Patriots Draft CountdownPatriots Draft Countdown 2/25: At the NFL Combine with Head Coach Mike Vrabel
Mike Dussault and Evan Lazar set the scene and discuss the main storylines to be answered from a Patriots perspective at the NFL Scouting Combine. We discuss our prospects we are most looking forward to talking with and seeing workouts from. Plus, we are joined by Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel for a sit-down interview for his memories as a player at the Combine, what he's looking to accomplish this week, his overall draft strategy and more.
Welcome everybody.
We're coming to you from the twenty twenty five NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. This is Patriots Draft count Town, presented by bud Light but like Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. And Evan, we're back in India. It feels like we never left, right back in the mix of it. It's Tuesday. We're hearing from some of the coaches and gms today. We did have a chance to sit down and talk to Mike Rabel, but ev let's start things off with just a general scene center here.
You love the combine.
I love the combine.
A lot of big questions, different position groups standing out a little bit. We heard Coach Rabel talk about the defensive line, the edge, the linebackers, our favorite, the front seven deep class this year.
But what are you most excited for this week here in Indy.
Well, this is the start of it all, and I feel like, just listening to a lot of the head coaches and general managers this morning, including Mike Rabel, the board is pretty you know, it's pretty early like in the entire process, and I feel like at this point we all just want to jump out scenarios and talk about Abdul Carter and Travis Hunter and Will Campbell and this that the other thing. And right now it's we're kind of like still on the front nine of the draft process for a lot of these teams. So I'm really looking forward to obviously the drills at the end of the week, but I think a lot of the personnel people will talk about the interviews and the medicals and that sort of stuff. We aren't privy to that necessarily, but that's where a lot of this can can really make or break a draft prospect. Stock is you know, what you think about these guys, and just talking to Rabel just about you know, getting in the room with these guys, seeing how they're wired, seeing how they react to certain things that he might say to them or ask them certain questions, and even go out on the pro day circuit and put the pad on like he does, and you know, work these guys out, you know, up close. And I think that that's where we're at right now, and this process is trying to really narrow down the guys that are going to be patriots, you know, not just necessarily the entire group.
Yeah, hard to suss it all out, but certainly, like I said, the front seven position grew really intriguing to me, seems like the Patriots need to do some work on that side of the ball. We did talk to Mike Rabel about that a little bit, which will play that interview here in a minute. But I'm excited to get things started with that group because I feel like there are a lot of different types of guys. You know, whether you're whatever your fancy is on the defensive line. Do you want to hand down defensive end. Do you want a big, fat nose tackle in the middle. Do you want an athletic off the ball kind of will linebacker.
Those kind of players exist.
It seems like, you know, look not up and down the draft, but certainly top one hundred picks.
There's a lot of.
Really good players in that in that in those position groups, and I think the hard thing is figuring out which ones fit what the Patriots and Mike Rabel are going to do on.
Defense one hundred percent.
And we used to have such a long history of this is a Belichick type of player, and you could just look back, you know, twenty years of data of like these are the types of guys that they want, and they gravitate towards And we talked to Vrabel a little bit about the scheme and on defense, and he mentioned Terrell Williams, you know, aggressive defensive coordinators the way that he put it and said that they want to play on the other side to the line of scrimmage. And it didn't sound like we're gonna have so much let's build the wall to gap. But you wouldn't commit one way or another right now, but it does sound like they want to be a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more four man down, you know, rush the quarterback and with four guys and get home with four guys. And I think that he just knows schematically how helpful that is for the back seven. When you don't have to blitz guys and you don't have to take guys out of coverage to get pressure on the quarterback. This is certainly the draft for that if you want that type of player. I think one of the things that we're seeing a lot in the draft nowadays is that those what we used to call undersized pass rushers off the edge, particularly the guys that are forty five that's not undersized anymore. That is the norm these athletic you know, freakish athletes that can rush off the edge, that might play a little bit lighter than Mike Rabel, right Like, you know, Mike Rabel was probably a little bit bigger back in the day than what these guys are now. But you have plenty of that in this draft. From really i'd say pick one to pick one fifty, you could find guys that have starter level grades that can get after the quarterback. It's about rounding out their games maybe a little bit. That I think is an interesting conversation for the Patriots.
All right, well, let's roll that Mike Frabel interview right now. Is a good time, a lot of information and he's open at the podium. He sat down with us. He also sat down with the Beat reporters from Abound Boston. So this was our interview with Mike Rabel. All right, we're excited to be doing join now with coach Mike Rabel here and coach I gotta start with one take us back.
