Q: With the draft a week or so away, I was curious if you have received many, if any, calls from teams looking to move up to number four?

MV: Well, I’d say it’s probably a little early for that. In my experience, probably a little early for those conversations. A lot of those happen next week as we get a little closer to the draft. I think there’s still some preparation and some managing that goes on and the coaches reports. It’s probably a little early for some of those conversations to happen.

Translation: We are willing to listen if teams call. They haven’t yet but if they do, we are more than willing to listen to potential offers for the fourth pick in the draft. If our phone rings next week, we will answer. 

Q: Mike, to follow that up with what Karen said, in those situations, have you been a guy that, if you see a guy that you want, you’re willing to trade up?

MV: Well, as far as manipulating the draft and the board and the value, and if we’ve gone up and gone down in the places that I’ve been. I think you’re just looking for the best value and you’re trying to find players that are obviously talented and what we feel like are a great fit here for us and can help our football team at different levels. That happens at the top of the draft. That’ll happen in the middle parts. Obviously, as you get towards the end and there’s somebody that you want and you may get, or somebody gives you an offer you’re trying to get a little bit more draft capital.

Translation: We are not going to move up at the top of this draft because there are players that will be available to us at four. We would be willing to entertain moving back into the first round if there is a player there we want. 

Q: You had Abdul Carter in for the visit this week. I’m curious what you’ve seen from him on tape and what you learned from him in that visit?

MV: Well, we’re not going to discuss any of the interactions in the 30 visit, but I appreciate the knowledge of him being here. I don’t think he took too many of them, but I would say that the tape is dynamic. There’s a lot of great qualities of a disruptive pass rusher. Very slippery, loose, sudden player. It was a fun tape to watch.

Translation: He visited us because he knows we’re interested and in position to draft him if he falls to us. His skill set fits our scheme well and he would be dynamic in this defense. 

Q: Mike, what’s your overall goal and what do you hope to accomplish with this first draft class for you here?

MV: Well, I think it’s to add as many quality players and quality people. You want to come out of it with some starters. You want to come out of it with some depth and role players that can build the strength and the depth of the roster, the backup players and the situational players. There’s trying to find a fit for all these different players, where they are and what we see them doing. Ultimately they’ll come in and define their role. The post-draft process is trying to find some players that may have fallen through the draft that we have an affinity for, or we feel like that we can develop, they have some traits that we can develop. That’s something that we believe strongly in as well once you get through the draft.

Translation: We want to find good football players first and foremost. Sure, character matters but in the end we want to find good football who can step in, start, back up, develop and help us win football games. Good players might have some baggage attached but they will help us win. 

Q: Do you feel as if you’re going to be more aggressive instead of just letting the draft come to you? If you see something, do you think that you as a group will say, ‘look, we’ve got to make something happen?’

MV: I don’t know if you can answer that. When we coach the football team, we ask the players to play. We want them to be aggressive. We don’t want them to be reckless. I think there’s a lot of possibilities. There could be players that we covet on the board that are there at a certain point. We have to determine how far we are away from where that player is. That’d be the same thing when you talk about trading back, like how far do you want to trade back? Are there still going to be players there that you want at that particular level? I think we all have experience doing that, of going up and going back and presenting. Every time you pick, there’s probably a, ‘are we going to stick and pick, or what’s the best offer that we have?’ That’s the role of the personnel staff, to field those calls as they come in. Sometimes, they’re good offers. Sometimes they’re not so good offers.

Translation: Word salad. If there is a player there that they like, they will trade down , take the extra capital and draft that player. Often times this comes down to whether or not that are multiple players that the front office and coaching staff likes that could still be available 5-10 picks later. This often comes down to how a team stacks their board. 

Q: Mike, do you feel like there’s a tackle in this class that would be worthy of being taken at four overall?

MV: I think there’s some starting tackles that certainly will come in and start in the NFL. I think that that’s really what you start to look for, impact players. When you start picking that high, what they’re going to do for you, what’s the impact, what’s the position, you talk about premium positions. That’s where you weigh all the circumstances and end up making that pick. Do I think that there are starters in this draft that left tackle? Yes, I do. 

