Not long ago, the New England Patriots were a franchise searching for direction. After stumbling to a 4-13 record in 2024, they staged a remarkable turnaround, finishing 14-3 in 2025 under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel. In a league where change rarely comes quickly, Vrabel’s leadership was praised as the steady hand that restored belief and revived a proud organization. But in the NFL, reputations can be built over years and questioned in moments.

Following the Dianna Russini controversy, the spotlight shifted, and with it, questions emerged about the credibility of the man who helped engineer the team’s revival. At least, that’s what NFL player Devin McCourty hinted at on NBC’s show.

“I think the thing you’ve got to wonder is it’s going to start week one in Seattle,” Devin McCourty said on Football Night in America. “As you said, that atmosphere, we were up there, Jason, last year. They look for Mike Vrabel.

“They look to him when things get tough. Do they still feel the same way? His character’s been tested. Will this team follow him wherever he goes? That’s going to be tested right away in week one.”

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McCourty, who won three Super Bowls with the Patriots back in the day, understands how things work in the locker room. After so many years in the league, he has seen enough to know how a coach like this typically handles pressure.

That said, former Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho also had an opinion quite similar to McCourty’s. Acho believes the head coach has lost moral authority over the locker room.

“The only problem is this: Vrabel can no longer tell his players with authority how to conduct themselves off the field,” he said in April. “You cannot be near the disciplinarian that you were formerly because you can’t discipline me when I know you bull too.”

If at all that’s the narrative amongst the players, the coming season is going to be a difficult one. The coach might have to let go of some of his personal conduct reminders, which were a part of his standard operating procedure.

Perhaps, the only way out for Vrabel is winning games. That’s what Mike Tomlin, who ran the show in Pittsburgh from 2007 through 2025, believes.

“And I’ll tell you. When games start, winning matters,” Tomlin said on Football Night in America. “And, so, if they get off to a fast start, they’ve got a chance to quiet some of that noise. If they don’t, that noise could get extremely loud.”

As for the scandal itself, Dianna Russini found herself at the center of it this offseason, accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Vrabel. She ended up stepping away from her job at The Athletic, and Vrabel skipped part of the NFL Draft to go into counseling as the story kept unfolding around them.

The Patriots have a lot to look forward to

Week 1 brings the defending Super Bowl champions to town, and nobody knows what that feels like better than the Patriots, who were the last team standing in the way of the Seahawks before losing the Super Bowl.

So, there’s already a target on New England’s back as the reigning AFC champion. That’s plenty of pressure on its own. But now, they’ve got a second layer of it, one they didn’t ask for and can’t really control, all stemming from what their head coach may or may not have done off the field.

That brings the question: what do players feel about the Vrabel-Russini scandal?

Players Hunter Henry and Robert Spillane spoke about it in April.

Henry, when asked about Vrabel’s first conversation with the team after the controversy, said: “It’s been the same Vrabes, bringing a lot of energy in the room, so, yeah, obviously he addressed it. And, that’s all I’ll say about it.

“I know you guys want to hear about everything that’s going on. To be honest with you, I’m just focused on what we got going on right now in this building with this team.”

Similarly, Spillane said: “Coach coaches football. He keeps the main thing the main thing. I know he’s dealing with personal issues. But when we’re in the building, we speak football.”

Even team owner Robert Kraft backed Vrabel.

It goes without saying that no negative comments have been made publicly about Vrabel, but as the season creeps closer, the New England Patriots’ locker room will be heavily discussed.