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Mike Vrabel on Drake Maye, Will Campbell, and Bill Belichick’s comments about banning Patriots scouts
Vrabel said he appreciated Patriots' fan support even in tough times: "I want to be able to thank them when they're loud on third down."
A day after the Patriots lost 20-13 in the 2025 season-opener, first-year head coach Mike Vrabel stopped by WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” for his weekly interview.
Vrabel lamented the lack of “complementary football” in the defeat against the Raiders, citing his team’s disjointed nature and inability to remain composed and consistent in a close, winnable game.
“Obviously we’re going to have to get some things fixed, and we’ll have to start to look at just being able to take advantage of the opportunities when they’re there,” he said of New England’s home defeat.
On Drake Maye, Vrabel confessed that the final stat line — the second-year quarterback threw a career-high 46 passes — was not what he wanted.
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“No,” Vrabel quickly replied when asked if Maye’s pass-happy stats were ideal. “I think the way the game went and where we had to be down two possessions [caused it]. We have to be balanced. We have to run the football better, more consistently, so that some of these play-pass opportunities show up.”
“Being able to run more consistently will help with some of those plays,” Vrabel added of New England’s play-action usage.
Later in the interview, when asked if “winning is the most important thing” for Maye, Vrabel was direct.
“God, I hope so,” he responded. “I hope winning is as important for everybody, and I want the best from everybody. I want a competitive spirit, and if I don’t see that, then we’ll have to make decisions and changes at every level.
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“I think that he wants to be, at times, perfect,” Vrabel said of Maye. “I need [him] to get past that. We all have to get past that. You need to be precise and not perfect, and if you make a mistake, it’s the reaction that you have to the mistake that everybody sees. Then they’re like, ‘Oh wow, that was a mistake.’ We have to clean our reactions up. Our responses have to be much better, and then getting into the flow. You see some really good timing and precision and accuracy, and then we see some other misses.”
On the topic of rookie left tackle Will Campbell, the Patriots’ 2025 first-round pick, Vrabel took a high-level view.
“I thought it was steady. I thought there were some good plays,” Vrabel said of Campbell. He discussed the rookie in context of playing next to fellow rookie Jared Wilson (who was at guard) on the left side of the line.
“You know the couple movement times in a run game, him and Jared might have gotten disjointed, but I thought they played OK on the left side,” said Vrabel. “I think it was a good place to start for two rookies playing their first game on the left side of the line.”
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The Patriots’ head coach acknowledged that Campbell’s fourth down penalty in the fourth quarter was costly, but graded the rookie tackle over “the course of the game.”
“I’m just looking at the overall body of work. [Campbell and Wilson] didn’t look like they were overwhelmed with a 21 and a 22-year-old on the left side of the line.”
Eventually, the recent story about North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick banning Patriots scouts from campus was brought up. WEEI’s Chris Curtis queried Vrabel about the former New England coach.
“Is Bill Belichick welcome here,” Curtis began, “and were you surprised that he didn’t allow [Patriots] scouts onto [UNC] campus to scout his players?”
“Nothing surprises me,” Vrabel replied. “I would imagine that Bill — I mean he came back for, to the best of my knowledge, Tom [Brady’s] ceremony, so I guess he’s welcome back based on the fact that he was there, so I’ll just go by that. Since his departure here as the head coach, he’s been back, and I’ll leave it at that.”
After WEEI co-host Greg Hill joked about Belichick’s Gillette Stadium key card not working anymore, Vrabel referenced his own previous NFL departure (having been fired by the Titans in 2024).
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“No, when you get fired, the key-card does not work. I tried that when I went back to Tennessee. It does not work,” he joked.
Near the end of the interview, Vrabel also referenced Patriots fans. Discussing his motivation for trying to get New England back to being a winner — and, in contrast, his demeanor in the wake of a loss — Vrabel cited his hopes for the future.
“We want to win for the players, and we want to win for our fans who have supported us, and that’s our job and what we’re going to continue to try to do.
“I want to be able to thank them when they’re loud on third down and we get a stop and we win the football game and make it hard on the other team,” Vrabel added. “We weren’t able to win. But yes, it was great to see even in the rain, everybody out there. Very appreciative of that.”
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