Sports
With Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye, Patriots have one of NFL’s better coach-QB pairings
FOXBORO, Mass. — Mike Vrabel has a plan for Drake Maye. For the young quarterback, who’s coming off a promising rookie season, it’s less about specific footwork and not really — at least yet — about reads, processing or mechanics.
Vrabel, officially now the head coach of the New England Patriots, has been around enough quarterbacks to know what success at that position should look and sound like. And that’s where he thinks he can most help the 22-year-old Maye.
“Drake is going to be his own person, but I’m going to give him some things that I feel like are necessary to help us win football games,” Vrabel said during his introductory news conference Monday.
Left unsaid during the pomp of Vrabel’s big day is what his presence next to Maye solidifies. Even if the Patriots have plenty of other issues that require fixing, they believe they have their coach and quarterback for years to come, the most important pairing in professional sports. They haven’t had that since at least Mac Jones’ rookie season (with Bill Belichick) in 2021, perhaps since Tom Brady had a locker at Gillette Stadium.
In a league that’s all about the head coach and quarterback, it’s OK that the Patriots’ to-do list is long and difficult. Nothing really matters until you have the right coach and quarterback. Now the Patriots feel they have both.
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Mike Vrabel isn’t selling any Patriots glory. He’s playing defense against it
There’s a long way to go for both Vrabel and Maye to make this work the way the Patriots envision, but it’s also fair to note there are probably not too many other coach-quarterback pairs you’d no doubt take over Vrabel and Maye for the next five years. That’s not to anoint them the second coming of Belichick and Brady. But it’s the one reason that amid so many other issues, there’s a lot of optimism right now in New England.
“Put great people around him,” Vrabel said of his plan for Maye. “I would say that my involvement will be as it relates to game management and situational awareness and where we are on the football field and trying to develop him as a leader of the offense. When a quarterback calls the play, you want to say it like everybody’s going to believe that it’s going to score a touchdown — like with that type of emphasis on how everything is going to operate.”
Mike Vrabel on developing @DrakeMaye2 and the Patriots offense. pic.twitter.com/k3gisgBG97
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) January 13, 2025
It sounds wild given how bad the Patriots have been the last few years and the state of the roster, but there probably aren’t many pairings more promising over the next five years than Vrabel and Maye. The Chiefs, Bengals, Bills, Ravens, Chargers and 49ers have solid arguments for a better pairing. But the Patriots could be in the next tier with the Texans, Eagles and Lions.
Perhaps one of the slights on the duo could be that Vrabel’s passing offenses with the Titans never put up gaudy numbers. During their 11-win season in 2020, they ranked 23rd in passing yards. When they won 12 games the next year, they ranked 25th. But that would ignore their efficiency. In those two years, they ranked third and sixth in passing success rate.
For his part, Vrabel tried to put to rest the concerns that he’s always had run-first offenses, which doesn’t seem ideal for a promising young quarterback.
“We have to be a very efficient passing football team,” Vrabel said. “When you look at statistically what wins in the National Football League, our ability to affect the other team’s quarterback and our ability to provide for an efficient quarterback and passing game is a high contributor to success.”
Of course, Maye’s development is going to be largely pinned on whomever Vrabel picks as his offensive coordinator.
Vrabel said that decision isn’t close to being made yet and that the Patriots will do a full search to fill out their coaching staff.
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New Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will have his pick of offensive and defensive coordinators
“That’s far from solidified,” he said. “We want to put the best, (most) talented coaches in front of our players. … I want the players to embrace what every coach is teaching. I will tell you this, as long as I’m the head coach here, our coaches will have three simple jobs — and they sound simple, but they’re probably not as simple as we want to make them be. They want to teach, they want to develop and they want to inspire our players by making a connection.”
On this day, a celebratory one in front of a slew of microphones and cameras, Vrabel seemed to have all the right details and answers down to the three tasks for his assistant coaches.
On Day 1, he brought stability and respectability to a franchise badly in need of it. And in the process, he’s paired now with Maye to give the Patriots assurances at the two most important spots in building an NFL team.
(Photos: Eric Canha and Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
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The 2026 NBA Draft finally saw the top college prospects get chosen along with some friendly fire among ESPN and basketball analysts on Tuesday night.
Jay Williams, Richard Jefferson and Kenny Smith were among those covering the draft and offering their analysis during the event. One exchange among the three former NBA players went awry and led to an awkward moment.
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Jay Williams of the Chicago Bulls and Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs share a laugh during the 2003 got milk? Rookie Challenge Game at Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, on Feb. 8, 2003. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE)
ESPN recalled the moments each former player was drafted. Smith went No. 6 overall in 1987 to the Sacramento Kings, Richard Jefferson was selected at No. 13 by the Houston Rockets before being traded to the New Jersey Nets in 2001 and Williams was chosen No. 2 overall by the Chicago Bulls in 2001. Williams’ career was cut short due to a motorcycle crash.
ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi asked why Williams received a big ovation. Williams explained that most people who had gone to Duke were from the New York or New Jersey area.
“They also didn’t see the future coming, so they were cheering,” Jefferson said.
Williams responded, “Wow.”
TNT basketball analyst Kenny Smith appears on air before the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the North Carolina State Wolfpack at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on April 6, 2024. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
Smith admitted that Williams was an “unbelievable talent” but “his career trajectory would’ve been a lot different if he didn’t like motorcycles.”
Williams tried to brush it off, saying all of what Smith was saying was “on record” and that he “wrote a book about it.”
“I guess everybody that goes to Duke isn’t that smart,” Jefferson quipped. “What? He wrote a book about it. I’m agreeing with him.”
The awkwardness filled the air after that as the Toronto Raptors were getting ready to make a selection.
Williams’ incident occurred in June 2003. He suffered a fractured pelvis, three torn ligaments in his knee and he severed a nerve in his leg. Williams violated the terms of his contract by riding the motorcycle in the first place.
Referee Richard Jefferson watches the game between the New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers during the 2022 Las Vegas Summer League at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev., on July 11, 2022. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
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He tried to make his way back into the NBA through the G League but never got there. He played 75 games for the Bulls in his rookie season and averaged 9.5 points per game.
Major League Baseball says it has no concerns about Dodgers and Rams head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache working with players.
ElAttrache was questioned by MLB on June 12 following a detailed report by the New York Times that the renowned surgeon and sports medicine expert supported the therapeutic use of performance-enhancing drugs by UFC star Conor McGregor.
“MLB took our responsibility to conduct due diligence in this matter seriously. We interviewed Dr. Neal ElAttrache last week, covering multiple topics, and he answered our questions thoroughly,” MLB said in a statement obtained by The Times Tuesday night.
“Based on our interview, the review of relevant records, Dr. ElAttrache’s long history of support for and cooperation with the Joint Drug Program and the fact that no Therapeutic Use Exemption requests of this nature have been submitted by Dr. ElAttrache or anyone else, we do not have any concerns regarding Dr. ElAttrache’s treatment of MLB players, or his adherence to the Joint Drug Programs and related rules.
“We consider this matter closed.”
ElAttrache performed surgery on McGregor in July 2021, inserting a rod, plates and screws into his left leg after the fighter broke his tibia and fibula during a mixed martial arts bout against Dustin Poirier in Las Vegas.
McGregor’s recovery was lengthy and arduous. ElAttrache told the New York Times that while he did not prescribe steroids for McGregor, he referred him to a specialist who did. Furthermore, ElAttrache wrote a letter supporting McGregor’s request for a therapeutic use exemption from UFC drug policies.
“I felt it would be appropriate to consult other physicians with expertise in bone healing/bone metabolism,” ElAttrache told the New York Times via text. “I recommended the consultations but not the course of treatment.”
ElAttrache said he told McGregor to check with UFC drug testers about prescriptions the consultant gave him. “I purposely wasn’t involved with his evaluation by the consultant nor with prescribing medication,” ElAttrache said.
The exemption request was denied by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the drug testing organization the UFC used at the time, triggering a split between the two organizations. McGregor withdrew from the UFC anti-doping program shortly thereafter and no longer was required to undergo testing for banned substances.
The report prompted MLB to talk with ElAttrache about his approach to treating players.
ElAttrache, operating primarily out of the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, has performed elbow or shoulder surgeries on prominent Dodgers past and present, including Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin and Walker Buehler as well as former Rams stars Cooper Kupp and Cam Akers.
Among the hundreds of surgeries performed over three decades by ElAttrache, his patients include the four 2024 MLB most valuable player and Cy Young Award winners — Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal. ElAttrache’s patients include 18 of 29 players who won the MVP or Cy Young awards over the past 10 years.
“I have spoken with MLB and I am very comfortable with the process that the league and I will complete to assure the public that I have followed every rule and regulation in my medical treatment of athletes without exception,” ElAttrache said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times earlier this month. “My record is completely clean, including in this case.”
Times staff writers Steve Henson, Bill Shaikin, Sam Farmer and Gary Klein contributed to this report.
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As expected, the Washington Wizards have begun the 2026 NBA Draft by selecting BYU’s AJ Dybantsa with the first overall pick.
In a draft class loaded with “cant-miss prospects,” Dybantsa stood out above the rest, as the 6-foot-9, 217-pound forward put on a show with the Cougars in his one and only collegiate season.
Dybantsa averaged 25.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game, while shooting 51% from the field for BYU. He became the fifth Division-1 player in the last 40 seasons to average at least 25 points while shooting 50% from the field in a single season.
This is a breaking news story. More to come…
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