Mike Vrabel pushes back on reported rift with Drake Maye
· Yahoo Sports
As New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel took the podium Wednesday, he was asked about a recent report from WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show regarding himself and quarterback Drake Maye.
“Unnamed sources,” Vrabel said sarcastically. “My favorite.”
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The report, citing those unnamed sources, stated that there were issues between the coach and quarterback dating back to Maye not being “[Vrabel’s] guy.”
Vrabel, however, pushed back on that notion.
“Let me just tell you why I’m here. I’m here because Drake was the quarterback,” Vrabel said. “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 have really much other to add to that about a comment from an unnamed source. But I’ll just tell you what I’ve told numerous people if they want to ask me why I’m here.”
The Patriots have gotten off to a 1-2 start, with Maye being perhaps the biggest reason for their struggles after turning the football over seven times. The losing has brought with it the usual negativity, something the Patriots will look to put behind them in Week 4 against the Buffalo Bills.
In order to do so, they’ll need a better version of Maye — something Vrabel is trying to bring out of him, along with the rest of the team, this week.
“The same thing I’ve been doing: just trying to coach the football team, trying to coach him,” Vrabel said. “I’m not going to coach him the X’s and O’s. I mean, I can show him the defense and say, ‘Hey, this is what these guys may like to try to do.’ But it’s just about the urgency that we have, how we operate and how we get in and out of the huddle and the command of the huddle. The quarterback is a conduit to Josh [McDaniels] and the play caller. I firmly believe that the way that they tell the players that they’re playing with, like, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do. This play is going to work not because it’s some great scheme, it’s going to work because we’re going to execute it, or we’re going to make it work.’
“And you get them to believe that whatever he calls is going to be successful. Now, will every one be? No, that’s not how it goes. But that’s what I try to teach them each and every day.”