{"id":698403,"date":"2026-05-27T18:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698403\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:40:11","slug":"patriots-coach-mike-vrabel-does-not-regret-skipping-day-3-of-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698403\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots coach Mike Vrabel does not regret skipping Day 3 of NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said he doesn\u2019t regret missing Day 3 of the NFL Draft to be with his family amid the scandal that resulted when Page Six published photos of him with Dianna Russini, The Athletic\u2019s former NFL insider.<\/p>\n

Vrabel, who led the Patriots to a 14-3 record and a Super Bowl in his first year at the helm, was away from the facility for Saturday\u2019s Day 3 of the draft. He said on Day 1 of the draft that he\u2019d miss rounds 4 through 7, because, he said, \u201cMy family needs me this weekend, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking Wednesday as the team opened OTAs, Vrabel was asked if he regretted the decision to miss part of the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Vrabel said, \u201cthey moved around, and they made some trades. And, again, this draft was pretty unique. \u2026 Excited about the players that we got. Studied most of them. They (the front office) knew my affinity for some of the players that we took. And then, admittedly, I don\u2019t know that I\u2019m going to know the 300th player in every draft. So I was excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Vrabel on Saturday of the draft, Eliot Wolf, the team\u2019s executive vice president of player personnel, led the way<\/a> and had the final say on the team\u2019s picks. The Patriots made six selections on that Saturday, starting with defensive back Karon Prunty in the fifth round.<\/p>\n

Initially, the Patriots\u2019 decision-makers planned to communicate with Vrabel throughout the day, but Wolf said the team changed course<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of talked through things and made the decision that the time away really needs to be time away,\u201d Wolf said after the draft, \u201cso we were not in contact with Mike other than some just, \u2018Hope everything\u2019s going OK,\u2019 kind of texts early this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The connection between Vrabel and Russini was first revealed through photos obtained by Page Six on April 7, and more photos of the pair emerged over the following weeks. Russini resigned from The Athletic, where she had worked since 2023, on April 14.<\/p>\n

Vrabel returned to work<\/a> on the Monday after the draft and has been a regular fixture since, assuming his normal role as head coach. On Wednesday, talking as spring practices began, Vrabel didn\u2019t rule out any absences down the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only tell you I\u2019m going to be there today in full force,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cAnd I mean that because who knows what\u2019s going to come up? Anything could happen. I\u2019m going to focus on today and the excitement that we\u2019ve had and that we\u2019ve built so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vrabel took multiple questions on Wednesday about whether the scandal and his absence have been distractions and how players have viewed his leadership. He gave long answers, but was quick to pivot to football matters and what the team is working on this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have to deal with things outside of (football),\u201d he said. \u201cMy focus, and obviously the excitement that I have for coaching, is what is most important right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how he has balanced family and football, he said the process has been \u201creally good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate my family. I love Jen (his wife), I love the boys, I love my personal friends,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cThen this spring is focused on the coaching staff (and) the players, more importantly. But seeing the coaches in the second year and how smooth the conversations are. \u2018Hey, we love this play, and how do we make it better?\u2019 Then they go out and find ways to make it better. Then we have conversations and decide on a few things that we\u2019re doing to try to enhance the things we did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said he doesn\u2019t regret missing Day 3 of the NFL Draft to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,1231,593,85],"class_list":["post-698403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}