Bedard: Mike Vrabel's comments from the league meeting, and what they mean

PHOENIX — Mike Vrabel spoke with reporters about the state of the Patriots after free agency. Pretty straightforward, so I'm going to post the transcript and then get into our thoughts.

Free-agent class, and whether they are free not to draft for need. 

Well, I don't think you should ever draft for need. It's not a position that you ever want to be in. I love all our players. You know, certainly the free agents that we were able to acquire was a collaborative effort between the coaches and the personnel and myself, and being able to add guys that we believe in, that can help us, and then we'll continue to add guys, and that's kind of how this thing goes. But I do think that every year is different. There's change and coaching staff and the personnel and the players and like the guys that we were able to add, and we'll continue to try to strengthen the roster.

Does he like where the receiver room is now?

There's guys that ... we certainly, we targeted Romeo, you know, with the consistency that he's had and shown in his first four years in the NFL, and I think he's gotten better. I think he's improved each and every year. Certainly you mentioned Kayshon. I think Pop is a player that's going to really continue to grow and develop, and we have to find ways to get him the ball. Kyle ... really excited. Talked about him just improving his play strength, and that's something that he's tried to focus on here in the offseason. We know what his speed is and his release skills, and, you know the ability to, you know, we saw him go and track the ball down the field. So, you know, there's a lot of guys that we're excited about.

How do you replace Stefon Diggs' production?

I don't know how that gets divied. I mean, it's, it's literally about targets, and, you know, so when you get targeted, and again, the efficiency. We all appreciate what Stef did and being able to coach him, but you know what has to happen is the efficiency in which he was able to catch the ball was impressive, whether that strength, accuracy, ball location, or Stef's ability to catch it, that's something that we'll have to recreate. And I'm not worried about the catches and the overall production. I think we can recreate that. We just have to be very mindful that the efficiency in which we throw and catch it is important.

Bears getting Garrett Bradbury

They're getting somebody that loves football, loves his teammates, you know, he brought a, certainly, a leadership to us that we needed last year. There was a consistency, durability. That's what they're getting. You know, they're getting, they're getting a pro who's going to be prepared, he's going to make the calls, he's going to communicate. But Garrett also loves the process of football, you know, the off-season, the weekly preparation with his teammates and his coaches.

Replay and challenges 

They should let the coaches call their own fouls. You know, that's what they should do.

Players on social media after TreVeyon Henderson posted support for Jaden Ivey

I think there is a fine line. I want to tell you. I love TreVeyon. I love the person there. He cares deeply about our team. He cares deeply about his faith. He cares deeply about his family, his wife, the people in our building. And so want them to be able to express what they believe in their heart and in their mind, but also want to make sure that they're educated, and we want to be inclusive. Everything we want to do, want to provide an environment for people to, one, feel comfortable, but also to share their personal beliefs. And then also we represent the team, and then we represent the organization.

Follow up on the team 

I usually try to, I think that's something that we try to do, Nicole constantly, is, you know, it's like somebody asked me last year, how you gonna keep them off their phones? Like, like, look, yeah, keep you guys off your phones. There's 19 phones laying on the table. We just want to educate them to ... never going to tell them how to feel. Certainly want to make sure that they understand that their actions represent something more than just themselves. And so I do think there's a fine line. we're always talking about those kinds of things. We're trying to educate them, no different than myself or you guys or my kids.

Alijah Vera-Tucker, Gilliam, Hill ... is a focus on running the ball?

Well, I felt like we, I just want to be more consistent. We the Patriots, want to be more consistent running the football. This isn't like we're going to run it every single play. It's just that I felt like there were too many times where we wanted to run it and it was just inefficient. Now we popped some which were great. We had some explosives. And so then when you go back there and you average it all out, it's like, okay, but I would, I want to be able to do it more consistently to allow for then, you know, some of the run actions in the passing game to really come alive. And just to start to help us, it's a tough league. If you have to sit there and drop back and throw the football as much as we did in the last game the season.

Vera-Tucker's injuries and whether Ben Brown helps alleviate that concern

I don't know if those two things necessarily, you know, go hand in hand. I love Ben Brown. I love the teammate that he is. I love his ability to be versatile and play center, play guard and be prepared, and every week prepare as a starter. I love that about Ben. He's a great teammate, you know. And then Alijah was just a player that we felt like had a skill set and talent, you know, understand the injuries, and so just felt like we wanted to add his talent to the roster. 

Will Campbell benefit from playing next to AVT? 

I mean, I think just, you know, guy that's been out there, a guy that's been, you know, a first round pick. He's, by all accounts, Alijah is a good teammate. Never coached him, but, you know, excited to add him, you know, to the O line. Will as a young player, will continue to develop, continue to improve, and we're excited to keep working with him

Trade for AJ Brown still on the table?

