Mike Vrabel says he's “more than comfortable” with Eliot Wolf.

Patriots

Mike Vrabel is diving straight into things as he takes over as Patriots coach, and he still has lots on his to-do list in his crucial first offseason.

The roster rebuild appears to be done along with Eliot WolfNew England's de facto general manager who managed to emerge unscathed from the frustration of 2024.

Vrabel and Wolf met for a couple of hours to go over the roster, the brand new coach told WEEI's “The Greg Hill Show.” That relationship has already come under scrutiny considering Vrabel's previous issues with the Tennessee front office.

“No, we didn’t win enough games in Tennessee,” Vrabel said, half-joking. “I think that was the problem.”

Vrabel was asked if he was comfortable working with Wolf, who took over as head of human resources following Bill Belichick's departure.

“Absolutely,” Vrabel said. “More than comfortable. I wouldn't be here enthusiastic about the conversations and the interview process and the conversations with Eliot and Robert [Kraft] and with Jonathan [Kraft]and I'm just attempting to put together a roster and a program.

“For me that’s the biggest thing. I want to try to build a program around our coaches, our support staff, our human resources and especially our players that people want to be a part of and are proud of.” ”

There has also been quite a lot of interest in what the offense will seem like under Vrabel, whose Titans teams have been amongst essentially the most run-heavy teams within the NFL. From Vrabel's perspective, the offensive philosophy was more influenced by the proven fact that Derrick Henry was the most efficient running back within the league.

“Our best player was our running back,” Vrabel said. “So we tried to structure the offense and construct the offense around what we thought was our greatest player and what our strength was. When we had plays around Derrick that we were comfortable with, we threw them as successfully as we ran them.

“Every system and scheme you have, you base it on the players you have. I think there’s a lot of versatility, not just myself but hopefully the coaches we hire.”

Vrabel's tenure marked a high point for a once-struggling quarterback in Ryan Tannehill, who missed the primary few games of the season in 2019 before returning after a profession 12 months. Tannehill began 10 games and threw for two,742 yards, 22 touchdowns, 6 interceptions and a league-best passer rating of 117.5, enough to earn him a Pro Bowl nomination and the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award.

However, Vrabel agreed that the brilliant spot for the Patriots offense is that quarterback Drake Maye — quite than a star running back like he did at Tennessee — may lead to a shift in emphasis from his Titans offense.

“Sure,” Vrabel said. “And again, we want to throw it as often as possible while remaining efficient and explosive.”

It stays to be seen who shall be the first architect of this offense as Vrabel begins to round out his coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt seems almost certain to be out; The position he opened might be Vrabel's most significant addition because the Patriots look to develop Maye.

When it was learned that former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski had said the primary call needs to be to longtime New England coordinator Josh McDaniels, Vrabel wasn't exactly a convincing endorsement.

“Um…yeah, I mean, I’ll look at every possible candidate that can help us,” Vrabel said. “We’re going to start that process this afternoon and visit with some great coaches and then see where things go.”

When asked directly whether McDaniels was on the list of candidates, Vrabel replied: “Yes, the list is long. I had a relationship with Josh and I have relationships with other offensive and defensive coaches that we will be interviewing and that we want to include here.”