What was it like when you were a player here at the combine?
Well, Orlando Pace was my roommate, and I tell this story every year I come to the combine when they say, oh, you know, players there are at the MRI or they have to go to the hospital for some.
More tests or be tugged on.
And Orlando Pace they must have said that he had to go get an MRI and he was like, nah, I'm going back to Columbus and he just got either he flew back or he drove back or whatever, and so teams would be calling or people would be calling like hey, is it or later there, I said, no, I don't think he here and I don't know what he's going to be back, and they said, well, he needs to come get an MRI, and I said, I don't think he's headed for that MRI. And he still got picked with the number one overall draft picks. So that that was a funny story that, uh he just said, I'm out of here. I'm not getting an MRI.
But uh no, it was good.
I mean I remember meeting with teams. I remember meeting with with Belichick when I was here and he was still coaching and whoever he was with at the time.
In ninety seven, so you know it was good.
I mean, Jason Taylor was was near me in a group. You know what, I'm saying like T and V and he obviously had an amazing career and we kind of went in the same part of the end of the third round and we'll always remember that.
And but you know, that's just was just one step of a process.
So you're back now, back up there at the podium a minute ago. How does it feel just to be representing the Patriots here and back in the head coach?
So I think that that's a that's a great way to look at it. It's it's a great honor. It's something that I'm very grateful to be able to do, and it's it's a it's a privilege I believe to be a part of this league and trying to build something and bring together a group of people and have some energy with it and you know, just just provide a great vision and help people wherever I can.
You mentioned the Super Bowl when you're talking up there and building through the trenches and just for the Orlando pace coming up to just how important is it for you guys this offseason to build up the offensive and defensive lines.
Well, it is.
I mean, I think that it is something that we need to be able to do. We need to identify the men that we feel like exhibit those qualities and characteristics up front, and then the ones that we feel like we need to add and to bring on that will help us continue to do that. So that's where this game is one you know consistently. I mean there's times where the skill can can win, but I think down in and down out, and weekend and week out, through the rigors of a season, you certainly want to.
Have a great lines of scrimmage.
You mentioned you talked with some of the defensive linemen, the edges, the linebackers, the first position group we'll hear from tomorrow. You had a chance to meet with some of those guys this year. It seems like a really deep class, a lot of different types. Yeah, do you still gravitate gravitate towards those positions well you play?
Yeah, I mean I think that I do, But I also have to be careful, you know, early on, I think just making sure that when I was, you know, being a head coach for the first time, that you didn't spend all your time with the outside linebacker, or you just didn't spend all your time with the defense ends or whatever it may be, but that you're where you are where the head coach is is what's important, and so I need to be in special teams. I need to be and I do think that that's the strength of mine. I think that I can provide some sort of coaching point tip fundamental to every position on our on our team, and I don't think that that's some positions there may be greater detailed than others, but I do think that that is a connection that I have and the ability to do that.
You mentioned aggressiveness with with coach Williams on the defensive side of the ball, and one of the things we've been kicking around is in Tennessee, seem like you guys maybe play a little bit more four man front than what we've seen around here.
With Coach Belichick in the past.
Just what do you look at with that defensive scheme and could you see you guys being a little bit more for down.
Well, I mean, I think that we probably have that ability. I'm not going to commit to anything right now. You know, we want to play on their side of a lot of scrimmage. You know, we don't want to sit and you know, there's different techniques, there's different things that we'll be able to do whether we play a three down front, five down front, four down front pressure. You know, we want to be able to you know, have a lot of different things at our disposal, uh to again to teach the players, and it may be some new teaching and that's okay, but I think that the fundamentals that they've played with here in the past is something that we'll want to continue. Style may be a little different or the call or the front, but confident that those techniques will get taught and be able to come out term.
We here a lot just to piggyback on that is game plan defense for a lot a lot over the years here. Would you consider yourself a game plan defense kind of quo?
I'm going to think that there's a certain elements that that you always want to be able to take away what they do best, but at what.
Cost to your football team.
And we've done it different ways over the course of you know, six years. Sometimes it's hey, we're just gonna do what we do and we're going to stay somewhat basic, but we're going to play hard. We know what the issues are because that's what was best for our players. We're always going to do what's bet we think is best for our players and their performance. Their understanding will will help us get to that point. And if you know we're there's confusion, if indecisive, we don't want to do any of those types of things that cause somewhat of the players to be unsure about anything that we're asking them to do.
