FOXBORO, Mass. — The Patriots got the easy part out of the way.
Mike Vrabel was officially introduced as the organization’s next head coach on Monday, bringing his proven ability to build a culture to One Patriot Place.
New England is certainly pleased with the hiring, but the hard part begins when inevitable roster upgrades start being made between Vrabel and Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf.
What are they looking for?
“Eliot is going to laugh,” Vrabel said. “I’m going to say good (players).”
Vrabel, of course, expanded on that later on, giving valuable insight into his roster-building philosophies amid his introductory press conference at Gillette Stadium.
“I think that player acquisition, you look at what’s available in free agency and who you can sign and then see where you come out of that,” Vrabel said. “You look at the teams that are able to protect the quarterback and dictate the flow of the game offensively — making sure that up front we’re sound, we’re strong, whether that’s through free agency or the draft — that’s something that’s critical.”
Vrabel wants to upgrade the offensive line, and while that desire would have already been rather obvious before he spoke on Monday, you certainly could feel how important he believes having a competitive unit is. The Patriots currently don’t have the horses to adequately protect their most valuable asset, but that doesn’t mean sweeping changes need to be made to do so.
Vrabel believes “scheme, style, tempo and cadence” can all be used to cause conflict on the other side of the ball, thus making things a little easier on a unit that might be undermanned from a personnel standpoint. New England can implement those things, while also matching each of them with individual player strengths to get the best possible look on a given play.
It’s more than just obtaining talent, according to Vrabel.
“We’re just going to try to focus on players that we feel like fit us, fit into what we’re doing, that are willing to commit to the team, and then also try to find players that will hold each other accountable,” Vrable said. “We have to get to know each other. We’ve got to peel some layers back so that you can hold each other accountable because, if you don’t trust the guy next to you, you don’t believe in him, you don’t know anything about his family or how he was raised, when you hold him accountable, then there’s pushback.”
Drake Maye will be a deciding factor in who, what, when, where and why the organization does things over the next several seasons — including how they attack improving the offensive line and who eventually is named offensive coordinator. Vrabel seemingly has already taken that into account when scouting the overall adjustments that need to be made in the offseason.
“I think that the offense — again, we mentioned things like aggressive but not reckless,” Vrabel said. “We have to be able to take chances. How do we create plays without having to just throw the ball down the field 50 yards and just sit there taking shots, right? The creativity. We want to be, I would say, versatile enough if the players can handle it… It will be based on what the players can understand and what they can handle. We’re not going to put things that make them slow.”
It’s all very nice to hear in theory, but execution is now the biggest piece of the puzzle. Vrabel has his work cut out for him, but there already seems to be a great understanding of what needs to get done down in Foxboro, Mass.
