Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say during his press conference on Friday August 22, 2025:
OPENING STATEMENT:
“I appreciate you guys that made the trip or stayed last night being here this morning. First, before we start, Eliot and I spoke with the following players this morning and told them our intentions to make a transaction to get down here closer to our number. We spoke with R.J. Moten, Micah Bernard, Phil Lutz, Kyle Peko, Cole Fotheringham, Shane Watts, Philip Blidi, Ben Wooldridge, Jordan Polk, Monty Rice, Sidy Sow, Jaheim Bell, Isaiah Bolden, and Tyrese Robinson.”
“So tough day. Again, we’ve talked about this, try to have a personal side to this and a professional side. And this is clearly the professional side of what we have to do. Thirty-one other teams are going to do the same thing between now and Tuesday. So again, just try to do it as respectfully as possible and continue to function.”
On the fact they’ve started the process already, but between now and Tuesday, if he thinks they’ll still make gradual decisions or just wait until the deadline:
“I think that … we’ll still practice, and so we’ll have to have guys to practice, and we’ll try to make those decisions when they become evident. We’re still having conversations on players and a vision and ideas and things that we want to do and where we want to get to. So, I think the next 10 days will be very fluid, as you guys all know, covering this league, there’ll be players that will come onto our roster, maybe from other teams, maybe they won’t. We’ll have to get down to 53, and then eventually a practice squad, and the mix of practice squad players of veterans and young players that may develop or ones that we could activate. So I can’t tell you for sure when those will happen, but obviously, that has to be done before 4:00 on Tuesday.”
On the fact he mentioned a couple of tight ends in the group of cuts, and the number three spot behind Hooper and Henry if he still wants a true blocking locking tight end there, or if there is it any skillset…
“Well, there’s a lot that goes into when you start looking at third tight ends, fourth and fifth corners, backup linebackers. There’s got to be an element of special teams that also goes into that. Some versatility, just to say, ‘Hey, we’re looking for specifically this.’ I think we’re just looking for the right fit, and somebody who can serve a lot of roles throughout the game and throughout the week.”
On speaking of special teams, Javon Baker looked like he made some contributions there and if, in his opinion, if he’s good enough in that regard to have a spot on a roster just based on special teams ability alone:
“Well, I think you look at the entire body of work, and I think you try to evaluate everything, not just the special teams, but what else can they do? And in Javon’s case, he’s a wide receiver. And I think the more that he does the special teams, I think the better that he’s gotten, and he’ll understand how that he can use his play strength, his speed, some of the receiving tools and fundamentals as a gunner, potentially. We tried to get him some reps at corner yesterday on a punt return. He’s played on the kickoff for us. Those are new, especially for a young player who’s played receiver most of his life. So I think that the more that he’s done it, the more comfortable that he’s gotten, and we’ll continue to evaluate him.”
On how he would assess the depth of quarterback:
“Other than just saying that now we have two? I’m not sure how much other assessment … we’re there at two and we’ll decide about who is or if we plan on carrying a third quarterback on the 53 or on the practice squad. So, the only thing I can tell you is, as of now, we have two.”
On just one other thing from last night, the basic spot rule when we had the Jaxson Dart scramble, with trying to figure out why they spotted the ball and if he’s ever seen it before:
“Yeah, those are specifics that come up in training camp. Being on top of that and understanding how that works is an interesting perspective. The officials explained it pretty quickly. Those are unique.”
On if he had seen it before:
“I don’t think in a game that I was a part of.”
On the fact he said something at halftime during a walk-off interview that was a bit complicated:
“You watched that?”
I did, yeah. Pretty good performance on the move there for you.
“I started to stray off to the left… I’m thinking, I don’t want to like knock her over because obviously I’m three times the size of her. But then I felt like I was straying off and there was too much distance. So we just came up with that on the fly. But go ahead.”
On the fact he said something about Drake [Maye] and how you’re continuing to work with him on his development as a leader, and then said he was hoping for for him to have some attention-getting moments:
“No. I think as we talk about his leadership of whatever your personality is as a quarterback, you have to, when you talk to the players on the team or the offense, specifically, you have to do it in a manner that gets their attention. To clarify that, that’s always what I’ve said. Not asking you to talk like I do or anybody else, but the way that you talk to the players on the field, you have to do it in a manner that gets their attention, that, ‘Hey, I need you here. I need you to do this. This is what we have to do.’ And that was my reference.”
