PHOENIX — A bit of a smorgasborg this morning from the league meetings as Robert and Jonathan Kraft held an informal, off-the-record discussion with local media, Robert Kraft answered a few questions on the record, Eliot Wolf talked on Up & Adams, and the NFC coaches had their breakfast session with the media (the AFC coaches, including Mike Vrabel, will speak on Tuesday). The headlines:
• Kraft thought the Patriots “way overachieved” in 2025. As for 2026, Kraft hopes the team makes the playoffs with a much tougher schedule and longer road trips.
• Kraft is in favor of an 18-game season with two bye weeks;
• Wolf on A.J. Brown: “A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles, as Howie (Roseman) mentioned yesterday, and we haven’t had any conversations about anything regarding that in a long time.”
• Nick Sirriani on Brown: “Nothing’s changed there. A.J. is an Eagle. Nothing’s changed from the last time I spoke to you guys. And, yeah, that’s where we are.”
• Sirrani confirmed the Eagles will come to Foxborough for joint practices and a preseason game.
Let’s dig into some of it.
Kraft on the record
On the 2025 season: “I think actually, the team way overachieved what any of us thought would happen, and it was wonderful. And winning that championship game in Denver, when we had such a past history of difficulty winning in Denver, it was very special, and so proud of this team, and most of them are still young.
On what would represent a successful season in 2026: “Yeah, we have a pretty tough … I think the hardest schedule, a lot of West Coast travel. You know, my objective every year is we make the playoffs. And as we saw last year, when you’re privileged to make the playoffs, anything can happen.”
On the new training facility: “The training center, I think it’s very special, and I think it’ll give our coaching staff and players reasons to celebrate the efficiency of what can go on there, and it’s right on the field. I’ll be very interested to get the reaction of all of you experts in the media when you see it, and how it compares to what our competition has. I think it’s one of a kind.”
On contract philosophy with great young players like Christian Gonzalez and Drake Maye: “We have a salary cap, so we have a limit, so we have to think what’s best for the team in terms of timing of the signing, and, of course, the earlier you do it, it’s believed it’s more economically satisfactory, but we leave that to Mike Vrabel, Elliot Wolf and our people making the contract decisions. We’re lucky to have those two players, and I hope and believe they’ll be with us for the long term.
On the 18-game schedule: “Well, I like it long term for the growth and development of the league, because to keep our league healthy and grow revenue, I think preseason games have not been what it used to be when we owned the team and changing to 18 games and having that real content and being mindful of player safety, I personally would like to see us have a second bye week, but then It would allow us to also grow the game internationally. We’d have every team in the league would play a game overseas, and it just, I think would be a lot more exciting for the fans to have an extra game, rather than the way our preseason games stack up.”
Wolf insights
On Drake Maye’s health: “Oh, he’s fine. Yeah, he’s ready to go. Focusing on getting some improvement in some of the areas that we identified. And expect him to be a full participant in the off-season program.”
On what Vrabel was doing at the Arizona State pro day with tackle prospect Max Iheanachor: “He’s checking his core strength and seeing if he can replace his hands. And part of this too, is, you know, seeing if he can take the coaching, if he makes a quick correction, or, you know, if he needs to tell him a couple of different times, but Vrabel loves this stuff. I mean, I don’t know if he had to change his shirt or get a new shirt. After one last year, somebody ripped his shirt. He had to get a new shirt.” … Wolf added he had not yet spoken to Vrabel about his impressions.
On Christian Gonzalez: “He’s a great talent. He’s one of the best players of his position the NFL. He’s developing as a leader, you know, and he’s a quiet person, so you know, that’s going to look different than maybe the way someone else leads, but he’s really just scratching the surface. He’s already up there as an elite talent, and we think he can improve even more. … Christian’s a tremendous player, and it’s no secret that we’d like to try to get something done with him.”
On the offensive line: “Well, we signed Alijah Vera-Tucker as a free agent to play left guard, and we have, you know, we have two rookies that started last year, Jared Wilson’s gonna move to center, which is his more natural position. And you know, we expect improvement from those two guys, and we have Onwenu and Morgan Moses on the right side that are solid veterans, so I think we just need to play better. I think a lot of people are focused on the Super Bowl, which, obviously, everybody watches Super Bowl, and it’s a big game, but I think we showed improvement throughout the course of the season at that group, and we can expect that to continue this year.”
“(Will Campbell’s) 22 years old, so he’s gonna get better.”
• I have a feeling there will be a lot of discussion about Jonathan Kraft’s involvement with the media. Do I think it was significant?