When you look at Drake and the offense with Josh and everything, you know what we talk a lot about those like innovations and things that has done over the last year or so, you know, can you shed any light on what some of those things might No.
I think you'll see a lot of that come out, but I think that there's certain things that will keep. There will be some things that we add that I like or other coaches have had some experience with. And yeah, we're going to do what we think is best for our players, and we're going to make sure that they understand it. There's a lot of different scheme. There's things that we think are great, but in the end, it's what our players can believe and what we can get taught.
One of the talking points last year with Drake was you know, his mobility and his athleticism, but also keeping him healthy, like where do you kind of stand on running quarterbacks and him using his legs at a high volume.
Well, I think his ability to extend plays that begin in the pocket is the first place that you look and looking for ways to exit the pocket, not going out the back of the pocket. I don't think anything good comes of that. Being able to step up and slide and protect the football, be shown with the football, to extend plays, to remain a passer throughout the down or when he untill he crosses the line of scrimmage is something that we're going to talk a lot about because I know how much stress that puts on the defense. They'll be designed runs, they'll be designed move the pocket passes, but I think we want to be careful on how many times that we're you know, asking him to you know, potentially be the prime ball carrier or the main ball carrier. But he we have to be able to do those things because of what he does and what he can do. But being smart where he's at on the football field, and being able to protect himself with something that he's going to have to prove us that he can do too.
Just as a head coach, what do you want to accomplish this week at the combine. What's of most value to you here in India?
Well, the meetings, you know, I mean the meetings that we have, the interactions that we have with the players and getting to know them, you know, being int intentional with with what we're asking them and how we're trying to you know, this is just one small.
Part of the process.
And then we'll go from this to see who the other players that we need to bring in, and who do we need to have on campus and had a greater length or where we may want to send coaches, and what exposure that we want to have at pro days and interviews and zoom schedules. So this is just the first process, uh, to set the set up a plan for the rest of the spring until we get to April.
And April I was gonna ask you about the proda's we're gonna see you with the pad on maybe.
Maybe we'll see Yeah, no guarantees, but that that may happen. I don't know, what what do you get we ordered a bunch of those those are in stock.
What do you get out of that? Like, let's just say hypothetically, there's a pass rusher you go in.
I think you can always just feel like the play strength of the player, and you know what his hands feel like, and his shock and and just the power that they play with and the size and you know, I think haven't been around a lot of players over my career, I can kind of you know, feel and see what one looks like and just by shaking their hands or grabbing them or whatever.
That may be.
Like, some of these guys have a certain feel to them that you just know that they're going to find a.
Way to make it.
You think they're not going to be moved around easily, or they could probably move people easily.
I mean, is that with the offensive line where you're used to taking those guys on, you get a feel for them instantly going up again?
Yeah, I mean I think that there's just a you know, a strength a body, you know, a core strength that you can feel in some of these guys and you know if they can you know, again, the tape ultimately means a lot and our ability to evaluate the tape, But I certainly like to get involved, Like, you know, you go a long way. Why would you just stand there and watch? You might as well get involved in in drills or something.
Yeah, there's a couple of small moves you guys have made here, you know, Jeremiah Farm's contract extension, things like that. Just how has that process been evaluating the roster that was left over from last season with Elliott?
And it's been very good, you know what I mean, It's been great for us to be able to sit there and you know, look at somebody, these players that we feel like, you know, if we know what you know, what they may provide for us going into next year, then you know, let's take care of some of the bookkeeping and some of these whether they're restricted free agent, having conversations with some of our unrestricted free agents that could potentially be back, and then you know, deciding if you know, we should give a player another opportunity to pursue you know, another team.
Does that? Do you do?
You watch the film back and like, how do you because you know, obviously you weren't in the building last year, So how do you sort of go about evaluating those players for yourself?
You know, well, I watch I talked to Elliott, I talked to to Matt, talk to Alonzo. You know, these are conversations that we have daily on what we feel like each position wants to look like and you know who we you know, feel like uh is going to be one of those ninety that go into camp and try to create competition at each position.
Great coach, thanks so much, Thank you guys. On the next thing, yes, thank you, appreciate it all right.
So great stuff, really great to you know, sit down with coach Rabel and talk with him a little bit. I feel like we're getting a little bit of insight Evan and combining all three of his different appearances that we've heard him talk today, it does sound in maybe is ultimately common sense, but it's not so much about what his scheme is and what he wants to do. He just he wants to find players that he can rely on, that he can trust, and that seems like what's.
