The week leading up to the Super Bowl is typically filled with bad celebrity/athlete interviews, with famous people pumping products while giving little-to-no insight on the upcoming game, let alone their respective teams who aren’t participating in the game.
So when I saw former Patriots defensive end Chris Long had an interview from Super Bowl week released on Thursday with quarterback Drake Maye, I went in with low expectations.
To my surprise, the 22-year-old was about as open as he’s been since being drafted by New England last spring, opening up about the challenges of becoming a team leader in the middle of his rookie season as well as his expectations for sophomore receivers Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker making a leap within their offense in 2025.
He even dropped some bread crumbs about the 1990s royal blue jerseys possibly making a return to the Patriots’ wardrobe in the near future.
If you’re a Pats fan, I highly recommend taking the 28 minutes and giving this a listen.
One of the newsworthy nuggets that caught my attention was when Maye was asked about his new head coach and offensive coordinator.
“You obviously got a chance to talk to [Mike] Vrabel - how much time have you spent with him and Josh [McDaniels]?” the two-time Super Bowl champion asked the Patriots QB.
“Yeah, I’ve talked to him on the phone three or four times each,” said Maye. “I think, you know, they’re both - first off, Coach Vrabel, you know, he’s been the head coach somewhere else. I think that, kind of, maybe, you know, spice it up for us. You know, kind of get outside the ‘Patriot tree,’ technically.
“But I think, you know, he’s still within because he played there as well, knows about the defense and all that. But being somewhere else and knowing what it’s like to have success and being in the playoffs for a different city, different organization, will be awesome. Coach Vrabel, he called me on the phone, and he’s been great. So [I’m] looking forward to getting to know him."
Along with the outside success Vrabel will be bringing to 1 Patriot Place, Maye believes the Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker’s coaching staff will bring a necessary toughness to the locker room.
“I think he will bring some toughness and kind of coach [us] hard,” said Maye. “And we need to be coached, you know? You know, even great players that we have, and veteran guys, we want to be coached hard. You know, I don’t know everything - especially me, trying to make a jump to my second year.
“You know, you wanna be coached hard, and Coach McDaniels offensively will bring that for us. He coached, I think, the best to ever do it, and get a chance to [say], ‘Hey, this is what Tom was thinking on this play, and this concept can be pretty sweet.’ Just sitting there in the film room and say, ‘Hey, you know, Tom was wrong a few times, too.’ You know?”
It’s hard to hear these comments and not immediately think about the season that was under fired head coach Jerod Mayo.
Mayo came out of the gates running a tough training camp, with long practices that included more conditioning than usual to go along with live hitting not typical in today’s NFL. But as camp rolled on, that tough atmosphere began to shift. Practices got shorter, hitting and running decreased significantly.
This all set the scene for a disorganized season from the top-down, fraught with both dysfunction and losing that nearly led to the team selecting No. 1 in this spring's NFL Draft. Add significant injuries on both sides of the football to the mix, and it was a recipe for disaster for a team already devoid of talent.
Mayo could reportedly be seen on team flights playing cards with players after embarrassing losses instead of studying film. And despite preaching a culture of collaboration when speaking with the media, Mayo was reportedly single-minded when making decisions behind the scenes, often leading to discussions between him and his staff that felt more like setups than productive conversations.
All of this culminated in a 4-13 season, leaving the Kraft family no choice but to relieve Mayo of his coaching duties after one season at helm.
It was clear that the 38-year-old was not ready for the job given his lack of experience in the coaching ranks, and Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft took the blame for that during his end-of-season press conference one day after firing Mayo.
This hiring cycle, Kraft prioritized bringing in proven commodities, with Vrabel having coached the Titans to a No. 1 seed in 2021 on his way to winning NFL Coach of the Year, and McDaniels having a long, proven track record of success as an offensive coordinator in New England over the course of two different stints in the role (2006-08; 2012-21).
In theory, dysfunction at the coaching level should no longer be an issue for the Patriots. And with that out of the way, both Vrabel and McDaniels can bring a hard-nosed coaching style back to a franchise in desperate need of it as they look to maximize their window of success while Maye is still on his rookie contract.
With the coaching staff “fixed” (in theory), we now turn our attention to the Patriots rebuilding their roster with an NFL-leading $123 million in cap space.
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com for all the latest on the Patriots’ offseason.