Vrabel was introduced as Patriots head coach on Monday.
With several loose ends in need of getting tied up, Mike Vrabel is making sure not to waste any time. The New England Patriots’ newly-hired head coach will start building his staff on Tuesday afternoon, just 24 hours removed from his introductory press conference.
Vrabel refrained from giving a concrete timeline when talking to WEEI on Tuesday morning, but he did announce a start date.
“I’m going to look at any possible candidate that I feel like could help us,” Vrabel said. “We’re going to start that process today, this afternoon, and visit with some great coaches. And then we’ll see where things go.”
As of Tuesday morning, the Patriots’ coaching staff has only undergone a few personnel changes since the end of the 2024 season.
The big one, obviously, is head coach Jerod Mayo getting fired — opening the door for Vrabel to return to his former club in the first place. In addition, defensive assistant Keith Jones has left to join Appalachian State University in a similar capacity.
The rest of the Patriots’ assistants, meanwhile, officially remain in place. But while that means that Vrabel inherited an almost-full staff on paper, reality is that it will undergo massive changes over the coming weeks.
What those will look like remains to be seen. There are several suitable candidates to consider for roles on the staff, including one prominent name repeatedly tied to New England over the last week: the team’s former offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels. Vrabel did admit on Tuesday that McDaniels is one name on what is a “long list” of potential coaching additions to consider.
What the 49-year-old did stress, though, is that he will not rush through the process but rather take his time to build his staff for the 2025 season.
“It’s a long process, one that will go on a few weeks, it could go out longer than that,” Vrabel said. “It’s always delicate when you have teams that continue to play in the playoffs, potentially movement that could occur on other staffs and related to their contracts. It’s not as cut and dry as, ‘Hey, these guys are going to walk in and tomorrow we’re going to have a full staff.’”