What To Expect From Mike Vrabel’s First Patriots Training Camp As Head Coach

Football season returns this week when the New England Patriots open training camp.

Veterans report on Tuesday with the first full-squad workout scheduled for the next day at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.

All eyes will be on head coach Mike Vrabel, who will be running his first training camp since returning to the Patriots family.

With that in mind, ESPN’s Mike Reiss talked to Patriots center Ben Jones, who played for Vrabel while on the Tennessee Titans. Jones laid out what his teammates can expect when they take the field this week.

“Everything has a purpose,” Jones said, per Reiss. “You’re not just going out there to bang heads every day to see who is the toughest guy.

“And he preaches that in meetings that the coach — [players] should be able to ask them, ‘Why are we doing this? What does this help us with? How can we attain our goals from it?’ So, every person is held accountable,” Jones continued.

“You’re not just going out there filling a sheet with drills that don’t carry over to team [portion of practice]. … And you’re not just going out there doing the same drills every day,” Jones added.

Jones noted that Patriots fans attending training camp practices also will enjoy what they see from Vrabel.

“I feel like his interaction with fans is special,” Jones said, according to Reiss. “He takes time, talks to kids, signs autographs a lot of the days. I know a lot of head coaches don’t spend that much time with the kids and fans.”

That most likely includes Bill Belichick, the former Patriots head coach whom Vrabel is replacing.

Of course, Vrabel won three Super Bowls while playing for Belichick in New England. So the former linebacker no doubt will be expecting his players to, in the words of his predecessor, do their job.