Patriots HC Mike Vrabel Transcript 2/3
PATRIOTS HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL
PRESS CONFERENCE
February 3, 2026
Q: Robert Kraft has been eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for more than a decade now, and he’s still on the outside looking in. Your reaction to that?
MV: I would just say that that’s unfortunate. I would say that in my experiences with Robert, he’s more than deserving and he’ll be in the Hall of Fame. I’m not in charge of deciding when that happens. So, I appreciate the relationship that I’ve had with him and the success as a player, and now as a coach. So, he’s done everything that we’ve needed and provided the support that we’ve needed as a staff and as a team. So, I’m glad that he’s back here and continuing to help us do things that will help the team win, and ultimately allow him to be recognized.
Q: Paternity leave has been in the news cycle this week with Kwesi Adofo-Mensah taking two weeks to work remotely. Did that news shock you and how do you decide when it’s a good time to stop thinking about football?
MV: Well, I don’t think there’s ever a time to stop thinking about football. Football has been a part of my life since I was 12 years old and started to be able to play. We do everything that we possibly can to support the people in our building on and off the field – our coaches. We really try to do everything that we can to support the men and women in our building, and that’s where my focus is.
Q: Mike, I want to ask you about Drake Maye. Of course, a really good sophomore year, MVP candidate. What have you seen in practice that you’ve seen him have that improvement in his second year in the NFL?
MV: Well, I think it all starts with talent. I think he’s extremely talented. I think he’s athletic. I think he plays the position athletically and that allows him to be accurate with the football, whether that’s in the pocket or extended plays. He’s a competitor. He’s always trying to learn. Continues to build and develop as a leader. So, his success and his performance is a large part of why we’re here.
Q: Just kind of a follow-up on Drake. He said last night that he thought he turned a corner Sunday on the flight, felt really good through practice. Just if you can update us on how he’s doing, and how the illness and the shoulder are coming along.
MV: I think that he spoke for himself on how he feels. I can’t determine how he feels. I know that practice yesterday was good for him, and for everybody to get out there and get moving around. We appreciate everybody at Stanford for providing us the facility that we have. So, I think we got the week off to a great start.
Q: What’s the hardest adversity you’ve had to overcome as a coach?
MV: Well, first of all, thank you for the question. I also appreciate everybody supporting us last night and coming out last night to ask our players questions and get to know them a little bit better. I think probably early on, just going from a player to a coach, having an idea of what coaching was. I tell this to every person I interview, nobody’s going to have a worse first interview than I did. I wasn’t prepared. I sat down with Urban Meyer in front of a staff, interviewed for a position and completely bombed it. Had no idea, wasn’t prepared, didn’t have a teaching progression. He gave me about eight hours to go back in my office, didn’t sleep, didn’t go home, to prepare for the next day at six in the morning. So, that’s probably the first adversity that I faced was like, “Am I really going to do this?” And I better go back and formulate my thoughts and have a teaching progression to what I was going to do. So, nobody’s going to have a worse first interview than I did.
Q: Coach, you’re looking to become the fifth coach that won a Super Bowl, both as a player and a head coach. You would be the only one that also has a sack and a touchdown reception. I’m just curious, are there any lessons that you think you can instill in these guys specifically from your time as a player in these games that translate also as a head coach?
MV: I mean, I think I always try to use every experience that I’ve had over the course of close to 30 years in this league, whether that’s as a player or a coach, to try to help the team and help individual players do their job. So, I think you have to be ready for every situation that occurs, and the opportunities present themselves in these types of games. You only have so many opportunities to make a play, so you always have to be ready.
Q: I wanted to ask you about this storyline, about the two teams that are in the Super Bowl not necessarily being the favorites at the start of the season. There’s that poster where they have your two quarterbacks way back. Maybe that’s symbolic. I want to ask you, why do you think Americans, or people in general, like to see underdogs do well – teams that aren’t expected to do something. And was there any point during the season where you had one of these coaching talks telling your team, “No one expects you to do this, prove them wrong,” type of thing?
MV: No, we’ve always tried to focus on how things are going to go right and not worry about what could happen and go wrong. I think I would say the majority of Americans or a majority of people probably are more underdogs than they are favorites. Favorites are the talented, elite, top 10%. Most groups are made out of a lot of people that are average and 80%, and we’re trying to make the 80% a little bit better. Talent’s talent. There’s a lot of things that are God-given. We try to focus on things that we can realistically improve.
Q: A lot has changed over the nation’s landscape since the last time the Patriots were in their Super Bowl, and we’ve seen the rise of sports gambling, prediction markets, sweeps. Can you talk a little bit about the pressure that puts on the team and the staff, what they’re dealing with going into the Super Bowl?
MV: The pressure in our business is always going to be there, whether people wager on it legally or not. We understand the nature of this business and how competitive it is. As you can see, the turnover in coaching staffs, turnovers in rosters, the draft every year, how competitive this business is as it starts to bleed into college and the landscape that we’re starting to see. So, gambling has nothing to do with our willingness to work, the pressure that we’re under and the expectations.
