A ‘player’s only’ meeting can look like the kiss of death for a struggling team: it presents the image of a come-to-Jesus moment for teammates missing one another chemistry-wise.
If a meeting like that happens in Week 3 of the year, it looks even worse.
When speaking with NBC Sports Boston’s ‘Early Edition,’ at the start of the week, Kevin Byard shared that the team had a 45-minute meeting on Monday.
According to Patriots players in the locker room, however, that meeting was nothing more than a routine session between coaches and players after a loss.
“I think maybe y’all are getting the thought that it was some players meeting or something? No. It was just a meeting. We watched tape,” wide receiver Mack Hollins said at his locker Wednesday.
The length? Hollins said that’s because they go over plays from all three phases of the game as an entire team.
“Those are just long, it’s where we were able to have everybody in there, because that’s the only time that week where you’re going to have the whole team in one room at the same time,” Hollins said.
At his locker, Byard clarified that the team meeting he described happens regularly, unless the team has a “Victory Monday.” Then, they’re excused from everything but medical treatment at the facility.
“Vrabes [is] going to put that film on. He’s going to coach everybody. He’s going to show good plays, he’s going to show bad plays, that’s how it goes. In the National Football League, when you lose, you know when that Monday film, coming in, more than likely we have more bad plays than good plays. So those are the plays that are going to be mentioned a lot more. That’s how Monday meetings go,” Byard said.
So how does Byard, a captain, make sure Vrabel’s message from that meeting get through to a 1-2 team heading to see a bitter divisional rival?
“Honestly, for me, it’s just making sure we’re a team that chops wood. For us, it’s not a panic in here,” he said. “We didn’t wake up in the morning and just forget how to play football. We have good players here. We have that belief. We just have to go out there and execute. If you don’t execute, you don’t look good. Then, everybody’s like, ‘We all suck.’”
The Patriots didn’t have too many occasions for such meetings during the regular season last year: they finished 14-3. So, it’s understandable that a tough meeting among coaches and players could be taken as a bad sign for the chemistry of the team, but it sounds like this occasion was more of a reality check after a brutal loss on the road.
New England has the chance to go 2-2 with a victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at 1 p.m., but they’re catching the team on a hot 3-0 start behind quarterback Josh Allen, while the Patriots’ own Drake Maye has thrown just one touchdown and six picks through the first three weeks of the season.
