As Mike Vrabel stood in front of his team on Wednesday, he posed a simple question: Raise your hand if you were still playing football at this time last year.
In a full room, only defensive tackle Milton Williams raised his hand.
It was an eye-opening moment for quarterback Drake Maye.
“There’s 24 teams at home right now. There’s eight of us practicing and still working,” Maye relayed. “He mentioned it to us today before practice, ‘Take a look, raise your hand, who was still practicing at this time
last year?’”
At this point last year, Maye — who just ended his rookie season with four wins — was already on his couch watching Williams record a two-sack performance in a Super Bowl victory with the Eagles.
Now, Maye is just two wins away from that same opportunity, beginning with a divisional-round matchup against the Houston Texans.
“There’s eight teams left and this is a chance, an opportunity that we have, to play a home football game, a home playoff game, at a time when it matters most,” Maye said. “Just reflect on that and realize the opportunity we have, and at the same time, how much work we’ve done to get here and enjoy it. He just reminded us to take advantage of it and know that we’ve got a chance.”
Throughout the season, Vrabel has made it a point to ensure his team is enjoying the ride. Despite the stakes growing higher and the games becoming more meaningful, that message has remained consistent.
“I just feel like you put a lot into it,” Vrabel said. “This isn’t the easiest profession in the world, and we only get one chance a week. And so, if we only try to focus on having fun during the game, it’s a small window of our week. And so, we want to bring good people in here that we enjoy being around, that are like-minded and want to try to exhibit the qualities of the identity that we wish to play with, enjoy it and obviously work, but then go out to the game and let them have fun and compete. We know that one play is not going to make the difference and that we have to keep going.”
