Patriots Insider Expresses One Key Concern About Mike Vrabel

Mike Giardi believes Mike Vrabel was the no-brainer choice for the Patriots, who are coming off a string of terrible seasons.

That being said, the Boston Sports Journal isn’t so sure quite yet that New England’s new head coach will lead a perfect operation.

On a recent episode of the “All 32 Podcast,” Giardi expressed one concern he has about Vrabel and company heading into the regime’s first season.

“He is the absolute right guy for this organization at this time,” Giardi said. “There’s no question. They needed someone who had been there and done that before. Someone familiar with the market. Someone with past head-coaching experience and success. I like that he is old school but in a new-school way.

“My reservation here: His offensive vision in Tennessee wasn’t awesome. They never were that sort of cutting-edge offense. They never pushed it a ton. Obviously, when you have a quarterback like Drake Maye, there’s a high ceiling here. …I’m just curious when push comes to shove and there are hard times — there always are during the course of the season — how that staff comes together and deals with the adversity.”

Time will tell if Vrabel’s hiring strategy pays off. Save for very few exceptions, all of the coaches Vrabel hired after taking the Patriots job worked under him in Tennessee. One of those hires has never even coached the position he was brought on to lead in New England.

That said, the NFL’s best coaches and players are routinely evolving. So perhaps Vrabel will learn from his shortcomings in Nashville and put forth a better approach in Foxboro, Mass.