Callahan: The Mike Vrabel Experience has come to New England

FOXBORO Six months ago at his introductory press conference Mike Vrabel memorably assessed his new association by saying he wasn t sure the Patriots were even good enough to exploit bad football On Tuesday the eve of training camp it was time to follow up Are they good enough now Well we re closer than where we were in March or April when we got here Vrabel described a reporter at the start of a minute-long answer that offered a peek into his association meetings and mindset as head coach Barely a minute later another reporter encroached on the same territory by asking if Vrabel could tell whether Patriots players had returned from their five-week break in good shape Vrabel glared I mean whether you were in a coma when I answered the earlier question typing on your phone or tweeting I don t know he panned but I spent five minutes answering that question I can go back through it but I d rather not And there it was packed into a little soundbite the Mike Vrabel Experience This is who he is Thoughtful Occasionally caustic And ever in command even when tempted to lose his cool Because here was the rest of Vrabel s answer to the second question Players did pretty good on the linear run test which they practiced they knew what it was going to be The big thing will come when they re in line contact he reported You re sitting there you re wrestling with a guy in practice and then the D-lineman s rushing he almost gets to the quarterback but we re telling the D-lineman to plant run and go sprint to the football and then go do it again He continued Or we re asking wide receiver Kyle Williams to go run a post and he didn t get the ball but he longed to get the ball but he didn t Can he run back get set and know what to do the next play That s really where we ll see So I ll be able to answer that question again hopefully only once in a sparse days In the meantime outsiders continue to wade into the Mike Vrabel Experience re-familiarizing themselves with the man they once knew as a participant and are learning again as a head coach self included New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel OTA's at Gillette Stadium on June Photo By Matt Stone Boston Herald In time I have no doubt Vrabel will dunk on me at a press conference for whatever reason It s coming The same inevitability will reach players in company meetings just as Bill Belichick once did to Vrabel and every other participant he ever coached for largest part of this century Except unlike Belichick whose unrelenting lowlight sessions eventually drove Tom Brady away Vrabel is mindful of balancing the good with the bad and the ugly to keep players engaged while he rebuilds the plan We talk about the good the bad and the s that gets you beat he declared and I think that players can tell the difference between those three now So those are the three buckets of film that we show them and I can t reliably just sit there and show them the stuff that gets you beat because that gets old as a player You re like I can t just see this all the time I can t just show them all the good stuff because so I just try to every time there s film I try to show them those three buckets Of all the changes Vrabel has swept through Foxboro the last six months special teams ace Brenden Schooler defined the Experience by noting the hard lines he s drawn It s not that you re not scared but you know he s not messing around Schooler declared Like if you re not on your P s and Q s you re not doing exactly what you re appealed to do how you re supposed to do it I don t think guys are gonna be sticking around long Related Articles Patriots training camp preview Bold predictions breakout players and cut candidates to watch out for Mike Vrabel provides good news on Patriots key injured players Patriots leader reveals more details of throwing session with Drake Maye Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams returns after biological scare Patriots WR Stefon Diggs ACL tear reportedly cleared for training camp But then Schooler who spent his first two seasons under Belichick and last year playing through whatever the Jerod Mayo Experience was paused emphasized his initial point and balanced it by noting another side of his head coach There s also the excitement that he brings and the force that he brings Because being a former contestant he knows the difficulties that we have to go through And so to have him at the helm I think it s going to be beneficial for us Of lesson that sentiment was once expressed about Mayo and proved to be misplaced Mayo s playing days couldn t save his operation from a lack of accountability that surfaced almost forthwith when he stopped enforcing punishments for penalties in training camp Yet before they ve stepped on the field players like Schooler already know that won t happen this summer Because after months of introductions and roster deconstruction and reconstruction meetings and plans and installation and OTAs and non-padded minicamp practices real football is coming And so is the Mike Vrabel Experience for all to see We all need accountability Hunter Henry commented Tuesday and he brings that every day