Drake Maye Could Be the MVP, but Mike Vrabel is a Mortal Lock for Coach of the Year
At the halfwayish mark of the NFL season, a very strong case can, and is, being made for Drake Maye as league MVP. You'll get no argument from me. Or from this intimate little gathering of elite scholars in Smithfield, RI:
Maye's worthiness over the other candidates is a healthy, robust debate America can have over the second half of the season.
What's not up for discussion is Coach of the Year. Which shouldn't even be put to the vote. It's one of those issues that should just be resolved by affirmation. Like some budget item at a Town Council meeting, decided by vote voice. "Next on the docket, a motion to name Mike Vrabel of the Patriots is NFL Coach of the Year. I second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? [Silence] Bang. The motion is carried. Next item, a new flagpole for the fire station ..." There's no logical reason to waste any more time on the matter than that.
And while the reasons begin with what Vrabel's done to the Patriots record:
… by no means do they end there. Or with the stats. Even if a team that was 30th in points scored last year is now 7th. And what was the league's 22nd in defense is now 6th. And the Pats have the only special teams unit in the league with two touchdowns.
It's about all of those things. But to me it's more about the things you can't quantify. But you know them when you see them.
Mike Vrabel is Coach of the Year because of his … wait for it … coaching. In the middle of games:
And from Monday to Saturday:
Source - Mike Vrabel was speaking at the podium on Wednesday, discussing how Stefon Diggs has helped shape team culture in his first season with the Patriots, when the coach dropped a random fact about his team.
“41 guys lifted yesterday on a day off,” Vrabel said. “Came into the building and lifted, which I thought was a really positive thing at this time of year.” …
Vrabel said he spoke to players about how the midway point of this season really marks the beginning of the next journey. Players know that to make the playoffs, their work isn’t done. That’s why many opted to come in [Tuesday].
You know that part in It's a Wonderful Life when Mary throws George and improvised honeymoon after he spent all their money saving the Building and Loan and she says, "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for"? Well when the Krafts broke the windows on the failed Jerod Mayo experiment:
… this is what I wished for. I thought if they hired Vrabel to replace him, the wins would come in time. But what this franchise needed more than anything, was a change in culture:
The culture of this team has been broken for a few years now. As much as I never bought into using the term "The Patriots Way," if it ever existed, it died a while ago. Perhaps as far back as 2019, when Tom Brady was still here. If anyone can be the solution to bringing it back from the dead, it's a guy who embodied it when he was here. And has not put up with any BS as a coach elsewhere.
We've all watched Vrabel coach, and it's not a small sample size. Try and imagine for one hot second that he'd say, put up with Jack Jones getting suspended for insubordination in his rookie season, picking up gun charges at the airport, and then showing up late in his second season, as he did on Bill Belichick's watch. Try to picture Javon Baker (one catch in his rookie season) missing bed check on the London trip, as he did under Jerod Mayo. Or Rhamondre Stevenson leading the league in fumbles, only to go running out to the first huddle because everyone in the country seemingly heard he was benched for the opening series except for him.
Forget it. You can't. Because it's impossible to fathom Vrabel won't get that nonsense buttoned up, starting on Day One. Just ask Tedy Bruschi:
… This feels very much like the last time the Patriots hired an established veteran NFL head coach as they were coming off a season when they were among the worst teams in the league. That guy was also a former linebacker with a genius for being an insufferable wiseass who did not suffer fools gladly. And Bill Parcells pretty much worked out. He turned the franchise around and turned them into a Super Bowl contender in no time. And was one of the most entertaining guys to ever stand behind a podium, as is your newest head coach.
The Patriots are back. This offseason is off to the best possible start.
Back in January, I knew I was right. I just couldn't conceive of just how right I was. Even the way Vrabel handled Stevenson's continued ball security issues has been a vast improvement over the way it was bungled last season. Since his last fumble at Buffalo, he's had 40 rushing attempts and caught 15 passes. For sure he didn't say he was going to bench his RB1 and then start him. He built him up. As he did with Maye in those moments during the Falcons game. The same way he did Andres Borregales. Since the rookie missed a FG in Week 1 and two XPs in Week 2, he's made 28 straight total kicks. Vrabel benched Christian Barmore for one quarter for unstated reasons, only to send him into the game in the 2nd and watch him wreak havoc on the Browns. Beyond that, there hasn't been a single issue of him having to discipline a player that we know about. And the sign in the locker room that reads "THIS WORKPLACE HASN'T HAD AN EMPLOYEE GET ARRESTED WITH A LOADED GUN AT AN AIRPORT IN [3] YEARS" hasn't had to be updated.
As Churchill put it, "Humans are easy to lead, and hard to drive." Vrabel is leading, and his players are totally buying in. They're coming in on their day off in impressive numbers. They're celebrating each other's accomplishments. Week by week, they've been reducing the number of mental mistakes that were hurting them in the first few games. And the winning streak they're on is a result of all of it.
Just give him the award now. It'll save us time at the end of the season. Which we'll need, because Mike Vrabel has 2024's worst NFL team heading to the 2025 playoffs. That alone should be enough.