Mike Vrabel Reveals Patriots' Plan to Defend Dolphins Motion

"I saw an energy at that Tampa Bay game," Vrabel said of Ewers. "I saw youthful energy. A guy that's trying to take advantage of his opportunity, and again, sometimes when you put younger players in there, especially quarterbacks, you see them getting up and celebrating. He had a big scramble at the end of the game, and in five-minute there was a first down."

"It was a big play for him. A lot of energy. He seems to have good command of the operation. There's a lot of moving parts with that offense, the shifts, the motions, the jet motions, the ball handling. It's not just standard. He's under center, he's in the gun, he's in the pistol, and then being able to execute the play action and the boot game. I think he's gotten off to a good start."

The Patriots' secondary -- led by All-Pro corner Christian Gonzalez -- won't be overly matched by the Dolphins pass catchers in the game. Other than Jaylen Waddle, who Gonzalez will likely line up against, the group of Malik Washington, Cedrick Wilson Jr, Theo Wease Jr. and Nick Westbook-Ikhine shouldn't be too much for a team still in contention for the AFC's top seed.

As for Gonzalez facing Waddle, Vrabel says that keeping a corner on a wideout all game also can be tricky.

"Offenses have changed so much," Vrabel said. "They just don't stand out there, put them over there into the boundary and let you cover them. Sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't. I would say more times than not, it doesn't. They will move players around, move them off the ball, motion."

"Offenses have gotten really good of how they motion, where the snap point is. The quarterbacks manufacture the snap point on this side of the center, on the other side, stacked or all the way out. Those are all different things that you go through."