1 day Ago By Conor Ryan
By Conor Ryan Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf both appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub Monday to chat with radio host Michael Felger at the NFL owners’ meetings in Florida. Felger touched on several topics with both Vrabel and Wolf during the interviews, including expectations for the 2025 season and the upcoming NFL Draft.
Here are six takeaways from both interviews with Vrabel and Wolf. The Patriots had cash to burn this offseason with the most cap space in the NFL — and they’ve since gone out and spent $197 million in guaranteed cash since the start of free agency commenced. While New England has made some upgrades on offense with wideouts Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins — along with veteran right tackle Morgan Moses — the Patriots primarily focused on the defensive side of the ball in free agency.
New England handed defensive tackle Milton Williams the largest contract (per average annual value) in team history with his four-year, $104 million contract , while also doling out contracts to other defensive players like corner Carlton Davis and linebackers Robert Spillane, Harold Landry, and Christian Elliss. While the Patriots made an effort to shore up a defense that regressed across several areas in 2024, Wolf said the team didn’t make the offense any less of a priority. “I feel like we’ve helped both sides of the ball, maybe the defense a little bit more just because of the volume of players we’ve signed over there,” Wolf said.
“When you look at our needs on offense, it’s no secret that wide receiver and tackle were probably our two biggest needs.” For Vrabel, targeting players like Williams, Davis, and Spillane stood as an opportunity to target players in free agency who could deliver immediate results across the depth chart. “There’s a focus on building the team, right? There’s a focus on building the football team and whether we were able to add more offensive players — I think that that’s something that we’ll continue to do,” Vrabel said.
“We have to do that. But the focus was building the football team and trying to get as many players in here that we felt like could help us.” The Patriots’ hopes of clawing out of the bottom of the AFC standings in 2025 likely rest on Drake Maye ’s ability to take another step forward in his second NFL season.
But New England will need to surround their skilled QB with more talent moving forward, with the addition of a veteran wideout in Diggs a step in the right direction. Still, New England has work to do as far as giving Maye more pass-catchers, as well as shoring up an offensive line that relinquished 52 sacks during the 2024 season. But beyond the need to upgrade the personnel on offense, Vrabel added that the Patriots’ revamped coaching staff also has to support Maye by building an environment and system that can play to the 22-year-old quarterback’s strengths.
“I think understanding the game. I think just how you want to play the game,” Vrabel said when asked by Felger how the team can best support Maye. “Being able to take care of football.
I just think that there’s a lot of instances in this league where there is bad football that gets you beat. “I think it just comes from that, and knowing that you don’t have to do it all on one play – that you don’t have to try to win the game on one specific play,” Vrabel continued. “I think it starts there.
I think just starts on his leadership so that he can get it the best from everybody and that he could command the respect of the huddle.” While Vrabel won three Super Bowls in New England as a key cog on Bill Belichick ’s defense, the current Patriots head coach made something clear during his introductory press conference in Foxborough back in January. “I’m not Bill, and I’m not Bill Cowher, I’m not anyone other than me,” Vrabel said .
“I’ve taken those experiences, and I’ve tried to form what I believe is critical to the success of a football team and an organization.” As tempting as it might be to lump Vrabel in with the rest of Belichick’s extended “coaching tree,” he pushed back against that assertion with Felger. “I never worked for Bill Belichick as a coach.
There was a lot of things that I learned from him as a player that I’ve used — but just like with [former Ohio State head coach] Urban Meyer, or just like with anybody else that I’ve worked for, I’ve tried to take those things, but do it in my own personality, my own style,” Vrabel replied. Even though Vrabel did not rise through the football coaching ranks under Belichick’s tutelage, he noted that there are some hallmarks from Belichick’s extended tenure in New England that he has incorporated into his own coaching approach. “I thought the preparation — we were prepared,” Vrabel said.
“We were a prepared football team. We knew what the rules were, and we used them to our advantage as a player, those are things that he could explain to me that try to help and do those things. “The competitiveness in which we try to create [on] the roster I felt like was something that — as a player — I don’t know if I necessarily loved, but it certainly is something that I look back on and say, ‘Hey, that was best for our football team, is putting good players at the position and letting them fight it out and figure it out how everybody’s going to help the football team.
