Mike Vrabel Admits He Took the Patriots Job Because of Drake Maye

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If it was said once it was said a quadrillion times that if Eliot Wolf's first offseason as Patriots' GM landed a true franchise quarterback, nothing else mattered. To put it differently, if he failed miserably in every other area of roster-building but landed this, biggest piece, he'd get a free pass. In the way that the Patriots draft in 2000, which began with Adrian Klemm, JR Redmond (who was OK), Greg Randall, Dave Stachelski and Jeff Marriott is their best of all because of who they landed at No. 199. 

And what's been happening over the last few weeks is proof that attitude was the correct one. As of right now, Wolf's first draft was an unmitigated disaster save for two picks. It was the live-action Snow White reboot of drafts. But he still gets an A for having the wisdom to take Drake Maye at No. 3. And extra credit for taking a 6th round flyer on Joe Milton, that pushes him to an A+. And if for some reason you think that's overstating the case, consider this:

Source - The reasons for Mike Vrabel to return to Foxborough were aplenty. The one under center might have tipped the scales.

 

The former New England Patriots great-turned-head coach recently told OutKick's "Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich" that second-year quarterback Drake Maye is a big reason he chose to take the Pats gig.

 

"I see a young, athletic, talented, full-of-potential player," Vrabel said, via the Boston Globe. "Excited to build this team around (him) and a large part of the reason why I wanted to be here. And just that talent level, to be able to build around him and to be able to grow and help him and lead and run an offense and run a football team is something that I'm excited about. …

"He can throw from in the pocket, he can throw off platform, he can run, he can scramble," Vrabel said of Maye. "You can design some things for him. So I think you have pretty much everything in the playbook that you could possibly want available. He's not just a pocket passer. He's not just a guy that's going to run. So there's a lot of different ways that we're hoping that he can be successful."

Right now you may be saying, "Old Balls, you're a handsome, charismatic genius with a sex appeal that makes you the envy of all men, but what's this got to do with your premise." To that I say thank you, and please stop pandering and let me explain.

Simply put, it's the Butterfly Effect in action. As Vrabel says, without Maye, there's no him. He was the most sought-after coach on the market and came here specifically to work with this QB. With no Vrabel, there's no list of free agents that looks anything remotely close to this:

You can argue the team had to overpay to get some of these guys, and get no argument from me. That's the nature of going 8-26 the past two years. Take Vrabel out of the mix, and there wouldn't be enough money under the Cap to sign any of them. Take Maye out of the mix, and there's no Vrabel. Again, the Butterfly Effect of drafting The Guy at quarterback.

Consider a couple of counter-factuals. Let's say The Wolf gave into temptation and took the deal the Giants were harassing him to accept, moved back to No. 6 and took his choice of Michael Penix, JJ McCarthy or Bo Nix. Or let's get really nuts and assume he caved into the voices demanding he take "the best player in the draft" in Marvin Harrison, Jr. and settled for a Spencer Rattler type in the middle rounds. Do you think for one hot second Mr. Kraft could've had the luxury to fire Jerod Mayo, confident Vrabel would take the job?

Now imagine we still had Mayo. A second-year head coach with no experience outside of his own organization apart from a stint working at some company called Optum that no one can tell you what goods or services they provide. Mayo would have no contacts list of names around the league to call. We'd still have Alex Van Pelt (with all due respect) as coordinator instead of Josh McDaniels. On the other side of the ball we'd still have Demarcus Covington instead of Terrell Williams. And no one with a connection to any of the free agents who've signed here. 

All of which would've meant no Milton Williams, no Stefon Diggs, no Carlton Davis, no Harold Landry. And for sure not the veteran tackle who's going to be protecting Maye's throwing arm side:

A year ago at this time, everyone with one synapse of football understanding in their brain knew it would all begin with drafting Drake Maye. Thanks to Mike Vrabel coming to coach him, it finally has begun.