There were two quotes from Mike Vrabel’s season-ending press conference that stood out to me. One was his admission that the team exceeded expectations. I appreciate Vrabel not talking about that during the year - why would you let your players know this is better than we thought it would be? - but as I kept saying here and on my podcast (All 32, subscribe, will ya), this roster isn’t what they want it to be, and this all happened sooner than forecasted. It’s a tribute to the staff and players that they won an AFC title. Truly.
The second, and this one made me raise an eyebrow, was when Vrabel was asked about Terrell Williams and Zak Kuhr and the role of defensive coordinator going forward:
“We'll have to work through – T [Terrell Williams]'s healthy and been given a release to be back and be back at work. So again, I'll work through all those things here in the next couple days, weeks, however long those decisions may take.”
We now know why Vrabel opened that door. The team is moving Williams into a different role, one described as a high-ranking position.
Kuhr is certainly a top candidate to fill the post full-time; however, there are two more experienced coaches Vrabel is familiar with who are, or could be, available, in Shane Bowen (most recently the Giants DC but was Vrabel’s coordinator in Tennessee from 2021-2023) and Jim Schwartz, who resigned in Cleveland but remains under team control (meaning a deal would need to be worked out). The coordinator positions also fall under the ‘Rooney Rule’, so the Pats must interview at least two external minority candidates.
That said, Kuhr earned the promotion. Down the stretch, the Pats' defense became the most consistent and dependable of the three phases. The players responded to him. And with the braintrust in place, why can’t the 37-year-old Kuhr continue to grow, learn, and thrive?
- There’s been a lot of focus/commentary on the Seahawks blitz package featuring Devon Witherspoon. What hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention is the coverage behind them.
Mike Macdonald’s defense is so terrific with its communication and disguise that it not only confused the Pats’ protection schemes with who they sent and where they sent ‘em but also left Drake Maye unsure of what he was looking at on the back end. Sometimes it was man, sometimes it looked like man but was really cover 2, another time it was cover 4. So not only did Maye have to set the protection - and on at least 3 occasions - had the line sliding to the wrong side - but then he had to find holes in a secondary that wasn’t doing what he expected pre-snap. You want to put a young quarterback in a blender, and that’s exactly what Macdonald did.
- When you hear one ex-NFL lineman after another (Andrew Whitworth and Joe Thomas, among others) talk about Will Campbell’s performance and keep pointing out his issues with technique, it left me wondering what the heck Doug Marrone and his two assistants were doing this season. I blame myself for not being on this sooner. But I became content with the performance the group delivered during the regular season, especially given how bad it had been the previous two seasons. Now, I wasn’t buying some of the bullcrap being put out - especially with regards to some of the grades this unit was getting - but in retrospect, I wasn’t critical enough of the coaching the left side was getting. Are Campbell and Jared Wilson better players than they were when they got to NE? I should hope so. But could the level of play been greater here in the postseason? Hard not to wonder, even with Campbell dealing with the knee.
Also, and this is an inside-media pet peeve - we knew Campbell had torn a ligament. That’s what a grade 3 sprain is. I don’t know why it became a big story on Tuesday. It shouldn’t have.
- The team has an out on Christian Barmore this offseason. Barmore will earn a base salary of $12 million and a workout bonus of $225,000 in 2026, while carrying a cap hit of $17.1 million and a dead cap value of $12.8 million. If they choose not to exercise that option, if you will, Barmore gets $20 million in each of the last two years of the deal (runs through 2028). I’m not suggesting I know what will happen here. At his best, Barmore is a disruptive force, but there were a fair number of disappearing acts, including on Super Sunday when he didn’t pressure Sam Darnold once.
Teammate Milton Williams gets $23 million in cash next year, and his cap hit doubles from $14 million to $28.4 million. The Pats have the money - I’m not suggesting that - but I do wonder if they take a long, hard look at Barmore’s production and his off-field stuff and say, we can do better, or we can get something comparable for significantly less cash?
- Something has to happen with Stefon Diggs’ contract. He’s not worth $26 million against the cap next year, but he’s also deserving of more than $1.7 million guaranteed. This will be a fine line to walk for a 32-year-old receiver who, like the majority of the offense, faded down the stretch (110 yards in 4 postseason games). That’s been his M.O., dating back to his best years in Buffalo. Throw him being demonstrably upset a handful of times in the Super Bowl about not getting the ball, and you have to wonder - as I have all year - if it makes sense to go forward with Diggs considering his track record. Obviously, the Pats can’t part ways with Diggs without making a move to at least fill that role as pseudo-number one receiver, if not upgrade. Alec Pierce in free agency? A.J. Brown? Someone else?
MAXX-ED OUT?
One of the most important questions new Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak faced in his introductory press conference on Monday was what the team plans to do with Maxx Crosby.
