particular level. There's been a great alignment and we're all excited about what we've been able to do in free agency. Have only reaffirmed that by seeing these guys in the building for the past six days, but it's been awesome.
Q: Do you feel as if you're going to be more aggressive instead of just letting the draft come to you? If you see something, do you think that you as a group will say, 'look, we've got to make something happen?'
MV: I don't know if you can answer that. When we coach the football team, we ask the players to play. We want them to be aggressive. We don't want them to be reckless. I think there's a lot of possibilities. There could be players that we covet on the board that are there at a certain point. We have to determine how far we are away from where that player is. That'd be the same thing when you talk about trading back, like how far do you want to trade back? Are there still going to be players there that you want at that particular level? I think we all have experience doing that, of going up and going back and presenting. Every time you pick, there's probably a, 'are we going to stick and pick, or what's the best offer that we have?' That's the role of the personnel staff, to field those calls as they come in. Sometimes, they're good offers. Sometimes they're not so good offers.
Q: Mike, do you feel like there's a tackle in this class that would be worthy of being taken at four overall?
MV: I think there's some starting tackles that certainly will come in and start in the NFL. I think that that's really what you start to look for, impact players. When you start picking that high, what they're going to do for you, what's the impact, what's the position, you talk about premium positions. That's where you weigh all the circumstances and end up making that pick. Do I think that there are starters in this draft that left tackle? Yes, I do.
Q: What's the role of analytics in your process, and how do you balance what the numbers tell you versus what your eyes tell you and what your scouts tell you?
MV: Yeah, I think you rely on analytics to help you ask questions about what you see on tape and not only ask questions, but get them answered. So, I think that it's a quick, very good snapshot of – you talk about durability, you talk about height, weight, speed, measurables, time missed, does that correlate to potential time missed in our league and the durability? So, those are all things that they can give you. You can talk and you can look at certain positions, right? Analytically, as it relates to the receivers and their drop percentage, their ability to gain yards after the catch, their contested catch or how many separation yards, right? And then you go to the next position. So, every position has a different analytical number or value that we would kind of look at, and then you go back and you watch the tape, and when those things are highlighted, you certainly want to make sure that all those things are accounted for.
Q: Are there any traits that maybe translate more to success in the league, or are there some where you think you can work in and kind of work them out when they get to the post?
MV: I mean, I think you start with production and see if guys can make plays at the college level. Usually, that's a good place to start. Then you would obviously just translate to certain things that edge rushers may have. You can look over the course of the last 10 drafts, let's say, and see how those players did with certain scores and numbers. Some of them maybe were more productive in the NFL than they were in college. That's always one that I have to really focus on and ask why. Maybe it's a different scheme, maybe a guy's just rushing against a team that throws a bunch of RPOs and the ball's out or where the passing game is a different passing game. I just go back to Danielle Hunter, right? I always use this example. I watched him at LSU. He wasn't very productive by numbers, but he tested well, and he had the height, the weight and the speed. Certainly, when you look at what he's done in the National Football League, it's been very impressive. So, I always go back to that and make sure that if the production's maybe not off the charts, then what else is there that we should be looking at that would translate to being successful in the National Football League?
Q: Since we talked to you last – two weeks ago – do you have a better vision of what the top of the draft might look like, who may not be on the board when you guys are picking?
MV: No. I think that we probably know as much as everybody else and what gets reported. I mean, Tennessee's not calling or Cleveland's not calling. Even though I was a consultant there last year, I haven't heard their plans on who they want to pick. So, we'll see as we get closer. If any of that information's available, we would love to have it.
Q: What has generally been your philosophy in the past on drafting best available as opposed to position of need, and how does that evolve maybe round by round or even year to year?
MV: Well, we'd love for them to align, having a need and having the best player be there. That doesn't always happen, and we certainly want to pick the best player as many times as we can and the player that we think at that point is the best player. Then we'll figure it out. Maybe you look at one position and we may have some returning starters or we feel like are starters, or there's depth at that position, but to add premium players when available is something that you should probably always try to do.
Q: Players that are graded similarly on the board, what are some of the tie breakers that you guys put into account if off the film, maybe they have similar grades?
