How Patriots' Mike Vrabel responded to question about counseling related to Dianna Russini controversy

It was learned back in April that head coach Mike Vrabel would be away from the New England Patriots for the final day of the 2026 NFL Draft so that he could participate in counseling amid the controversy involving Vrabel and longtime NFL reporter Dianna Russini.

While speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Vrabel was asked what he "learned from that counseling" and about how he balanced "that personal commitment with getting ready for this season." He somehow managed to both say a lot and very little all at the same time. 

Mike Vrabel stresses "improvement" regarding his preparations for the 2026 season

"I think we always look at improvement," Vrabel explained, per the Patriots' website. "As we talk about getting ready for the next season, we always look at improvement and ways that we can improve individually and how we can improve as a team. It's really critical that we continue to do that on and off the field. I believe in that. I believe in everything that we can do to help this football team, to help our coaches, to help myself and everybody else included. This journey that we are going to go on is going to be completely different than the one we went on last year. That's all of our jobs, is to prepare for it now."

Headlines about the much-discussed scandal that began when pictures first emerged showing Vrabel and Russini, who are married to other people, spending time together at an Arizona resort in late March have essentially disappeared amid training camp. While Russini resigned from her role of covering the NFL for The Athletic in April, Vrabel has had the "full support" of team owner Robert Kraft since this past spring. In July, Kraft said that the Patriots are "privileged to have Mike as our head coach" and that "no one is infallible." 

Mike Vrabel shares an example of a discussion about "improvement"

"So, really focused on our improvement individually and as a team, and that's something that we can do today," Vrabel continued on Tuesday. "You look at the O-line, and we talk about them and their ability to play together as a unit. There are so many combination blocks that they are involved in, and we have to be better. Again, five O-linemen have to be able to sustain a line of scrimmage, and I just walked into that meeting room and said, 'How do we improve? How do we improve our combination blocks?' We are not asking you to block everybody 1-on-1. So, I think we all have areas that we can improve on, and that includes the coaches."

As NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk pointed out, chatter about the previously mentioned scandal will be but a memory during the 2026 season unless The Athletic publishes the results of its internal investigation of Russini and/or Russini tells her story via either an interview or a written piece. For now, it seems like Vrabel has mastered dancing around any Russini-related questions.