“We want (Crosby) to be a part of our success moving forward,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that. He’s one of the best players in the NFL. That’s a no-brainer to get to work with Maxx and see him continue to have success with this organization.”
Crosby stormed out of the team’s facility late in the season after the training staff - headed by Alex Guerrero (yeah, he has that kind of juice in Vegas) - made the decision to shut down the star pass rusher for the final two games of the season. Crosby has a knee injury that required surgery (meniscus, unlikely to be medically clear until the summer), but he sought a second opinion and was told he couldn’t do further damage. That led the 28-year-old (he turns 29 in August) to wisely question whether this was just an attempt by the Raiders to tank (it worked; they have the number 1 pick and appear set to take Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza).
Multiple reports during Super Bowl week suggest Crosby will be traded before the draft, and one said they were told by an unnamed GM that Crosby told Raiders minority owner Tom Brady that he will never play for the franchise again.
“People are going to have rumors,” Crosby said. “Everyone’s hitting me up: ‘Did you say this?‘ I can’t control that. You earn that as a player. If I wasn’t doing the right things and if I wasn’t the person and player I was, people wouldn’t be talking about all the nonsense.
“If you have drama, if you have a losing season, they just try to throw gasoline on the fire. I know what I’m about; I really don’t care what everybody has to say, and I used to care a lot as a young guy. Now? I really don’t give a damn.
“People could have their own opinions. I know what’s going on; I know my truth, and I don’t need to sit here and keep rehashing it to the people who don’t know what’s going on. My focus has been on getting healthy because that’s all I can control right now.”
A five-time Pro Bowler (and one deserving of that honor), Crosby has 69.5 sacks over the course of his 7-year career. He is scheduled to make more than $60 million total over the next two seasons, but then whatever team he’s playing for has the option to walk away from the deal with no dead cap ramifications. If the team doesn’t, they’re on the hook for $27.2 million in 2028 and $28.2 million in 2029.
Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported that Crosby expressed interest in playing for Vrabel, and I would expect the Pats to be interested as well. But any team swinging a trade for him would need to part with multiple premium picks, and there are already at least a half-dozen clubs that have expressed interest in acquiring Crosby should he become available. It took two first-rounders and an excellent player in Kenny Clark for Green Bay to pry Micah Parsons from Dallas in August, though he’s nearly four years younger than Crosby. Then again, the Pack had to give Parsons a mega-deal. Is Crosby worth two firsts? A first and a second? First and a third? The Pats will definitely have meetings about that.
TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT
Talk about uninspired. The Arizona Cardinals' hiring of Mike LaFleur as its new head coach was met with “Ok, I guess” from folks around the league.
The 38-year-old has never been a head coach at any level, and his one stint as a play-caller, 2021-22 with the New York Jets (in his defense, he had Zach Wilson at QB), did not go well. He went on to be the OC with the Rams, but we know who calls the shots offensively there.
LaFleur inherits a team that went 3-14 this past season, but the 38-year-old sees more talent than the results showed.
“What Monti (Ossenfort, GM) has built over these last few years - there are pieces,’’ LaFleur said. “When you look at the fourth quarter of a lot of these games, particularly in the mid-part of the season, it was close, tight games. We've got to figure out what those little edges are to get us over. That’s what we intend to do.”
Ossenfort, who comes from the Patriots organization before moving on to an assistant GM role with the Titans, is banking his future on LaFleur turning the program around. You only get one chance to clean up your mess, and his first head coaching hire, Jonathan Gannon, didn’t last long in the desert. Ossenfort pivoted from the defensive-minded Gannon to a Sean McVay protege - the 6th from McVay’s tree to get an HC job (Zac Taylor, Matt LaFleur, Brandon Staley (got fired by LAC), Kevin O'Connell, and Liam Coen).
“He's ready for this,” Ossenfort said of LaFleur. “He's innovative, He's smart. He's been training under the brightest offensive coaches in the NFC West and arguably in the NFL, and we're super excited about all the things that he's going to bring."
LaFleur’s (and Ossenfort's) success will be tied to the quarterback position. Kyler Murray is under contract, but the Cardinals were non-committal at best to the diminutive passer and appear very likely to move on from the 28-year-old. Murray hurt his foot in week five of this past season and, despite being healthy late in the year, was shelved by the team.
A pre-June 1 trade of Murray would result in a dead-cap hit of nearly $18 million, but the Cards have around $40 million in space and could free up another $20 million with various roster moves that seem forthcoming. His contract can be walked away from in 2028 with zero financial penalty.
Where would the Cardinals go in his place? They have Jacoby Brissett under contract for less than $5 million, but there are reports suggesting LaFleur could pursue former Rams backup Jimmy Garoppolo, who is set to be a free agent.