Copyright The Boston Globe
There’s no more familiar “Awwww yeah!” breakdown in the locker room after a victory. Players don’t regurgitate lines like “do your job.” They didn’t run the hill after practice during training camp. Last week, there were individual introductions pregame, ending a more than two-decade ritual of coming out as a team that started in 2001 during Vrabel’s first year as a Patriot. Who are these guys? “I think it’s a good thing,” said right guard Mike Onwenu, who was drafted in the sixth round in 2020 and shares the title of longest-tenured Patriot with linebacker Anfernee Jennings. “At the end of the day, obviously, you can live in the past. We were part of a great organization that has done great things in the past, but we haven’t been doing well over the past few years. So, I think it’s important to kind of scrap what didn’t work. “Obviously, we have a new head coach, so that’s the overall scheme of what we’re working for in our identity and scheme. I think it’s important to buy into that. We have been here for a while and seen different coaches and seen different people in and out. But at the end of the day, we’re worried about this year and worried about the head coach this year, which is Mike Vrabel. Everyone loves coach Vrabel, and it’s fun working with him.” Jennings concurred. “Them believing in what they believe in, not trying to be what the Patriots once was, in the future, out of respect, just trying to create something new and reestablish a winning culture,” said Jennings, a third-round pick in 2020. The changes feel calculated and intentional. However, they’re not disrespectful or dismissive of what went before. They’re emblematic of the fact that Vrabel developed a philosophy of his own that differs from the milieu he flourished in as a Patriots player, winning three Super Bowls and embodying New England’s protean ethos. He’s not Bill Belichick or a Belichick disciple like Jerod Mayo. He harbors his own beliefs and his own program, which he’s fine-tuned for Foxborough after six seasons as coach of the Titans and a gap year as a consultant for the Browns. “All we’re trying to do is just try to win games, get good guys, enjoy coming to work, coach the [expletive] out of them, watch them have success, and be excited for them,” said Vrabel, when asked about breaking from the past. “None of that goes in, and, [it’s] ‘Well, they did it this way. We’re going to do it the opposite.’ There are a lot of things that are good that you take from people, and there are some things that you come up with on your own that are good. Then there are some ones that are clunkers. When they’re clunkers, you own it, change it, and fix it.” As Vrabel pointed out, there’s no time for nostalgia. The NFL is the ultimate “What have you done for me lately?” enterprise. That’s why Vrabel, in his trademark sardonic fashion, rejected the idea his alterations are designed to relieve the burden of living up to past success. “I don’t know what the burden is. They won eight games in two years. So, none of that matters,” he retorted. “Whether it was a Super Bowl or a not very good year, it doesn’t matter. In this league, if you take a nap, you’re going to get beat, and that’s just how it is. … I don’t have enough time to focus on what happened yesterday, let alone what happened seven years ago.” Touché, Vrabes. But some of his players acknowledged that playing for the Patriots, who were an NFL standard-bearer for two decades, carried some extra weight on their shoulder pads during the prior three losing seasons. “No, I didn’t feel like it was a burden. But, of course, we feel that pressure,” said Onwenu. “I think over the years, it hasn’t been good. Our fans let us hear that. Obviously, you want to win the games, and that’s what our goal is. You can’t change the past.” In sports, actions speak louder than words. Some of the changes are more than just cosmetic or coincidental. They represent a conscious choice to turn the page. For example, with the trade of Kyle Dugger to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday, all seven of the players who served as captains last year are gone. Among the current captains, only tight end Hunter Henry has even played in a playoff game for New England. When asked about how culture figures into Tuesday’s trade deadline, Vrabel said: “We’ve tried to establish something here as far as what we want to be and who we are.” Culture and winning resemble the chicken and the egg: which comes first? “Yeah, we kind of established the culture, what the culture is going to be, when Vrabes stepped foot in the door. He kind of defined it himself, and we just followed his lead, man,” said Jennings. “Everybody believes in it. That came way before the [winning] games came. … We’re playing together. We’re putting the work in, and we’re going out and winning.” That’s the most welcome and important change of all. “The expectation is to win, and you don’t shy away from that,” said Jennings. “Obviously, we wanted to win all the years that I’ve been here, but we just couldn’t get it done. Fortunately, we’re stacking wins right now, and that’s the goal. We found what we feel like works for us, and we commit to that.”
