Former teammate says 'hyper-competitive' Mike Vrabel can restore winning culture as Patriots coach

At the beginning of the New England Patriots’ six-Super-Bowl-winning run in the early 2000s, the team was defined by a group of bruising defensive stalwarts. Players like Richard Seymour, Tedy Bruschi and Willie McGinest gave the Patriots a hard-edge.

But early-aughts Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham recalled one teammate in particular stood out for his “hyper-competitiveness”: Mike Vrabel.

Vrabel played eight seasons as a linebacker with the Patriots and won three Super Bowls with the team. He was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 2023.

“Mike [was] a little bit different,” said Chatham. “It might be playing pool or something as much as playing football. You find an activity,  Mike's going to be deep into it.”

Chatham said Vrabel was “a bit like [Tom] Brady in that regard.”

As Vrabel returns to Foxborough as the Patriots’ new head coach, Brady’s shadow still looms over the team. In the half-decade since the star quarterback left New England, the Patriots have shuffled through disappointing seasons. Thirteen losses last season led team owner Robert Kraft to fire coach Jerod Mayo after only one year on the job.

One reason for those recent struggles is that the talent on the Patriots' roster has been subpar, some players told MassLive. But other reports point to a leadership vacuum in the absence of Brady, who, like Vrabel, pushed his teammates to the limit.

What does Chatham hope to see from the team under Vrabel?

“Getting back to  the whole tough, smart team that does the right thing and says the right thing,” he said, alluding not only to the team’s play but also its many media missteps during the 2024 season.

“It was just a scattershot kind of year,” Chatham said. “A lot of mistakes. A lot of stuff that, frankly, we used to make fun of other teams for.”