New Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel may have helped establish the “Patriot Way” as a player in the early 2000s, but he made a point during his coaching career to establish his own path throughout his various stops along the way.
But with Monday’s reporting from MassLive’s Karen Guregian, it’s clear that pieces of that polarizing “way” remain a part of Vrabel’s fabric.
According to Guregian, the hire of Los Angeles Rams game management assistant John Streicher will be made official by the Patriots “later in the week.”
2024 was Streicher’s lone season working with Sean McVay in Los Angeles, having previously spent six seasons in various roles for Vrabel on the Titans coaching staff (2018-23). In his final season in Tennessee, he had risen to the title of director of football administration after previously spending three seasons as the football development coordinator and two seasons as the assistant to the head coach.
So how does the Streicher hire bear shades of the “Patriot Way?” Here’s what ESPN’s Mike Reiss said in his Sunday notes column about the former Rams and Titans assistant:
“And just as Bill Belichick had football research director Ernie Adams to assist him with game management, Vrabel had John Streicher in that role with the Titans. Now, Streicher is expected to follow Vrabel to New England. Streicher, who like Vrabel is an Ohio State alum, spent the 2024 season with the Rams.”
Adams’ specific role with the Patriots during the entirety of Belichick’s tenure in New England was always somewhat of a mystery. His title was football research director, but what that actually meant at any given time seemed to vary week-to-week, based off of the many interviews he’s given and documentaries he’s appeared in. Simply put, Adams served as both Belichick’s eyes in the sky during games, and was a trusted mind for him to bounce strategy around with while prepping for opponents. Whatever Belichick needed, Adams took care of it.
But with Belichick and the Patriots mutually parting ways at the end of the 2023 season, Adams was no longer a member of the organization.
When former head coach Jerod Mayo - a career Patriot in his own right - was handed the keys to the castle, he made sure to employ someone in an Adams-like role for his staff, giving assistant quarterbacks coach Evan Rothstein an additional title of director of game management.
The way Mayo described Rothstein’s role during a press conference in November made it apparent that their in-game relationship was akin to that of Belichick with Adams.
“Is Evan your Ernie Adams?” Mayo was asked by the media on Black Friday.
“I don't want to get into comparisons, but we spend a lot of time talking about situational football and things like that,” said Mayo. “As a head coach on the field, there's a lot going on, whether it's people talking to you through your headset and all that stuff. I think it's good that you have a separate channel where it's just the two of us on there really discussing, staying ahead of the game, talking about different situations and how to approach those.”
The question now becomes whether or not Rothstein remains on Vrabel’s staff, whether that’s in a role that works for/with Streicher, or something else. Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft told the press during his end-of-season press conference that his new head coach would have the ultimate say on which of Mayo’s assistants, all remaining under contract, would be returning to the team in 2025.
So if Vrabel wants him, he can have him. And if the Patriots want to continue moving towards a more modern approach to running an organization, it might make sense to give Streicher more of a staff, rather than having him be a mysterious one-man-band like Adams was for 24 seasons.
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com for all the latest on the Patriots’ coaching staff in the coming weeks.