Mike Vrabel said the quiet part of the Patriots’ preseason out loud barely a week ago.
“I do not think we have a very deep team,” he announced on August 22.
It took just eight days for his team to prove him right.
None of the Patriots’ transactions Sunday generated even a little surprise. This was a standard cutdown day, right down to the Belichickian practice of keeping a few core special teamers.
New England, say hello to Namdi Obiazor.
Now, if you had any hope left for players like former fifth-round pick Bradyn Swinson, or thought rookie receiver Nick DeGennaro might be the spiritual successor to Wes Welker, God bless. But as training camp closed, the truth of those players and this roster was in plain sight all along.
The Pats are who they thought they were, well before Vrabel shared his honest thoughts to the world: a talented team with a young core and black holes for depth at a handful of positions that could threaten to suck all hope of a Super Bowl return. But no need to fret about the future.
This is about Vrabel, whose comments shocked most members of a media corps and fan base back to reality; a fragile present stuck between the magic of last year and dreams for next season. But the shock of Vrabel’s comments should not obscure the fact that he’s right.
The Patriots are a contender, yes. Of course. Obviously. But a few more dents to their offensive line or pass rush will set the regular-season ceiling for this team at a Wild Card berth because football is still fought in the trenches, and there are only so many Sundays you can win bringing rookies and street free agents to a gunfight.
(Related: the Patriots traded for Vikings offensive tackle Walter Rouse just minutes before Sunday’s deadline. Had the front office not picked up the phone, Rouse would have been headed for the chopping block.)
A lack of proven depth is no excuse. That is simply the reality Vrabel and the front office have built for themselves, yet one Vrabel and the coaching staff can slowly change. How?
Prove they belong among the NFL’s best, if not assert themselves as the sharpest in the entire league.
Because the road between where the Patriots are today and where they want to be in February must be paved by development that fosters the depth unavailable to them now; by Vrabel’s game management that gives Maye the extra few seconds he needs on a two-minute drive or kills enough clock for his defense; by the small analytical and schematic advantages Josh McDaniels unearths to script early leads, like last year when the Patriots led the NFL in first-quarter scoring.
(An aside: the one team that finished top-5 in first-quarter points scored and points allowed was the Super Bowl champion Seahawks. Coincidence? Ha.)
The work Vrabel, McDaniels and quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant did to unlock Maye’s potential unlocked a Super Bowl ceiling for the 2025 team. Maye’s talent and production are his own, but he fundamentally, from the ground up with his footwork, evolved who he was as a player, and carried the Patriots with him. Supplying Maye with the support he needs against the league’s elite defenses means more than adding A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs.
It’s time for the staff to spring-load and guide Will Campbell and Jared Wilson through their own Year 2 leaps. To help Caleb Lomu sprout into a capable NFL offensive tackle. To keep those pesky nickel blitzers away from Maye with tighter protection schemes, and to weaponize rookie Eli Raridon’s long speed before he’s called to become a well-rounded tight end next year.
Defensively, Zak Kuhr is no rookie anymore. He pivoted to a blitz-happy identity last year that the personnel wholly embraced. Two opposing coaches who have studied the Patriots this summer have already suggested to me Kuhr must get exotic with his blitz package to generate any kind of pressure.
At outside linebacker alone, Harold Landry will miss at least four games, and rookie Gabe Jacas looks like he needs four more preseason games to get up to speed. Never mind the Christian Gonzalez business, or lack thereof.
The good news is, just like Maye made a Year 2 leap, a staff can do the same. Vrabel detailed the benefits of the Patriots’ coaches enjoying rare continuity coming off a Super Bowl appearance moments before they ran their first training camp practice this summer.
“We just operate a little quicker, just going through the tape probably a little quicker for the coaches. And then being able to make the corrections, look at the positives and then move on to the installation in the afternoon,” Vrabel said on July 25. “We have a pretty similar schedule most every day where we’ll practice, then give the players a little break for them to get treatment or lift or recover. Whatever they need.
“Then we’ll meet. Then we’ll have (a) walkthrough then get them out of here. So, that’s kind of how we operate, and I think everybody’s a little more comfortable with that stuff.”
So, let’s pretend the 2025 season was a morning practice for these coaches. Right now, it’s noon.
It’s time to make corrections, and carry them back on to the field starting next week at Seattle.
The Seahawks just made a leap under Mike MacDonald.
Why not you?