FOXBOROUGH - You're about to get your first look at a Mike Vrabel training camp. I've had the luxury of attending some sessions during his tenure in Tennessee, and what stood out then was the constant movement and a lot of hands-on teaching. In other words, a continuation of what we saw in Foxborough spring, but this time with pads and contact. Amen.
Vrabel stood at the podium Tuesday like he belonged. He ripped through some housekeeping items, which I'll touch on here.
- Mack Hollins, Austin Hooper, Jahlani Tavai, and Vederian Lowe are on PUP, but Vrabel expects Tavai to be cleared for tomorrow's practice. He added that the remaining three will be "sometime after that."
- Carlton Davis, Josh Minkins (S), and Jeremiah Webb (WR) are on NFI, but not for long. Vrabel expects Davis and Webb back out there tomorrow, and Minkins "maybe a few more days."
- Defensive coordinator Terrell Williams "isn't on any list." He's back with the team, and there are no restrictions after his medical scare this spring kept him away from the team for the entirety of OTAs. "Players were excited to see him. I was excited to see him."
- Stefon Diggs passed his physical, which means he gets his $12 million signing bonus (though I believe it's not all paid out in one chunk). Vrabel: "I don't see any limitations right now. Is he going to take every single rep of every single period? No, and I don't think any player will. But, I think we're off to a good start and encouraged by what we saw here in the last couple days."
That is excellent news for an offense that is in desperate need of a lead dog at the position. Can Diggs flash back to his pre-injury form in Houston? The following month or so will allow us to better gauge who he is at this point in his career and where that knee truly stands.
- In his very first press conference back in January, Vrabel discussed getting the team to a point where they could take advantage of weaker teams. Are they closer to that?
"We're closer than where we were in March or April, when we got here. I think we are," said Vrabel. "I think the players start to understand, you know, we talk about the good, the bad, and the shit to get you beat. And I think that they can tell the difference between those three now.
We have to eliminate the stuff that gets you beat... And I can't just always just sit there and show them the stuff that gets you beat, because that gets old as a player. You're like, 'I can't just see this all the time,' and I can't just show them all the good stuff, so I just try to - every time there's film - I try to show those three buckets."
Another nugget from Vrabel, which I share because we look for it too, is that as we watch these practices, we keep our eyes open for someone who wasn't on the radar or hadn't performed in the past, but pops. The coach likes that too.
"I look forward to the first day of pads, where there's somebody that we really never saw, we never really talked about that," he said. "Once the pads go on and they start to play football, they just have a contact balance. They have an understanding of where the football is. They tackle well, or they break tackles, or they play better in pads. That happens every year in training camp. Who's it going to be? I don't know. It's a different guy every year."
PLAYERS PERSPECTIVE
Not a whole lot to be gained from our conversations with Brenden Schooler, Christian Gonzalez, and Hunter Henry, but I did appreciate Schooler's take on Vrabel.
"I think Coach Vrabel brings a different vibe. And I can only speak for the years I've been here. He brings a different vibe from the years previous, where you're not scared, but you know, like he's not messing around. Like if you're not on your P's and Q's and you're not doing exactly what you're asked to do, how you're supposed to do it, then, you know, I don't think you know guys are gonna be sticking around long.
"That's not to scare anybody or to be rude. I think it's just the nature of the business, and he's not messing around. So I think there's that aspect of it, but there's also the excitement that he brings and the energy that he brings, because being a former player, he knows the difficulties that we have to go through."
Henry added, "We all need accountability, and I think he brings that every single day. I think he's the same guy every day so far that I've seen, and I think he'll continue to be that. And that's all you can ask for from your head coach."
Finally, Gonzalez had a detailed explanation of how a defensive back (a smart one) decides when to play the ball, or when he has to play through the hands.
"Being a DB, there's kind of two different phases," he said. "In phase, like hip to hip, you can look up and find the ball. And if he's a couple of steps ahead of you, a step ahead of you, and if you look up, the ball will go right over your head. Because, I mean, the quarterback's not throwing to us, he's throwing to the receiver. So if you're in his hip pocket where you can turn and look, you can. If you got a couple of steps, you've got to play straight through the hands."
Gonzalez, by the way, seemed pretty unmoved by being on the NFL's Top 100 list.
"It was cool."