We've talked about this since last January. We're gonna try to do everything we can to strengthen our roster, through the draft, through free agency, multiple ways of player acquisition, so anything that we can continue to do to strengthen the roster, we're going to try to do.

Have cap space for big moves?

I do a lot of things, but focusing on cap space is not one of them. I don't. Robert and Jonathan have given us all the resources that we've needed since I've been here to sign players amazing facility that we just moved into last Monday. So I'll let Elliot and Ryan and Richard and Matt Groh focus on the cap space.

If you  want to acquire somebody in a trade, what's your thought about surrendering draft picks, particularly in next year's draft?

I mean, compensation is compensation. You have to agree to something, and whether it's capital in this year's draft, or, you know, Cleveland's proposing, or Cleveland had proposed something extend, you know, be able to trade five years out that's not going to be available to us. But however you can come to an agreement with another team. You know, I've never really looked at it as this year, next year, how good the draft is in three years. Just try to come to an agreement. If you if you make a trade, you just want to try to come to agreement that both teams feel like they're getting something, that everybody's happy.

18th game?

Yeah, I mean, I'll support whatever both sides, you know, come to an agreement on. I will coach as many games as they want me to coach. I love, as you can see, coaching our football team last year. Again, it was a shitty end to a great year, and I'll coach as many games as they ask me to coach.

Need more help at tackle?

We have to, the league has to develop offensive line. We have to. It's a critical, important position for the game to protect our quarterbacks that are so valuable to this league. So whether we draft them, whether we sign them, whatever we do, we have to be able to continue to develop offensive linemen to be able to protect our quarterback. It's critical position. So however we can continue to do that, I want to do that.

Any more Pro days?

Yeah, maybe they're gonna wrap up and we've got, you know, we got to get back for draft meetings, but, and then we got some guys coming in on 30 visits. But if I can get back out there, I'll get back out there.

Bradbury positives that he brought to your team?

Just his professionalism every day, came to work. He was prepared. Really led the offense. Great energy, connection with the quarterback, durability, consistency.

And how do you feel about your edge rusher position going forward?

Harold continues to rehab. You know, I just disappointed, obviously, for him and for us, because I've known Harold for quite a while. A player I became really close with we drafted him in Tennessee, did a great job for us there. And it's unfortunate, I think that anybody that watched the tape could see, you know, Harold before hurting his knee, and then after. And so another player that cares deeply about the team and his performance and the impact that he makes. But he, like everything else, works his tail off right now to to get back. And so I don't really know where it's at right now, because it's going through the rehab process that being said, you know, we'll continue to strengthen each and every position, whether that's the interior the defensive line, that's edge, inside linebacker, you know, so again, like the guys that we have, but doesn't mean that we continue to try to add to that position.

Bring in Dre'Mont. Is he like an edge? Can you shift him inside a little bit?

There's versatility. There's versatility that you know, it's so critical when you only have, you know, 48 players on the active roster on Sundays, eight of them are o lineman. They're not doing anything but blocking. Two of them are quarterbacks. Last year, there was three of them. You got a kick or a punt or snap, you start to get the list gets limited there. So when you have guys that can play more than one position, Linebacker or safety, and maybe a linebacker on third down or a sub backer, or you have an outside linebacker that can go inside on third down or passing downs. We we would love to have as many players that are versatile as possible

Joint practice with the Eagles. Why did you want to work with the Eagles and Nick Sirianni? What do you hope to get out of this practice? 

I didn't think we were gonna do it but then Nick said something yesterday, so I guess we're kind of forced into doing it. (laughs) That's a talented football team. Have a lot of respect for Nick. Have a lot of respect for Howie, Mr. Lurie, just their consistency over the last four or five years, very good football. Felt like that would be a good opportunity for us to go against a really good football team.

Offensive identity without Stefon

I think that identity is critical no matter what position that you play. Love Stef's energy. Loved who he is as a person. Certainly we talked about the production, so I don't whether you play offense or defense, we're going to need guys that have great identity and bring energy in their own way to the football team. 

Players like AJ Brown wanting to be great but getting frustrated.

