FOXBOROUGH — For the record, I think Mike Vrabel is a great coach, and will be one for the Patriots. He's freaking smart as hell, the coaching staff is really good, and they'll at least get the Patriots into playoff contention - and I expect them to qualify this season.
But I sure hope he knows what he's doing when it comes to the training camp he just ran (final Foxboro practice is Sunday), because it was the lightest I've ever seen in my 24 years covering the NFL.
Camp Cake?
I'm not going to bore you with tales of yore about three-a-days or even two-a-days - those days are long over, and they're never coming back. But just back to last year, the camp run by Jerod Mayo - a former linebacker like Vrabel - was like basic training compared to this. I thought Mayo ran a good and tough camp, better than Bill Belichick in the final years, and said as much. I think it was a big reason why the Patriots won the opener against the Bengals and seemed poised to start 2-0 before the wheels came off late against the Seahawks. We know how the rest played out.
Vrabel is doing many things 180 degrees from Mayo, and I'm sure a lot of people in the building are thankful for that. Actually, I know they are. It will likely pay dividends as the Patriots become real NFL players again in short order.
But will it early? I was surprised to learn Vrabel's season starts as Titans coach were underwhelming (more on that in a minute).
I'm sure Vrabel has his reasons for doing it this way - everything he does, there's a well-thought-out purpose for it, right down to spending way more time in Josh McDaniels' offensive kitchen at every practice than with his defense.
"I think it's probably a way for me to continue to learn this system so that I can coach it and be an asset, I think, and try to help just as we install," Vrabel said on Friday when I asked him about why he was spending so much time with the offense. "I'm very familiar with what we're doing defensively, and then try to give a defensive perspective to what we're doing offensively. ... But that's kind of what I've done, I would say, in the past. I think that's probably consistent. But I do try to get them to be everywhere and to see every position or talk to every position. That may change, but, I mean, I think it's probably consistent."
See, makes sense. And I'm sure influencing Drake Maye and being on top of his development is another reason as well.
Vrabel's practice schedule makes sense in his mind, and we'll see if he shares that reasoning at some point (we'll hear from him next before Wednesday's joint practice with the Commanders).
But he's made some curious choices so far, among them:
• The Patriots had their third walkthrough on Tuesday in the span of 11 practices — and we're talking walkthoughs, in ballcaps and sneakers (I'm surprised Mack Hollins bothered to wear shoes) — which is the same number of fully padded practices.
With the joint practice tomorrow, this was going to be a light day no matter what. This isn't about today. But that didn't have to be the case with the other two walkthroughs, which took place in the third practice (after two OTA-like practices mandated by the CBA) and on Thursday, before the in-stadium scrimmage, which barely lasted an hour.
Here's camp to this point:
7/23: OTA (CBA-mandated)
7/24: OTA (CBA)
7/25: Walkthrough #1 (potential for more work here)
7/26: Shells (CBA)
7/27: OFF (CBA)
______________________
7/28: Fully-padded practice #1
7/29: Fully-padded practice #2
7/30: Shoulder pads/shorts (potential for more work here)
7/31: Walkthrough #2 (potential for more work here)
8/1: Fully padded in-stadium practice for one hour (potential for more work here)
8/2: OFF
8/3: OFF
8/4: Fully-padded practice #3
8/5 (today): Walkthrough #3
Going forward, through the Vikings' preseason game, this is what I project their schedule to be:
8/6: Fully-padded practice #4 (joint with Commanders)
8/7: Off
8/8: Game vs. Commanders - who knows who plays?
8/9: Off
8/10: Final Foxboro practice, likely a walkthrough but could be more
8/11: Fully-padded practice #5
8/12: Walkthrough/travel to Minnesota
8/13: Fully-padded practice #6 (joint with Vikings)
8/14: Usually these are walkthroughs or jogthroughs with the other team, possibly shells
8/15: Off
8/16: Game vs. Vikings
By the way, teams are allowed to have 16 padded practices through the end of the preseason.
• Vrabel is being very liberal with days off for players, especially veterans. Shooting stars may be more predictable than figuring out when Morgan Moses takes part in practice. He didn't even take part in today's walkthrough ... how's that again?
Carlton Davis has yet to be in pads and seems to only show up for walkthroughs.
Keion White didn't take part in the in-stadium scrimmage.
• Forget hitting or tackling, there's barely any thudding at practice. Most camp practices across the NFL feature thudding, which is normally a good pop of the pads to momentarily stop the runner, but you stop short of taking the player to the ground.
I think I've seen maybe three solid pops that made the crowd react - Jabrill Peppers (of course), Jack Gibbens and Marcellas Dial come to mind. Even those were tame. Any previous year, Peppers would have leveled some poor practice squad guy the first team period in pads.
Last year, Mayo had a couple of sessions where the Patriots tackled to the ground, which I had not seen in years outside of the occasional live goal line situation under Belichick.
Vrabel is obviously not a big fan of contact in practice, not that it has prevented injuries - there have been the normal amount.
Like I said, I know Vrabel has his reasons for doing it this way. There's purpose in everything he does, even snarking at the media. Perhaps he thinks this team is so thin that he can't lose any starters, so he's taking every precaution. I could see that, and it would explain why he's taking it so slow with Moses and Davis, especially. Those guys are vital, and haven't exactly been the picture of durability in recent years (for Davis, he never has).
I checked with old friend Paul Kuharsky, who has covered the Titans for years. He said this is exactly what Vrabel did with the Titans, and it led to some criticism because the Titans did not start fast under Vrabel. He lost his final three season-openers, and four of six overall. These are how Vrabel's teams started:
2023: Lost opener to Saints 16-15, started 1-2
2022: Lost opener to Giants 21-20, started 0-2/1-2
2021: Lost opener to Cardinals 38-13, started 2-1/2-2
2020: Won opener over Broncos 16-14, started 5-0
2019: Won opener over Browns 43-13, started 1-2
2018: Lost opener to Dolphins 27-20, started 2-1
This is what Kuharsky wrote in the wake of the blowout loss to the Cardinals, which apparently featured a camp and preseason where the offensive starters didn't get much work together:
But Sunday’s terrible loss to the Cardinals offered a major view into how they factor into an organizational arrogance that can limit the franchise.
Mike Vrabel said he was not dismissive about the whole offense not playing together throughout camp.
But he never gave the issue a sliver of credence, even after a disjointed offense averaged 3.9 yards per play in its debut with Todd Downing coordinating, Julio Jones as the receiver opposite A.J. Brown and David Quessenberry plugged in as the right tackle.
Clearly, the group having only a typical practice week rather than any real camp and preseason build-up hurt the Titans.
“It was, ‘this is who we had, this is who is available for practice, and this is the plan we had,’” Vrabel said of the lack of a total picture of the offense from July 28th to Sept. 8.
“The plan we had” failed to have the unit ready, proving inferior to the plans an inferior coach, Kliff Kingsbury, had.
...
The premier acquisition of the offseason, Julio Jones, said four days of work leading to the opener would be enough. He looked slow, let two balls a superstar should catch go off his hands and accounted for 29 yards, offsetting 15 of those with a penalty Vrabel called "dumb shit that hurts the team."
In the four seasons that Vrabel's Titans dropped the season opener, they started a combined 6-6 over the first three games.
Patriots have the Raiders, Dolphins and Steelers to start this season.
New England can't afford a slow start.
Like I said, I hope Vrabel knows what he's doing.