Put in the forefront.
It's not so much how do we fill out I need this player for this scheme that you know, and it makes sense to approach it that way.
Right, Yeah.
Absolutely, I think every great coach and I think you'd be the first one to tell you this adapts to the skill set of the players that they have. He did mention and the scrum that he did after he spoke with us that if they're going to pay a premium for a player, they probably want everything to align where it's a scheme fit and it's a culture fit and all those different types of things. But eventually, at some point in our interviews talking about Drake May, you know, moving the pocket, design, quarterback runs, you know, he said that those things are all going to be in the offense because they have to be, like, that's what his skill set is, that's what he's great at. And if you really make them play without all those things, and he's almost playing left handed or with one hand tie behind his back. So I do think that they're open to all avenues for Drake May to impact the game. I liked how he said, don't go out the back of the pocket though, you know, we want to go through the middle of the pocket and scramble that way. But I think the biggest thing when you hear him speak about it is that he has that ability or wants to have that ability to morph, you know, and to kind of change every single direction they can go in.
Yeah, we've heard a couple of times too from coach rabel Is that he really wants to get to know these guys.
It seems that's you know.
I mean, he said in the interview, this is what's most valuable to him is getting a chance to sit down with these guys and really get to know him. It's part of why I like coming here, because you know, you you grind the film, you're putting out all kinds of different video.
You know.
Sometimes I've found in my process it's like, I really like this guy.
But what's he like?
What's an interview like with him? You know, to hear what the what person is like. And I mean it's changed over the years. Like you said, back when Bill Belichick was here, you kind of had a feel for like Alabama guys. He's really serious football dude. This guy seems like he'd be that kind of fit. I think Rabel is a little bit more willing for some push and pull a little bit. We see Taylor Lawan has a good relationship with him. But that's one part for me that I'm looking forward to over these next few days is you know, some of the guys that I haven't really watched yet, getting a sense of their personality and then is kind of what Rabel said, Then you get sparked onto that guy. Hey, I like this guy. This guy seems like he's he's got something going. Let's go look at his tape and see how he might fit.
As he can attest you know from the teams that he played in in the early two thousands. You have to have some of those rally the troops kind of guys. And we've been joking about them being brave heart guys, right like he's going to be the guy at the front of the line making the speech to get their troops all fired up. And that as much as we want to talk about talent and skill and all that stuff, is really important where the Patriots are right now, they also need some leaders, like they need some guys that are going to build a culture here and and be about that, be about building a culture. And I do think there are quite a few of those types of guys at the top of the draft this year, and maybe even on Day two, like a guy like Jack Sawyer, who you see at Ohio States, you know, Bowl games, just right in the middle of a huddle, just trying to brave hearted up.
So you have a lot of that going on.
I know that sometimes fans hear that, and people that listen to do ues hear that, and They're like, all right, can we not like get can we get some talent? Like let's like forget about yeah, forget about the ra ra stuff like can we get some football players that have a lot of talent? And that's part of it, But when you're a back to back four win football team, there's a culture aspect of it too, and I think it's important to them.
One more interesting piece for me that they actually said over on the podium is that Terrell Williams, the new defensive coordinator, will call plays. There have been some speculation will Mike rab will be the guy to do that. He said explicitly, it will be Terrell Williams. So there might be some growing paints there. I know you wrote a good deep dive on Terrell Williams' defense what they were kind of running in Tennessee. Mike mentioned also aggressiveness, and I think some of us might have interpreted that as less two gap maybe more one one.
I would have to interpreted that.
Maybe maybe we're wishful thinking, but yeah, but what what's kind of your expectation with Terrell Williams? And you know, do you think that there will be some growing paints with this defense where adjusting the scheme of the personnel a new play caller. We've seen that last couple of years where there's been new play callers, they can probably expect there to be some growing pains.
But what are your kind of expectations and feel for that.
Yeah, there's a couple of things that stand out.