Q: As you’ve assessed Sam Darnold getting ready for this game, how would you describe the way he’s handled pressure this year?
MV: I think he’s handled it well. I think that, again, there’s a willingness to stand in the pocket and there’s a willingness to progress through. There’s a lot of talent. I think his courage to stand in there – I mean, the Rams nailed him and he completed an unbelievable pass to Cooper [Kupp] on the sideline. So, he didn’t shy away. He didn’t duck, didn’t fade back. He stood there and faced the fire, which is what you have to do in this league if you’re going to be an elite quarterback.
Q: The Seattle defense is top three in quarterback pressures, but they do actually give up the second most yards after the catch. So, when you’re looking at the profile of this defense, what they present, how does that shape the way that you think about attacking them on Sunday?
MV: Well, we’ll have to stay balanced. I mean, our best games, we’re able to provide some semblance of run game and we’re able to kind of marry some of the play action passes. I don’t think in this league you want to turn things into a drop-back passing game. That makes it really difficult. They’re good up front. They play a lot of people. They’re disruptive. They work well together with games. They don’t give up many X plays. I think that those numbers, whichever you’re alluding to, isn’t because they’re not good tacklers. They’re really good tacklers. It’s just sometimes in the shell that they’re in, some of the underneath coverage is a little bit deeper. But I think they’re a very good tackling football team, and you can tell the fundamentals that they play with across the board.
Q: Coach, to switch to your defense, you obviously brought in a lot of new people at all three levels in free agency. You had the coordinator switch that you did not expect early in the season. How proud are you of these guys to come together at exactly the right times? It’s like as the season went along, it seemed like your defense just got better and better.
MV: Well, they’ve been continuing to improve. I think most of the people on our team, our coaching staff, have continued to improve. And that’s what you have to do for the teams that want to be here. Talked about the ones that are playing the best football late are the ones that are usually in the playoffs. And that continues to happen. So, I give them a lot of credit, defensively, for what they’ve done. We’ll need our best effort on Sunday in order to help us win the football game.
Q: It’s unusual for a team to have a rookie starting a left tackle and left guard. What’s led to and allowed Will [Campbell] and Jared [Wilson] to have success this year?
MV: Well, I mean, I think they’re talented. I think that they’ve worked. I think they’ve tried to get better each and every week. There’s some matchups in this league that are tough. They’ve had some really good plays. They’ve had some plays that they’d like to have back. But they’re out there for the most part all the time, practicing, improving, working together. And we never really looked at it as rookie players on the left side. I don’t really get into that much. I talk about maturity. Maturity is based on experience, not age. They have a lot of experience here this entire year. They both missed a few games, but they’ve been in there the majority of the time.
Q: When it comes to dynasty – I’m sure that’s the talk that you’ve heard about, it’s something that you’ve been a part of as well. Is that something that you embrace when it comes to your team or you try to ignore? And also, I’m from Little Rock, Arkansas, hometown of Hunter Henry. What has he meant to this team? Can you speak to who he is as a player and as a person?
MV: Yeah, I don’t know where the dynasty would come from. Maybe the teams that I was a part of in the past, you could consider that, but we’re just trying to build a program. First year of the program, we ended up here. We’re excited about it, and we’re ready to go. We will be ready to go. Hunter, I’ve always said this, has been consistent. He’s been one of the most consistent players on our football team as it relates to his daily attitude, but also his performance. You understand what you’re going to get each and every day. And then when his number is called, he usually always comes through for us.
Q: I wanted to ask you, when a team moves on from you as a head coach, which Tennessee did, were there any moments of any self-doubt or introspection? And do you feel a level of redemption in any way being here?
MV: No, I’m grateful for the opportunity. Whether it’s a player that gets released and then picked up by another team or it’s a coach that somebody moves on from or fires, I think you just are grateful for the opportunity that you have the next time and you try to do everything that you can not to let that happen. As far as emotions go, I think there’s plenty of emotion, whether that’s being traded to Kansas City as a player or that’s being fired as a coach. There’s a lot of emotions that you go through, and sometimes that takes a little longer to get over than others.
Q: I wanted to ask about Terrell Williams. There was a report that he’s cancer-free before the trip. What’s it like to have him here and be able to kind of celebrate such a big accomplishment this week of all weeks?
MV: Thank you for asking about Terrell. He’s doing great. He is cancer-free, and he was able to come in and be a part of things that we were doing late in the season based on how he was feeling, and so it was great to have him around based on his health and what he felt. Certainly, great to have him out here this week, and I would say that he has a reach to all three phases, the players on our team and through our staff. So, I’m glad that he can be out here to enjoy this and also help us prepare.
Transcripts are provided by the Patriots media relations department as a courtesy to the media and are edited for readability. All press conferences are posted and archived in their entirety on patriots.com. The duplication or posting of this transcript in its entirety as original content is prohibited. Media are encouraged to link to the complete transcript on patriots.com when sharing full quotes with their audiences.