Head Coach Mike Vrabel Joins WEEI to Discuss Win Over the Dolphins, Leadership on the Team and Preparing for the Chargers

Greg Hill (0:00)

What are you doing? Hold on. Don't pick at my blueberries. I don't want your grubby hands in my blueberries. I brought you a gift, your own blueberries this morning, coach, congratulations.

Mike Vrabel (0:11)

Thank you so much. I put a little mixture in there. Those are your blueberries.

Greg Hill (0:15)

All right, don't say I never gave you anything. Here we go, victory shot here on a Monday. Mike Vrabel, head coach.

Congrats.

SPEAKER_3 (0:26)

Thank you.

Greg Hill (0:27)

Tournament is set to get underway here.

Mike Vrabel (0:30)

Yes.

Greg Hill (0:30)

As you said yesterday, I had some heat on it. Yes, it did. Yes, yes, it did.

Nice to have Milton Williams and Will Campbell back.

Mike Vrabel (0:42)

Thank everybody that we can get back.

Greg Hill (0:44)

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_4 (0:48)

Mike, talk about, I know you said you're now, it's when you start, you guys are in the dance. But do you explain to some of these guys, the difference and just the level of play from the regular season into the postseason on how it seems like it goes to a whole novel level, whether it's a paying attention to details, just the little things?

Mike Vrabel (1:08)

There'll be a lot of things that we'll talk to them about this week. But, you know, we didn't have that conversation last night. Didn't figure most of the things I say last night, they're going to really remember. So there'll be a lot of things that we'll have to focus on, and we'll have to do the things that we've done up into this point and just do them a little bit better. And I don't think you can, you know, jerk the wheel. And we just have to keep doing the things we've been doing, do them a little better, get special teams to get us to play, try to help fill position. But like you mentioned, it's all the little things that could end up turning the tide here with a turnover or a situation play at the end of the half, anything like that.

SPEAKER_4 (1:52)

Do you feel like, for you then, do you feel like, all right, this being my second go-around as a head coach into the postseason, are there things that maybe I'm going to do a little bit different in years past?

Mike Vrabel (2:06)

No, other than try to win, I mean, no. I mean, there's no secret formula. We'll have to prepare, we'll have to get to know these guys. It's a team that we don't know, it's one that we're not familiar with. You know, they probably would, they played some of these guys last year. You know, we'll just, again, we'll just have to get started with our preparation. We're on a normal schedule. We didn't have to move anything up to Tuesday.

Greg Hill (2:35)

We were talking about this earlier. They were talking post game about you in Tennessee and that you were known as a bit of a hard ass and that maybe you adjusted kind of your approach to coaching this year. Did you, was that intentional? Did you do that? Do you feel like you're?

Mike Vrabel (2:54)

You'd have to ask the people in Tennessee. I don't know. Yeah. I try to be authentic. I try to be as honest as I can with the players. I try to make a connection with them, try to put good people around them.

But, you know, I don't, I had good connections and I'll try to hold people accountable and still coach them and teach them and care about them the same way. Probably had better moments than others. You know, there, I think we all kind of have better moments than others and just, I think the thing I keep going back to is just not taking these opportunities for granted, you know, when you don't have something and you aren't, you know, you don't have the ability to play, you get as a player, you get released or whatever, or as a coach, you get let go. I think you value the next opportunity.

SPEAKER_5 (3:48)

First three touchdown game for Ramandre Stevenson in his career. When you go back to the beginning of the season, people want to ship him out of town. Every time we asked you about him, you are so supportive and you continued to play him, even though a lot of people said don't. To see the narrative change, a 180 for him, is that the work that he's put in, the support that you've given him or the coaching staff that you have around him?

Mike Vrabel (4:10)

I think that that's, again, we always come back to these questions and it always falls on the player. Ultimately, they're responsible for their success, which I, nobody's happier for Ramandre or anybody in our player, our team that has, makes plays or improves. I know the coaching staff works extremely hard on these things and the details, and it was great to see him go out and have success and be excited, and his mom was there. And, you know, those are, those are fun things. It's why you coach. But when a player has success, there's going to be some teaching and some coaching that helped. But the large majority of that is going to fall on the player.