Translation: We would be comfortable staying at the fourth pick and taking a tackle. We wouldn’t mind trading down and taking a tackle later as well. The truth is, the gap between Will Campbell and the other tackles in this class is not that wide. 

Q: What’s the role of analytics in your process, and how do you balance what the numbers tell you versus what your eyes tell you and what your scouts tell you?

 MV: Yeah, I think you rely on analytics to help you ask questions about what you see on tape and not only ask questions, but get them answered. So, I think that it’s a quick, very good snapshot of – you talk about durability, you talk about height, weight, speed, measurables, time missed, does that correlate to potential time missed in our league and the durability? So, those are all things that they can give you. You can talk and you can look at certain positions, right? Analytically, as it relates to the receivers and their drop percentage, their ability to gain yards after the catch, their contested catch or how many separation yards, right? And then you go to the next position. So, every position has a different analytical number or value that we would kind of look at, and then you go back and you watch the tape, and when those things are highlighted, you certainly want to make sure that all those things are accounted for.

Translation: Analytics will play a big part in the Patriots evaluation process. Unlike Bill Belichick, Vrabel believes in analytics and he thinks that they can help the organization in terms of evaluating talent and bringing in the right players. 

Q: Since we talked to you last – two weeks ago – do you have a better vision of what the top of the draft might look like, who may not be on the board when you guys are picking?

 MV: No. I think that we probably know as much as everybody else and what gets reported. I mean, Tennessee’s not calling or Cleveland’s not calling. Even though I was a consultant there last year, I haven’t heard their plans on who they want to pick. So, we’ll see as we get closer. If any of that information’s available, we would love to have it.

Translation: Even if I knew, I am not stupid enough to divulge our draft plans but thanks for asking. 

Q: What has generally been your philosophy in the past on drafting best available as opposed to position of need, and how does that evolve maybe round by round or even year to year?

 MV: Well, we’d love for them to align, having a need and having the best player be there. That doesn’t always happen, and we certainly want to pick the best player as many times as we can and the player that we think at that point is the best player. Then we’ll figure it out. Maybe you look at one position and we may have some returning starters or we feel like are starters, or there’s depth at that position, but to add premium players when available is something that you should probably always try to do.

Translation: We want to add the best player possible but we recognize we have needs and we want to take the best player to help us fill that need. No matter how many times a team tells you they don’t want to draft for need, they do. It is the whole point of the draft. To add talent, talent that fills a need. 

Q: If Abdul Carter and Travis Hunter are gone when you select at four, do you know what you’re going to do? You don’t have to say what you’re going to do. Do you know what you’re going to do?

 MV: Well, we’re in the process of going through what everybody calls these simulations, and that’s been and will continue to be good exercises. It’s just running scenarios and what we would do based on those scenarios. So, to say that we have a definitive answer on those scenarios, no, but those are processes that are ongoing, and we’ll be done here shortly.

Translation: Yes. We are going to either stand pat and take an offensive lineman or we are going to trade down and take an offensive lineman. Carter and Hunter are the only players who would trump the need at left tackle. It would be a surprise if they went elsewhere. Tyler Warren is a possibility but the Campbell, Membou chatter is too much to ignore. 

Q: Mike, how important is listening to you, hearing the right things from these players as you talk to them and ask questions? How much does that sink in with you as you go about the process?

 MV: What sinks in the most with me is the first exposure to the second exposure to maybe the third exposure, and it’s difficult. I think just – you don’t really know what you’re going to get in the first exposure, and I think that’s kind of not very fair either. Some of these guys don’t even know what room they’re in at the Combine. If there’s not a Patriot logo somewhere in the room, it would be hard for them to know every single time which room they’re in because it’s just, the hallway’s tight, there’s a bunch of people out there and they get shuttled into a room. ‘Hey, this is so-and-so.’ I could tell them I’m Tom Curran, and they’d be like, ‘Hey, nice to meet you,’ at that point. They just really – there’s a lot there. But then the next exposure, they get a little bit more comfortable, and then the next exposure, whether that’s a pro day or the 30 visit, you start to see maybe who they are and kind of what their personality is.

Translation: Players are more focused on getting drafted, getting coached up and getting paid.