Sure, I will say this. I love the relationship that I have with my players on our team and the ones on other teams that I've either coached or come in contact with. That's the beauty of this league, and having played it and being able to coach it the men and the people involved on the field is something that's special that I hold very near and dear. Have communications with a lot of those players. Now, we all understand in professional sports, players that are talented and get to this level have some sort of ego to them, and there's a balance, right? What's, you know, they have to have that edge. And so I think as a coaching staff, and whatever that is, you have to balance that edge to make sure that that's helping the team. And we all have everybody wants to excel. What receiver doesn't want to catch the ball, what pass rusher doesn't want to sack the quarterback, what DB doesn't want to intercept the ball like that's just what's the running backs want to score touchdowns. That's how this thing goes. So there's a balance between their own personal success and their mindset and then how they can help the team

Kraft said you guys overachieved last year, agree?

I talked to Robert about that, I him and I had a really good conversation. (I think he was joking)

What's a successful season?  

Championships will remain the goal. They will never change. Appreciate Robert's support, but we want to win the division. We want to host the playoff games, and we want to compete for championships. And so we got a taste of that. We saw what that looked like. We saw the environment that it created to be able to play those playoff games at home, which was unbelievable and so much fun. I'll just watch the reactions I watched the videos of the thing, because that's the part that I really didn't get to appreciate coaching a game is seeing the fan videos, you know, the videos from the fans and that perspective. So we'll play whoever we have to play. We understand what this looks like. We're going to play the division winner schedule, and that's how it goes. Everything about this league is hard.

2002 you guys got everyone's best shot

Again, we only have 17 games. I hope each and every week, they're getting our best shot and we're getting their best shot that we're not going to have a job if that's not if we don't do that.

Hard Knocks?

Can't wait.

Connectivity was such a big theme among the players last year. They felt like some said, it was the closest team they'd ever been on. How much thought at this point have you put into how do you create that again.

A lot. We spend a lot of time together. And we all come from different backgrounds. Some players are going to be coming back. Some of them are new. We're going to add rookies and other players to the team. So continue to try to find ways to do that without being, you know, never want to make it a gimmick. That's important to me, that it's not gimmicky, that what we do is authentic and real and genuine.

To that point, I feel like there were different elements that you would things that you would put up on the walls, motto, slogans, etc, and.

Not that much. There were not many signs. You guys saw them all.

Do you keep that stuff around? Do you build a new culture in different ways?

I don't think build a new culture. I think you just try to enhance on the culture, and you believe in the identity, honesty, connection, respect, accountability, things that we want to be, winning, competitiveness. Those aren't up on a wall anywhere. You know what I mean? Those are just what we want to be as people. And then try to make connections by the stuff that we feel like is important.

Biggest thing you want to see from Drake may in his third year, second with you.

So I think his ability to control the game at the line of scrimmage, whether that's operationally, getting us into a better play, continue to take ownership of the offense. I mean, he's an extension of Josh, and Josh sends the play in. Want Drake to own it, to own the play. And, you know, bring it to life with cadence, with communication, you know, all the motion and all the things, you know, orchestrate. Continue to do that there's nothing physically. He's very talented, so continue to push him to lead and to try to orchestrate and conduct the offense. 

You mentioned the new facility. How can that setup help what you guys do?

Well, it's just from an efficiency standpoint. I think it's from an energy. I think when our players come in on April 20, I think there's going to be an energy. They're going to enjoy coming to work, just from the how nice it is, the functionality, the space, all those types of things. So be able to be a great place for learning, great place to develop our players and just the weight room to the training room, to the locker room, the cafeteria, just the meeting space that we have is going to be really nice.

New York command center getting involved in calls

They do as good a job as they possibly can in the time that they have allotted to them. There's some calls that are very difficult. I think the big one is the quarterback, whether it's the tuck or the fumble or the pass, it's Stretch and I ... whatever the call on the field is, we're going to let that one stand, because that's probably not getting overturned. So I think that they try to use a standard of clear and obvious. And the biggest thing is that we understand what they believe to be clear and obvious.

Is there a risk to bringing in a guy that you don't know?

I think that there's, you just have to be very careful. I mean, in free agency, I think that you're referring to. It happens so quick, and if you're looking at the player on film, you can watch as many games as you want to watch, but you really don't have an opportunity to know who that person is. Unlike the draft, where you have so many touch points from our scouts, from our coaches, from Pro days, from visits and combine. So you just have to be very careful with the type of people that you're bringing in in free agency.

Kevin Byard  

Just a professionalism, a comfort, you know, I would say that the consistency in which he operates and functions has been very impressive over the time that I've known, Kevin.

He thinks that you're a little bit more tame now compared to when you first started. How did your relationship, though, evolve over

I was a first-time head coach, and then I had to be able to implement a program that I felt was best for our team and what they needed in Tennessee. You know, I guess I'm as tame as I need to be.

You've shown a fondness for your former players, how do you guard against not having a blindspot with those guys?

We always want to bring in talented players. Knowing them is important, but also talent is important too. So again, we'll try to manage what we feel like the people that we bring in and that we know and compared to their talent level.

