The Patriots' best 2025 offseason move bar none was hiring Mike Vrabel. The experienced former player and successful Head Coach has brought professionalism to both the personnel aspect and the coaching that was desperately needed. It was a year late, but Robert Kraft finally got one right.
Vrabel is the consummate professional NFL head guy. He's the hub around which everything else turns. His supremely self-assured but not cocky demeanor inspires confidence in his players and his front office personnel, as well. He's the lead sled dog, and no one else is even close. And let's not forget his opponents. No one will outcoach Mike Vrabel in the NFL.
It's therefore not surprising that he's getting accolades from his players. He will, unless the player isn't ready to make the commitment to team and teammates that Vrabel requires. If not, he'll be on a one-way ticket out of town. One highly compensated free agent signing is already gushing over his Head Coach. It's defensive tackle Milton Williams.
Milton Williams lauds Mike Vrabel's tough coaching style
Players must buy into a coach, or his tenure will be short. In Vrabel's case, there was never any doubt that most would. Regardless, when a top player, and the team's most highly compensated one, jumps on board publicly with his coach's methods, including his trash-talking, it's a mighty positive sign.
Karen Gugegian of Masslive has quoted Milton Williams on his appreciation for the Patriots' Mike Vrabel's coaching style. And why shouldn't he? Vrabel is one of the NFL's best.
"Milton Williams likes having a coach he can both hit, and go toe-to-toe with on the trash talk circuit.
Mike Vrabel is unique in that way. He puts on a pad and engages with the linemen. He also enjoys trash-talking with the players. Williams, who signed a $104 million free agent deal, is enjoying all that Vrabel brings to the table as a head coach.
'He don’t mind putting a pad on and getting there and doing dirty work with us,' Williams said following the team’s third straight padded practice Wednesday. 'You know, that’s one of the reasons I chose to come here. Him being a former player, playing in the trenches, knowing what it’s like, knowing how it’s supposed to look, what you expect.'"
William's comments suggest that Vrabel, a former NFL Coach of the Year (2021), is a hands-on, get-his-hands-dirty type of coach. He'll get down in the trenches with his players without hesitation. Being 6'4" and about 250 and some-odd pounds helps in that regard for sure.
Vrabel likes mixing it up with his players, and they appreciate it
Being a former player instantly gives a coach, any coach, a standing with his players that no former non-player can. It's not a prerequisite for success, but it's a huge plus if he is. Not only does Vrabel carry the stature of a former All-Pro player, but he also fields the gravitas of a multiple Super Bowl winner. It's a winning combination for any coach.
Every NFL team and every NFL player has to have the goal of only one thing: winning the Lombardi Trophy. If not, they don't belong on an NFL team. Vrabel has already set a rather "low bar", just dethroning the five-year-running AFC East champion Buffalo Bills from their perch for starters. That's some low bar. But the ultimate goal is always the Lombardi.
Seeing Williams' buy-in as the team's most highly compensated player, and one for whom the expectations as such are sky-high, has to be a terrific optic for his teammates. Whether he likes it or not, Williams will be expected to up his game by two levels and take a lot more snaps than he did in Philadelphia. His buy-in on his Head Coach was essential for both him and his teammates.
All this adds up to one shining feature of Mike Vrabel's administration in Foxborough: the culture change. A lot was made of it. At times, it can be overblown. Culture can't sack a quarterback or catch touchdown passes. But it sets the stage for all those good things to happen. Mike Vrabel is the consummate stage manager of an NFL team. T
he teams that didn't hire him, and the boneheaded Titans who fired him, missed out big-time.