FOXBORO, Mass. — Early this summer, Mike Vrabel beamed as he jogged onto the grass practice fields next to Gillette Stadium for one of his first practices in charge of the New England Patriots, seemingly unafraid of the mountain of a challenge awaiting him. He had been tasked with resurrecting the franchise he previously helped hoist Lombardi Trophies, with restoring respect to a team that had gone 4-13 the last two years.

None of what he was embarking on would be easy. When he walked through the door in January, the Patriots were behind in every important area of team-building. But on this day, he smiled as he ran, headed out to try and fix all that had ailed the Pats in recent years.

His new players had heard stories about how hands-on Vrabel was. How he’d been convinced to draft Will Campbell with the No. 4 pick after the young offensive lineman bowled the coach over during a blocking drill. But this was their first real introduction to it.

A few did double-takes as Vrabel grabbed a blocking pad, typically a grunt job for low-level staffers, and stood there, smiling, as 300-pound men rammed into him as hard as they could.

The new coach stood in for blocking drills with the punt team. He pretended to be a pass rusher, swatting at the hands of offensive linemen.

Then, when it was time for the offense to run through plays against the scout-team defense, the usual suspects reached for pinnies. It’s a job typically left to the backups of the backups. Maybe some assistant coaches with terms like “quality control” in their job titles.

But Vrabel grabbed a green pinnie with the No. 5 on it. He went back about 12 yards behind the line of scrimmage and played safety, hollering at wide receivers when their routes weren’t crisp enough or chirping that he had them covered.

Finally, one of the few players with the necessary cachet spoke up. Players were still getting used to Vrabel’s style, so hard-hitting safety Jabrill Peppers, a veteran of eight NFL seasons and a former first-round pick who happened to wear No. 5, thought he could have some fun with his new coach.

“You’re not tough enough to wear that jersey,” said Peppers.

Vrabel didn’t miss a beat. He hollered right back: “Go check out the Patriots Hall of Fame.”

“And there’s nothing I can say to come back from that,” Peppers said earlier this summer with a laugh. (The Patriots cut Peppers last week as part of a massive roster overhaul overseen by Vrabel.)

The last two years have been brutal for the Patriots. A franchise that for two decades dominated the league like no other, winning six Super Bowl titles in the process, was quickly left behind. From the hard-to-watch final years of the Bill Belichick era to the undermanned and overwhelmed season under Jerod Mayo, the situation was dire. The roster lacked clarity. The team had no identity.

But now, finally, after some turbulent times, owner Robert Kraft and the Patriots feel they have the right coach for the moment.

Vrabel is a football-mad 50-year-old who picked up a coach’s whistle in 2011 as soon as his 14-year NFL career was over. A man who still enjoys holding blocking pads and smiles as he gets hit. A trash-talker who loves to chop it up with players. Someone who dove face-first into a fight during a summer practice. Most of all, someone who’s authentic and direct.

Too often a year ago, the Patriots seemed lost. They were stuck between trying to follow the “Belichick way” and abandoning it completely. With Vrabel, though, there’s little ambiguity.

“The best thing about Vrabel is you don’t ever have to wonder where you stand with him,” said Tony Dews, the Patriots’ running backs coach and a longtime Vrabel aide. “When he’s not happy with you, you’ll know.”

Outside linebackers coach Mike Smith, who spent three years as an assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs, agreed.

“All the great coaches I’ve worked for, they might be different, but they have something in common. And he’s very similar to Andy Reid. Andy might not get out there and put that blocking shield on, and he might not yell as much, but they both are very clear in their plan. There’s no gray area.

“Coach Reid used to leave meetings saying, ‘Does everyone know where we’re at and where we’re going?’” Smith added. “And that’s the thing with Vrabel, too. From the schedule to practice to everyone’s individual stuff, there’s no gray area. You know exactly how he feels about something.”

Despite playing linebacker as a pro, Vrabel mixed in some goal-line tight end (famously, all 10 of his career receptions went for touchdowns). He started in the NFL as a defensive coach but spent most of his one-year hiatus in 2024 on the offensive side of the ball as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns. At practices, he’s everywhere: behind the quarterback, lined up at safety, mixing in on special teams.

A lot of coaches focus on mastering one aspect of the game. If you’re the tight ends coach, you shouldn’t have time to chat with running backs or mingle with defensive assistants. Focus on your specific role. Or, as Belichick used to say, “Do your job.”

But this spring, Vrabel connected assistant coaches with players on the other side of the ball. He wants everyone to feel invested, not just in their position group, but in the success of the team as a whole.

“Sometimes I’m sure (running back) TreVeyon (Henderson) gets tired of hearing from me,” Dews said. “But he can go talk to (safeties coach) Scott Booker and know that you can trust him and communicate with him and know you’re not being judged for doing it.”