How seriously do you take players concerns on that NFPA report card, especially with a team plane

Don't want to focus on the report card. I want to focus on what our players say to me and to stretch. And anybody in our organization. We are constantly asking them. You know, we have a leadership group that we believe in and that we trust. We won't be able to make every recommendation. We won't be able to do every single thing that they want to do. But we listen to them, and we try to add things to the training room. We try to add equipment. I know for a fact on numerous occasions, players have asked about different modalities in a training room. I've gone to Jim, asked them to order it, gone to stretch. Jonathan and Robert have gladly okayed it. Something came across my desk the other day. Hey, we added this last year. It works out so good, we want to add another one. So we're constantly trying to get feedback from the players on things that we can do to help them do their job.

Christian Gonzalez, you guys have an opportunity to pick up his fifth-year option.

We haven't picked it up, we should pick it up.

We want to make sure that we draft extremely well, and then we identified a guys that we want to keep with us and that have earned long term extensions with us, and Gonzo certainly one of those players. But I can't comment on the negotiations

How do you challenge yourself to come up with new stuff?

I think that you know our staff and, you know, Stretch, you know, obviously different coaches around our league or other leagues, you know. Joe does such a great job with the Celtics. You know, just the start that they've been able to have without, without Jayson has been really, really impressive. So a lot of communications with him and other coaches you know around the league, and, you know, a lot of thought, I think, try to bounce ideas off of really, just come up with something. Think about it, you know, give it some time. How do you enhance it? How do you merit ... there's a lot of time in the off-season. So but try to be intentional, and just never want to be gimmicky with what we do with players. 

Mike, what's the balance of player development, where it comes to a guy who's got versatility, trying not to give them too much as they get into play?

You talking about a young player? Are you talking ... Yeah, just making sure that they don't get overloaded. And that they can get proficient at something. And then I'd say, the better they do, the more we would try to give them, you know, whether that is a offensive lineman that may play two positions, or a receiver that may play multiple positions, but, you know, certainly, we try to figure out what the player does best and do that, and then see what else they can do to add and enhance that.

Is that pretty easy to identify when they start to swim a little bit

I think so. I think when you start to see them slow down, you know, when a player, you know one coach, which I thought was was really insightful. It was like, sometimes you can't tell the difference between a player that doesn't know what to do or one that's afraid to do it. They're both pretty slow and not very reactive. And so we have to try to measure what that looks like on the field, and then maybe pull back on some stuff. 

The team released Josh Dobbs last week ... third arm?

Yeah, we needed, we need a third arm. And, you know, try to find a young guy that, you know, we can develop and, you know, potentially add to the roster, whether that's on the 53-man roster or the practice squad.

Does that in any way speak to Drake's maturity and development that you can take on a younger guy?

I think that's probably pretty accurate. You know, I think that I really appreciative of what Josh did for us coming in last year with Drake going into his second year, and communicated that with Josh and said, I think it's just a different situation now. So that's probably pretty accurate. 

Mike, you guys need tight ends bad, something in the draft?

Well, I love them. Give me nine of them.

I hope, yeah, I hope there's a good ... I think just trying to find, you know, the right guy. There's different, you know, some of them are receiving, some of them are more the line of scrimmage, some of them a little bit of both, you know. So think we'll just try to come up with the one that fits us best and see where we can draft them.

31st pick, are you going to get impact?

Best player available, hopefully. Maybe we trade up, maybe we trade out, I don't know. But, you know, I love being able to work with Eliot and Ryan, Elliot and Ryan's staff, coaching, and try to bring that together. I'm trying to bring a coach's perspective on a player and the personnel side together to bring the best person in there for our football team. Thank you guys.

BEDARD'S ANALYSIS

Think it was pretty straightforward. No real surprises. Totally deflected on AJ Brown. From what I understand, that's on the back burner for now. Everyone in the NFL knows it's a June 2 thing. 

BTW, I was told the report about the Rams not wanting Brown due to his knees was not true - every player that age has some sort of medical issue; no one is 100%. The Rams wanted to do something now. Eagles said it had to be June 2, so Rams moved on.

Vrabel's "shitty" comment surprised me. He's obviously still irked.

The comments on Gonalez were strong. My impression here was that the Patriots are intent on getting something done with him, but the timeline might be stretched out.

Christian Barmore is not going anywhere. Mike Onwenu is very likely on the roster as well.

Vrabel seems very strong on their receivers. I don't disagree with him.

They're all raving about the new facility but there's still a pretty big punchlist of stuff to get done.

I liked how he said, basically, that Drake doesn't need Dobbs anymore.