MV: Yeah, there's kind of the ranking system within the grade, right? When you start stacking players vertically amongst their position, and then you start to look at it horizontally, that other players at another position with the same grade would rank higher. So, maybe one player over here would lose out to another player over here, even though they're on the same line, to kind of give you an idea. But then within the position, versatility, the ability to play another position, some of probably the testing numbers or what we feel like on film. But we try to go through, and that's done and finished as far as the vertical process of where we see each player.
Q: Mike, when you think back specifically to the first round picks you had in Tennessee, what lessons about what worked with those players and what maybe didn't will inform how you approach this pick at No. 4 because it's the highest you've ever had to make?
MV: We took a couple guys with injuries that we thought were talented. Maybe what injuries as they fell, and that value got to the point where we were comfortable taking it. I think that's something that's critical. What's the ability for players to recover from one injury versus another injury I think is something that I learned. The impact that player makes and demands on a quote-unquote 'first round pick,' I think is something that's just like the quarterback. You don't have to be the face of the franchise, but everybody's going to be talking about the first-round pick from the time that we pick them for as long as they're here. So, that kind of gets carried with them, and I think you have to have the attitude and the demeanor to handle some of that.
Q: Mike, for Stefon Diggs, I'm just curious. You had him in for the visit and everything, but this is kind of the first time you're going to see him actively working out with the group since the ACL tear and all that. I'm just curious what you're seeing in his recovery and how he's doing.
MV: I think he's doing everything – like everybody else, he's working hard, and I think he's excited about being here and being a Patriot. He's a motivated player, he's a hungry player, just like everybody else that that's here and that's working. That's been the most exciting thing, I think for me, is that they're asking good questions. They're into it. They know that some things that are going to be different, and that change happens every year.
Q: If Abdul Carter and Travis Hunter are gone when you select at four, do you know what you're going to do? You don't have to say what you're going to do. Do you know what you're going to do?
MV: Well, we're in the process of going through what everybody calls these simulations, and that's been and will continue to be good exercises. It's just running scenarios and what we would do based on those scenarios. So, to say that we have a definitive answer on those scenarios, no, but those are processes that are ongoing, and we'll be done here shortly.
Q: Mike, how important is listening to you, hearing the right things from these players as you talk to them and ask questions? How much does that sink in with you as you go about the process?
MV: What sinks in the most with me is the first exposure to the second exposure to maybe the third exposure, and it's difficult. I think just – you don't really know what you're going to get in the first exposure, and I think that's kind of not very fair either. Some of these guys don't even know what room they're in at the Combine. If there's not a Patriot logo somewhere in the room, it would be hard for them to know every single time which room they're in because it's just, the hallway's tight, there's a bunch of people out there and they get shuttled into a room. 'Hey, this is so-and-so.' I could tell them I'm Tom Curran, and they'd be like, 'Hey, nice to meet you,' at that point. They just really – there's a lot there. But then the next exposure, they get a little bit more comfortable, and then the next exposure, whether that's a pro day or the 30 visit, you start to see maybe who they are and kind of what their personality is.
Q: Mike, do you have any philosophies or opinions on running backs, generally speaking-
MV: Run where they ain't. That's what I tell the running backs.
Q: Whether they're worth a top-10 pick. Do you have any thoughts on that topic?
MV: No, I don't. I think that that's individualized based on how good the player is, how talented and what impact that he's going to make, his ability to play on all three downs, his ability to catch the football, his ability to create mismatches and obviously, then what the team covets. I think that's the most important.
Q: Mike, you used the term 'covet' earlier, and you just used it again. Relatively speaking, where you're drafting, how many guys are we talking are under that sort of realm?
MV: Well, I think where we're drafting, there's a handful of guys. We're not in the market for a quarterback, so that ought to eliminate anybody that throws the football. But I do think that there are certainly players that we covet at every level. I think that's the thing that we're finding as you go through, so it's a package. It's a complete package. It's about the player and it's about the person, and most importantly, I think for me, the vision that we have for them and the impact that they're going to make in the locker room and make in the community.
Q: Joe Milton [III]. Why trade him when you guys did?
MV: Well, we felt like his reps were going to be decreased as we worked through the offseason. We felt like – just like every other decision – that we're going to try to do what's best for the team, and that's the decision that we ultimately made. So, we're excited to move forward with Drake [Maye] and Josh [Dobbs]. That's going to be a tough one for me to continue to say over and over is Drake and Josh. So, I appreciate it guys. Again, I want to thank our scouts; I want to thank our personnel department for getting me brought up to speed in this process and our coaching staff.