It all seems to come rather naturally to Vrabel. He used to roam these same practice fields, unafraid to get after anyone. He talked trash to Tom Brady when few other players dared to speak to the legendary quarterback. As the Patriots’ NFLPA rep, he even sparred with Kraft.

Not much about him has changed as a coach.

“When I got to Ohio State, they didn’t leave the manual underneath the desk,” Vrabel said, referring to his first coaching gig, leading linebackers at his alma mater in 2011. “So I just kind of went with whatever I felt like was best for me and fit my style, and it’s kind of stuck.”

Team meetings for the Patriots take place in a big auditorium with rows of plush seats. This is where players were first introduced to the pop quizzes that often surface in meetings run by Vrabel, the only child of two teachers.

Out of the blue, he’ll call on a random player.

Who is the defensive coordinator we’re facing this week? What are we doing in Cover-3 when they use this formation?

Sometimes it’s not even about football.

What’s the name of the team chef? What about the locker room attendant?

It has the vibe of an intense high school class where you’re sitting as still as possible and hoping the teacher doesn’t call on you.

“I definitely remember everyone was in those meetings sweating a little bit, and you get called on, and your voice is cracking, and you have to take a deep breath and say it with confidence. It’s a little nerve-racking,” said linebacker Jack Gibbens, whom Vrabel calls “Doctor” because of his knack for answering questions correctly.

The meetings are more about accountability than intimidation. He wants each player to stand up in front of his teammates and prove he knows what he must do to help the team. Sometimes the message is sent without a quiz.

During his first head-coaching stint with the Tennessee Titans, one of the team’s star players arrived for a team meeting a couple of minutes late and tried to quietly sneak into a seat.

“It’s a good thing you’re rich,” Vrabel quipped, making clear to everyone that even the best players would be fined for tardiness.

Still, for a new team, that style can seem harsh and unrelenting. Midway through training camp, Vrabel sensed the Patriots were taking things a bit too seriously. They didn’t realize they could laugh at his jokes.

So he tried to lighten the mood. He was splitting the roster into two teams for a scrimmage, but rather than simply flashing the players’ names on the board, he opted for some flair, showing the most embarrassing photo he could find of each player.

“I was sweating the whole time because I was on the second team that was announced, and I’m seeing all these embarrassing pictures,” Gibbens said, “and I’m just like, man, I hope I don’t have something bad out there.”

Members of the media aren’t safe from getting called out, either. At one point this offseason, Vrabel wondered aloud whether a reporter was “in a coma” after positing a question that had already been asked. Another time, he quizzed reporters on whether they remembered his three objectives for training camp that he had mentioned earlier in the week. (They did not.)

He tends to have a smile in those moments and enjoys giving people a hard time.

Between drills during a summer practice, he reminded Robert Spillane of a great hit he had in 2020 against bulldozing running back Derrick Henry. Then he asked the linebacker why he didn’t hit that hard anymore. (He had to tell the linebacker, an intense football nut, to lighten up when he took offense.)

Vrabel’s presence and demeanor have brought an air of confidence and hope back to New England. But it’s also fair to note that what Vrabel inherited was a mess. That’s part of why he completely renovated the roster. The Patriots have 28 new players on their 53-man roster, the most in the NFL. They have 12 rookies, also the most in the league, and 14 new starters. But Vrabel and company are trying to manage expectations given the state of things when the new coach arrived.

The Patriots haven’t had a winning record since Mac Jones’ rookie year of 2021 and haven’t won a playoff game since Tom Brady left town. They’re 8-27 over their last 35 games. It has been almost three years since they last scored 30 points in a game.

That’s why so much of Vrabel’s message in Year 1 centers on avoiding the dumb mistakes that have cost the team so dearly in recent years. During team meetings, he talks about putting plays into one of three buckets: the good, the bad and “the s— that gets you beat.”

These are the reasons Vrabel seems right for this moment: his clarity, his authenticity, his directness. And, yes, the trash talking. His goal is to make it clear to everyone in the organization that what has gone on in recent years isn’t acceptable. And it extends to the most important members of the team.

At one practice this summer, second-year quarterback Drake Maye threw a perfect pass into the corner of the end zone. He held a hand up in recognition of the receiver, then slowly jogged into position for the next play.

Vrabel started hollering. Touchdowns should be celebrated! They’re hard for any team to achieve, but that’s especially true for the Patriots of the past few seasons.

To drive home his point, Vrabel asked Maye how many touchdowns the team scored last year — another pop quiz. Maye shook his head as he pondered the question. Vrabel spoke up before Maye could respond.

“There’s one answer,” Vrabel quipped. “Not enough.”