FOXBOROUGH, Mass — The New England Patriots had a lot to answer for after their loss to the Green Bay Packers, and head coach Mike Vrabel took the podium, addressing many of the lingering questions that remained.
Here's what I'm hearing at Gillette Stadium on Monday:
The trade deadline
The 2026 NFL Trade Deadline is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET, so the New England Patriots could make some moves to improve the roster or offload some players and gain draft capital.
“I think that we’ll see where things go tomorrow,” Vrabel said. “I don’t have any update for you now. I don’t have any trade to report here today, but we’ll see where it goes up until 4 o’clock tomorrow.”
The team has been dealing with horrible injury luck, so could they make a trade to provide more depth to fill
a gap left by a player who is sidelined at the moment?
“I want to see us do anything that we can with the roster that we have or potentially guys that aren’t here to continue to improve,” Vrabel explained. "That’s the focus here. After nine weeks, played some really good games, been competitive, and then other days where, you know, just wasn’t good enough as a whole.”
Rhamondre Stevenson and other injury updates
Running back Rhamondre Stevenson left Sunday's game early with a knee injury and was immediately ruled out, raising some concerns.
"No update on Rhamondre," Vrabel said. "We're wearing out the MRIs this morning, so we're still waiting on some of those results."
Starting left guard Ben Brown also suffered a knee injury, and Vrabel revealed that he "won't make it this week" as the team travels to Germany for a matchup against the Detroit Lions.
Greg Van Roten returned to practice last week, so could they activate him to provide more depth?
"Yeah, that's something that we'll look at," Vrabel added. "He's eligible and has been working hard to get back. So, we'll take a look at that and see where he is tomorrow or Wednesday when we practice."
Could A.J. Brown return this week?
A.J. Brown has been sidelined for the last two weeks due to a knee injury, but the team hasn't placed him on injured reserve again, indicating he will likely return sooner rather than later.
So, is he going to travel this week?
"Yeah, I think that that's the plan," Vrabel said. "Certainly, there's no decision on that, but I would imagine that that's the plan. We’ll continue to work to get guys back, be healthy and help the football team. That's the goal. So, to be able to answer that right now, today, I can't do that with a few guys.
"But, I know that the plan is to try to get everybody that can help us to get on the plane on Wednesday, go over there and help us win."
Mike Vrabel provides more comments on Christian Gonzalez's struggles
There's no denying Christian Gonzalez did not have his best performance on Sunday, as the cornerback allowed 10 receptions for 187 yards, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Vrabel was critical of the cornerback after the game, and provided some more comments on Monday.
"You can't take a nap in this league," he said. "Whoever the receivers are, especially the good ones, you have to play with great technique. You have to challenge when you can. Same thing that happens with all DBs, right? When you don't look back at the quarterback sometimes – and they're going to catch passes; they just have to earn it. Then we have to make sure that everything that we're doing, we know if it's a checkdown that we have to be able to, 'Okay, give up,' and then we have to be able to rally and break or where we're going to be okay with the football going. And if it goes somewhere else, we're challenging. So again, Christian had a few plays I'm sure that he'd like to have back. I said this: we have high expectations for him, and he certainly does, too.
"So, I think it's about answering the challenge this week and then coming back. Again, to play corner in this league, you’ve got to have a short memory, whether that's on the good plays or the negative ones, and I'm confident that he will."
Other notes
- What's Different About Preparing for International Games? "I think the schedule. We're going over a day early. We want to try to get work in here as much as we can get done Wednesday, walkthrough Thursday... So, the hope is to try to get over there and to get acclimated enough to where we can have a good day on Friday."
- Vrabel On Drake Maye's Performance: "He'll bounce back. He's made a lot of plays for us and helped us win, and he'll continue to do that. He did that at times yesterday. I know Drake, I know he's already back to work and focused on how he can improve and how he can help this football team."
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This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: What I’m hearing at Gillette Stadium: Monday buzz (Week 10)
