Why Patriots Hiring Mike Vrabel As Coach ‘Surprised’ Tedy Bruschi

Tedy Bruschi was among the most prominent voices who urged the Patriots to make Mike Vrabel their new head coach.

New England followed Bruschi’s advice Sunday, but the former linebacker still was a bit taken aback to see Robert Kraft and company actually go through with the move.

That’s because Bruschi, who played alongside Vrabel for eight seasons with the Patriots, has a pretty good idea of the kind of ship his ex-teammate will run in New England. Bruschi believes Vrabel will “tighten the screws” at One Patriot Place and create stricter methods of operation.

“…I love the hire. Of course, this guy is a friend of mine. But there is going to be a change,” Bruschi said on “Sunday NFL Countdown,” as transcribed by ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “I’m a little bit surprised that this happened because there are some people upstairs in the organization that want to be heard. And sometimes they’re going to have to take a bite of ‘humble pie’ and understand ‘your opinion doesn’t matter on this one’ because there are people in the building that know more.”

Bruschi expects Vrabel to lead much differently than Mayo, who stressed his value of “collaboration” when he replaced Bill Belichick. While Vrabel has a history of instilling great cultures, it sounds like that process in New England could start with some tough love for several staffers.

But such a change is worth exploring, as Mayo’s tactics clearly did not work in 2024.