What we learned from Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and QB Drake Maye on ‘Scoop City'

New York Times

3 days ago

The Athletic's NFL Insider Dianna Russini sat down with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and starting quarterback Drake Maye for a conversation about training camp, the upcoming season and more on a recent episode of 'Scoop City.' Here are five things we learned from the conversations.
Ahead of the Patriots' 20-12 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Saturday's preseason game, the two teams engaged in a couple of joint practices on Wednesday and Thursday. Vrabel was happy with the way his quarterback managed to navigate a tricky defense.
'These practices here against the Vikings' defense, they do a lot, they show you a lot,' Vrabel said. 'They try to put you in a blender. By that, we mean, one play, it's hard and then you just start thinking about the last play and then the next play becomes harder and harder until you're just spinning in a blender.
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'That's what they like to use in the quarterback room, and I didn't see (Maye) do that (Wednesday). He wasn't perfect by any means but he never went in the blender, so I think that's good.'
Vrabel attributed that success to Maye's ability to not 'let it be too big' and process one play at a time. Vrabel said Maye was able to lead the offense and get everybody on the same page.
Maye was asked what characteristics allowed him to avoid those issues.
'We talk about in the quarterback room, staying confident and cool and collected, kind of when the chaos is going on,' Maye said. 'Try not to get our offense into bad plays and really, it's just really myself to trust the guys around me. I think that's the big thing. Trust those guys.
'They're great players and I think the biggest thing is, when chaos is going around, take care of the football and just try to (think), 'Hey, if they get us this play, just tackle the next down.' That's what coach Vrabel talks about and what they talk about in the quarterback room with coach (Josh) McDaniels.'
Speaking of McDaniels, the second-year quarterback spoke glowingly about the relationship with his offensive coordinator, saying McDaniels coaches hard but gets excited when things go well and 'always has the quarterback's back.'
'He's always just thinking ahead,' Maye said. 'He knows the system so well. He kind of knows the answers and knows, kind of second nature, what we should have done or what he saw that play. He sees it so well. It's cool watching all of the old tape back of all their games back in the days. He knows the down and distance and what was going on and who scored a touchdown and what the protection was and what happened.
'We have plays in practice now that he pulls back old clips of that same play where something happened and kind of relates to that. So, it's really cool to see him relate it back to that and relate it to helping us out and play better.'
After his tenure with the Tennessee Titans ended abruptly following the 2023 season, Vrabel spent the 2024 campaign with the Cleveland Browns as a consultant. He talked about how his season there reminded him of the importance of relationships with the players. He also said that Browns co-owner Dee Haslam gave him the nickname 'Human Resource.'
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'I'm like, I don't even know if that's a good thing or a bad thing,' Vrabel said. 'I'm like, 'What does that mean?' Dee was like, 'I don't know, I see you over here, I see you over here, I see you over there. I was like, 'Thank you, I hope that that's a positive.'
Vrabel revealed that the version of 'Human Resource' for the Patriots would be vice president of football operations and strategy, John 'Stretch' Streicher, who Vrabel called an extension of himself and 'the heartbeat of what we do as an operation.'
Vrabel described the kind of culture he's instilling in New England as one that allows flexibility, in some ways, but is also unified.
'We can have different personalities,' Vrabel said. 'We have to have one mentality. That mentality is about the team, about our identity.'
Vrabel said it's essential for Maye to set the tone in that regard because 'when the quarterback does things, everybody else says, 'Oh, that must be the right thing to do.' '
Vrabel also emphasized the role of players taking ownership of the team's identity.
'I can talk about it until I'm blue in the face,' Vrabel said. 'They're the ones that, it's their identity. Hopefully, once you build something, you protect it, because it's yours. You build a home, you protect it. You build a family, you protect it. That's what we talk about.'
Coming off his year as a consultant in Cleveland, Vrabel was a hot name in the coaching hiring cycle. He mentioned the New York Jets and the Chicago Bears as a couple of intriguing options but called taking over the Patriots 'the right choice at the right time.'
Vrabel, who spent eight of his 14 years playing in the NFL with the Patriots, recounted a previous opportunity to be a coach in New England as an assistant on Bill Belichick's staff. At that time, he turned down the offer for another chance.
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'Ended up going to Houston,' Vrabel said. 'I felt like that was the best thing for me at that time, to go there and learn from Bill O'Brien, which I did. I learned a lot, and it helped prepare me for the opportunity in Tennessee. When the time was right, if it all worked out, we could come back here. Now, we are. We're getting started on this thing.'
Vrabel's longtime head coach in New England, Belichick, has repeatedly dismissed being present on social media. Vrabel is a bit different, saying a short stop to the TikTok app is the first thing he checks on his phone in the morning, followed by catching up on news on X.
There were other fun tidbits Vrabel revealed about himself, such as his morning coffee order and his lack of patience for ping-pong. However, there were two things, outside of football, that Vrabel says drive him crazy.
'People, when they leave their carts in the middle of the parking lot and they don't take them back to the cart return,' Vrabel said. 'And then, the people at Starbucks that park in a handicapped spot (who do not have a disability) and try to go in there and get their order from the mobile order.'
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Vrabel feels so passionately about the latter that he said he'll check the dashboard looking for a disabled parking permit and then wait in the parking lot to confront people. One time, somebody told Vrabel they were just there to pick up a DoorDash order.
'I'm like, 'I don't care,' ' Vrabel said. 'That's unacceptable.'
To a mom who was rushing to yoga in the morning, Vrabel said it was 'ridiculous.'
'When I didn't have a job, I had nothing else to do,' Vrabel said. 'I could sit here for 15 minutes, wait for this person to come out and actually see if they're handicapped.'
Vrabel said it bothers him so much that he would slash their tires if he could. When proposed with a boot instead, Vrabel was on board with the idea.
'I wish I had a boot,' Vrabel said. 'That's a great idea. I would boot their car. Just like a mobile boot that says, 'I parked in a handicapped spot and I'm not handicapped.' '
(Top photo of Mike Vrabel: David Berding / Getty Images)
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