Mike Vrabel addresses apparent shot at Patriots' backups after preseason win over Eagles

As Ben Volin of the Boston Globe shared, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel raised eyebrows when he said following his team's 24-21 preseason win over the Philadelphia Eagles this past Saturday that he does "not think we have a very deep team." 

Understandably, some wondered if Vrabel was sending a message to Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf about the overall state of the New England roster coming off the club's Super Bowl loss to the Seattle Seahawks in February. Per Mike Reiss of ESPN, Vrabel expanded on his mindset during a Monday appearance on local sports radio station WEEI.

Patriots still need "to find some guys" to be solid backups?

"We are the front office," Vrabel said. "We are all making the decisions. We're all included in this. It was about the young guys we have to develop. You can see that the players we kept out of the game, those are the guys. And we have to be able to find some guys behind them to be backups, to be the first guy in ... those are the things that we are trying to develop, and I guess that's what I was referencing."

The Patriots bolstered a passing attack that features 2025 MVP finalist Drake Maye by acquiring wide receivers Romeo Doubs and A.J. Brown during the offseason. That said, New England was among clubs that had been linked with big-name pass-rushers such as Maxx Crosby and Jadeveon Clowney. There's no indication the Las Vegas Raiders will trade Crosby this summer, and Clowney is now with the Houston Texans.

Maye, Brown and other New England starters haven't played in a preseason game. It's unclear if that will change when the Patriots end the preseason with a matchup at the Cleveland Browns.

Mike Vrabel has no "issues" with the Patriots this summer? 

"These aren't issues. I'm not in a subtle context -- that wasn't that," Vrabel said during Monday's interview. "They asked why we didn't play the guys, and [the answer is] we have to have everybody we have available and then continue to develop and see some guys that went out and played like they did on Saturday night to build that depth."

As for why Vrabel thinks the Patriots are not a deep team, he noted that "we have to continue to draft very well" in future years. 

"We have to continue to develop those late-round picks, the guys we can find that can be interior offensive linemen, that can be special teams linebackers...edge guys that you can develop that maybe haven't played necessarily this 3-4 defense in the past but that you're developing," Vrabel added.

As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Patriots tied for fifth among the betting favorites at +1600 odds to win Super Bowl LXI. New England will open the regular season with a Super Bowl LX rematch at the Seahawks on Sept. 9.