’” One of the most pressing questions surrounding the Patriots following Vrabel’s hiring was how the power structure would be established between the new head coach and Wolf. Even though Wolf remains in place as the franchise’s de-facto GM, Vrabel and his staff have also had plenty of input this offseason — with Vrabel himself also bringing in other personnel that he’s familiar with during his tenure in Tennessee in VP of player personnel Ryan Cowden and VP of football operations and strategy John Streicher. Even with that overhauled coaching staff and personnel group, Wolf stressed to Felger that the presence of executives like Cowden and Streicher have helped Vrabel hit the ground running since his hiring in January.
“With Ryan Cowden coming in — who’s worked with Vrabel — and Vrabel getting, I think nine coaches that he’s worked with previously. ..
. There’s maybe a little bit less of a getting to know you period of time, and the coaches that are here, as well as Ryan, can kind of translate and, [say] ‘Hey, this is what Mike’s looking for here, or this this is the way that we’re going to do things,’” Wolf said. “And it’s just been a little bit more seamless.
” Wolf has been impressed with the culture that Vrabel has looked to establish in New England moving forward, sharing with Felger that the new head coach was already “watching film” in the pro scouting room right after his first press conference with the Patriots. Even though the current structure between Wolf, Vrabel, and new execs like Cowden would seemingly create some tension as far as the hierarchy of leadership in New England, Wolf added that said collaboration hasn’t been “awkward” this offseason. “I’m sure it will be at some point,” Wolf admitted.
“But we’ve seen things. It’s not like we agree on every little thing. But you know, the disagreements that we’ve had have been productive, and they’ve resulted in some good dialog.
” While Wolf managed to retain his title despite last year’s 4-13 campaign that resulted in Jerod Mayo’s firing, he acknowledged that New England’s entire personnel played a role in last season’s debacle. “There were certainly mistakes made last year,” Wolf said. “We were 4-13 and [we’re] just learning from those mistakes and trying to head in the right direction.
I felt like I thought maybe we were going to have a little bit more internal development on the roster than we had. “And so this year, I think you see that manifesting itself in a little bit more aggressive approach in free agency and maybe pivoting to some players that maybe weren’t the upper-echelon guys that we shot for last year, and just pivoting and making sure we fill as many needs as we possibly can.” Felger then asked Wolf if that lack of “internal development” last season was an indictment on Mayo and the team’s coaching staff last season.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Wolf said. “I just think it’s — sometimes you go into year two and you expect your rookie class to get better. Again, it goes back to the old thing — hope is not a strategy.
And we maybe miss-evaluated some of those guys, but ...
some of those guys are still here, and we’re still looking forward to seeing if the light can turn on and move in that direction.” One player in need of a bounce-back campaign is 2024 second-round pick Ja’Lynn Polk. Once termed as a “plug-and-play” asset for New England by Wolf, Polk had a disastrous rookie campaign in Foxborough, reeling in just 12 catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns.
“I thought he was at the time,” Wolf said of those “plug-and-play” comments about Polk. “Obviously, again, I brought it up before we moved him around a little bit and put him in a position where we asked him to do a lot — where he was trying to learn all three positions at once, which can be difficult for anyone, let alone a rookie. “But we’re still excited about what he can do.
You see the talent. You saw it on the practice field as the season ..
. wore on. And again, he’s overcoming rehab and an injury right now that we’re hopeful that he can be a contributor for us.
” Felger asked Wolf for his thoughts on several potential targets for New England with the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. On offensive tackle Will Campbell and concerns over his arm length: “I think you go back to the film and he’s blocking guys,” Wolf said.
“We like him as a player. We’ll see what that means on draft day, if anything, but I do think he can play tackle.” On CB/WR Travis Hunter and if the Patriots’ coaching staff would limit him to one position: “From my perspective, having him play one way would maybe — I don’t want to say waste, but — not be maximizing what he can be,” Wolf said.
“So I think wherever he goes, my guess is he’ll be majoring in one position and minor in the other. “Playing at Colorado is a little different than playing up here at 180 pounds or whatever he is,” he later added of Hunter. “I think it’d be asking a lot to have him play full time both ways, but that’s not to say — with any player, if they can handle something we’ll have them do it.
” On concerns over DT Mason Graham due to his smaller size at 6-foot-3 and 296 pounds as the NFL combine: “I definitely think he’s big enough to play inside in the NFL in either scheme, maybe a slightly better fit for the scheme we’re going to be running,” Wolf said. “But he’s an explosive player. He’s good with his hands, light on his feet, and he was productive for Michigan.
” Conor Ryan Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023. Sign up for the Today newsletter Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
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