On the fact with play sheets, if he wants somebody nearby that has an offensive and defensive play sheet to quickly-
“No, I have it on either side. I have all our game plan on either side, and then I have my situations in two-minute and four-minute and everything else.”
On if he’s a guy that likes to handwrite notes throughout the game or before the game
“I think probably before the game. It’s just thoughts on what we may do, put the official’s names on there. If I don’t know all seven of them, or comments that come up, or things that we’ve called, or things that look good, you make notes on there. But I have both game plans on my sheet.”
On his thoughts on the screen defense in recent weeks and on the long touchdowns last night that guys could have done better:
“Screen defense is, again, about recognizing, one, that they’re letting you go. So they invite the end up inside. The tackle usually oversets when we’re talking about running back screens. Being in man coverage, you have to go and hug, and if you’re in zone coverage, now we got to have eyes and we have to go and break and trigger and avoid, usually, linemen in space. The defensive linemen are really… You want to be a good screen defense, you have to have linemen that recognize quickly that they’re letting you go inside. Then they put their foot in the ground and they’re chasing to the back hip of that offensive linemen, where the backs usually try to cut back in. We want to chase at the back hip and be able to impact that play.”
“I think it starts there, whether it’s in zone coverage, now it’s, ‘Hey, am I leveraging this football to a corner? Am I leveraging it to a safety?’ And last night on the long one, it was zone. The big thing for us is when a defensive lineman goes in a gap, stay in that gap so that the second level and the third level can play off of you. If you’re a linebacker and you’re going to trigger, whether that be on a block or perimeter play, trigger, and then the safeties in the corners in the third level can play off of you.”
“What I saw on the replay and in the film was a second-level player kind of lied to the safety and went outside, and the safety thought he was going to be outside, and then he cut back, and we didn’t have a good enough retrace from the inside. We’ve had pretty, I would say, good screen defense through training camp. Minnesota hit a couple on second and long in the game, and then obviously the one last night that got out.”
“So that’s what screen defense is about. If you’re in man coverage, we got to go hug and get on them before the lineman can get to the second level. But really, the best way to defend a screen is to get the defensive lineman to recognize it and go chase and put their foot in the ground because they’re not accounting for them. They’re not necessarily accounting for them. They’re hoping that they keep rushing the quarterback, and the quarterback drifts and throws a hand grenade over them.”
“So that’s the quick dissertation on the screen pass. I’d also be curious to see if in the last couple of years, the perimeter screens have gone down their effectiveness and the amount of which people call them because you can’t cut. Linemen, that’s a timing play when you’re trying to get a tackle out to the nickel. And now in the past, they used to be able to just run and throw at them, and then it would time up. Now that you can’t cut, we run them, people run them, they have them. I just haven’t seen those be great plays like they were because the linemen can’t go out there and cut. So we have to know, even on those running back screens, how do we stick and avoid a big player when we know that he can’t cut? Because those used to always be cut opportunities for the offensive lineman. So just since we’re talking about screens, you got your halfback screens and you’ve got your perimeter slip screens.”
On the fact he’s got a couple of veterans on this team who haven’t been out there a lot this summer [Jahlani Tavai, Kendrick Bourne] and if he feels they have enough information about them, or checking how they could fit in what you do, and if he needs to see them out there on the field to value them:
“I think you’re always trying to gather information on players and how they fit in the vision that you have for the football team. They’ve missed some time. That’s no secret. But I think that they’ve both worked extremely hard to stay engaged and to understand what it is that we’re doing, even going all the way back to Ja’Lynn Polk, when Ja’Lynn had missed some time early on in camp. We said that the biggest thing was that he stay engaged and be ready and not waste the days when he got back because he wasn’t staying sharp mentally, and he did that. And then, unfortunately, got injured in a game. So again, that’s all we would ask of any player is that they’re ready to go mentally when they get back. And I know that both of those players will be. So they’re working hard to get back and join us when they can.”
On the defense, for Tavai, if he’s viewed as more of an off-the-ball linebacker or an edge guy:
“Yeah, there’s versatility to his game. I think, always since he’s been in this league, he’s a football player. He’s a defensive football player. He’s instinctive, he’s got good size, plays with his hands, can play multiple positions in the kicking game, and just has to just get back and hopefully try to be evaluated here sooner rather than later.”
(Editor’s Note: This transcript is done via the available footage and is subject to typos. If you spot something, please take a moment to let me know in the comments below.)
About Ian Logue
Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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Tags: Mike Vrabel New England Patriots
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