The New England Patriots hired Mike Vrabel to run their 2025 and beyond football operation. Vrabel is a defensive coach first and foremost. That makes perfect sense, since he was a top defensive end/edge for the Patriots and won Super Bowls in Foxborough.
After making several key additions on defense, Vrabel's new group had high expectations but didn't exactly deliver in the season's debut against the Raiders. The thought was that Vrabel had added playmakers at each level of the defense from the defensive line on out to the defensive backfield. Unfortunately, those playmaking expectations were not evident enough.