New England Patriots
“Let me just tell you why I am here,” Vrabel said. “I’m here because Drake was the quarterback.”
Mike Vrabel John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
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FOXBOROUGH – Patriots coach Mike Vrabel wore a skeptical look on his face as he addressed a report from WEEI’s Greg Hill Show that stated there is an issue between the coach and quarterback Drake Maye.
“We talked about it [Tuesday] on this very show,” Hill said Wednesday morning. “We talked about being whispered to about an issue between the head coach and the quarterback, which goes back – if we believe this individual who is an insider, despite what Mike Vrabel might say publicly, it goes back to Drake Maye not being his guy.”
Standing at the podium of the New Balance Athletic Center Wednesday, Vrabel leaned in as he heard the question about Hill’s comments and responded with one of his own.
“He heard that from who?” Vrabel asked.
“Unnamed sources,” Vrabel said after a brief pause, adding a hint of sarcasm to his voice. “My favorite.”
Vrabel, who took over for Jerod Mayo as Patriots head coach in January of 2025, said he had opportunities to coach elsewhere. The former Titans coach interviewed with the Jets and Bears before coming back to New England.
The chance to coach Maye was one of the primary reasons why he chose to take the job, he said.
“Let me just tell you why I am here,” Vrabel said. “I’m here because Drake was the quarterback. Believe it or not, I had choices as to where I wanted to coach. I wanted to coach here because Drake was the quarterback. So, I don’t really have much to add to that about a comment from an unnamed source, but I’ll just tell you what I’ve told numerous people who have asked me why I am here.”
The Patriots have opened the regular-season 1-2 for the second year in a row. Last year, a road win against the Bills provided serious momentum towards a double-digit win streak. New England is on the road against Buffalo again this week with a chance to lift their record to .500.
The biggest difference, so far, between this year and last year, has been Maye’s play. He was the runner-up for league MVP last year. This season, through three games, he has six interceptions and a lost fumble against one passing touchdown.
The Patriots were in position to win against Seattle, leading through most of the fourth quarter when Maye threw three interceptions and allowed the defending champions to come back. Maye didn’t score in Week 2 against Pittsburgh, but New England’s defense held Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers to three points. Then came a complete meltdown in a 35-6 loss to Jacksonville last week.
Moments like these, when the struggles are real and the pressure is mounting, are often revealing for young quarterbacks and their teams.
“I think that we have to – if it’s worth anything – I think you have to be willing to go through some difficult times,” Vrabel said. “You put everything you have into each week whether you’re on the road or at home, and if you lose you have to quickly try to get back to neutral and figure out who you have during the next week.”
“Adversity comes during the week, it comes during the game, it’s going to always be in front of us. I don’t think we can eliminate it. It’s like distractions, there’s things that you just have to be able to handle, and prepare, and improve.”
When asked about how Maye has been handling the adversity, Vrabel shared a reference to the biblical story of David and Goliath, which he used as a metaphor to illustrate that the path to greatness is not always a smooth one.
“When God wanted David to be a king, he didn’t hand him a crown,” Vrabel said. “He gave him a fight. So, you’ve got to go through a fight. He gave him Goliath. That was just a little story that we said.”
“If we want to get to where we want to get to, we’re going to have to go through bumps along the way. This is all a part of the journey. We talked about preparing for the journey. The journey wasn’t always going to be 10 wins in a row, road warriors and everything else. Sometimes it comes with turnovers, we give up touchdowns, and we miss a field goal. That’s what the journey looks like.”
Khari A. Thompson
Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.
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