I think the number one thing when you look at Trell Williams's background, this is a defensive line coach. Is the guy that's worked a lot in the front seven. So how does he marry pass rush with coverage? Like, how does he understand the back end? What is his knowledge of the back end? I think a guy like Scott Booker is here in a lot of ways to help him with that. Marriage two guys that were in the same scheme in Tennessee for a long time, so they have that familiarity. Is Scott Booker going to help him kind of quarterback the back end so that he can focus on getting pressure and stopping to run and things like that. Whenever you elevated defensive line coach, that's my initial instinct is, Okay, well, what does he know about coverage and rotation and you know cover three, cover four, man to man like whatever the case may be. You know, how do you go about coaching that and marrying that and game planning for that with the opponent. And I did think it was interesting that Rabel mentioned Ben McAdoo and having Ben mcado basically reverse engineer, you know, if we're going to go up against our defense and I was the offensive coach and I was the OC on the other side. That's basically what Rabel did in Cleveland for the past year own. He was there with the Browns as an advisor, so you have that voice as well that can be helpful in those types of things. I think the last thing though, is again, are they going to be more four down? Are they going to be more aggressive? Are they going to try to shoot gaps and get up the field, because I believe that early down pass rush suffers when you're predominantly two gaping defense. I think we both see that. Twenty ninth in pressure, eight last year last in sacks in the league. I'm not saying it was all because of that. Talent's a big part of that, but when you're asking guys to like two gap and then they have to transition to a pass rush move when it's a play action or it's a throw on early downs that that can be a little bit of a hesitation there and that pause. So I think we all want to see some more aggressiveness. But in general, I'm interested to see though, how Terrell Williams handles the responsibilities a calling plays because he is a front seven defensive line background.
Yeah, one more area just to touch on that stood out to me. Just free agencies coming up here in a couple weeks. I mean, we're right, we'll get back from the combine. It's boom free agency time, and you spend so much time figuring out who the draft picks are before free agency. There's a lot of things in motion right now, and I just I liked hearing from Vrabel they're going to be aggressive. I think they understand where they're at, what kind of team they are, what kind of draw they are right now. But it's encouraging because it feels like the word aggressive again, and that's what I think all fans really want to see this spring is you got some money to spend, You've got the draft capital, You've got enough of those elements to make some noise this year. And it sounds like they're going to do their best to try to, you know, really improve this roster. I mean, he said it explicitly, and I'm not sure what this roster is going to look like. You know, by the time we get to September, a lot of moves to be made. But I'm excited by the hint that they're going to be aggressive.
Yeah, they have to be aggressive.
They have all the cap space in the world and you got to spend it that money somewhere. And I think the biggest thing though, is when you look at where they can spend it, how do they attract those top of the market free agents. Last year, Let's face it, you know, Calvin Ridley said no, Brandon and I you said no like that, that's just the bottom line. They offered the Brinks truck to both those guys and neither one of them wanted to take the money. So I asked Rabel about that when we had him in the scrum, just you know, how do you go about being an attractive destination? And I thought he had an interesting word he use. He said, testimonials, which like you think about that like as like a review for somebody's business or something like that, right, like, oh, you know this dog breeder what the test like it does everybody have a great dog out of this person, right, But he was saying, you know, let's talk about our program, and let's talk about how we're going to use you and how you fit in here, and all those different types of things, and that sort of can make or break it to an extent, right, Like everybody's offering top of the money, you know, market value, Like if t Higgins is an unrestricted free agent, everybody's gonna offer him thirty five million dollars a year that wants him. So what's gonna separate you is all that other stuff. And I'm interested to see how Mike Rabel is as a recruiter, like can he go out there and recruit players to want to come to New England. But he mentioned in the draft when it comes to wide receivers specifically, you got to draft those guys like you most of the time, in order to get one of those you got to draft them. He knows all about that with Aj Brown. So you have to go out there and actually make that happen in the draft most of the time. But that's a fascinating part about this to me, is can they get Mike Rabel in a room with a you know, a Trey Smith or a Ronnie Stanley or t Higgins, and all of a sudden, that guy has just swayed like I'm gonna play for this guy.
Yeah, maybe Ronnie Stanley wants to put that We get that breastplate on Brabell, you know, yeah, go ahead, go ahead to have one a little bit. All right, Well, we're just getting started here obviously on Patriots Draft Countdown. This is our first episode and we're gonna be here all week. We're expecting to talk to Elliott Wolf tomorrow, WHI should be exciting to pick his brain a little bit about this draft class. And we're gonna kick things off tomorrow. I have with the prospects the front seven. You know, we love it working our way.
Up right and early with the Abdul Carter at eight am. Right, Yeah, he brings the energy. We're gonna bring the energy too.
So we hope you'll stick with us here all week, and then we'll be right back after we get back from the Combine with more episodes of Patriots Draft Contown.
So stick with us.
We'll be here all week
