Training camp 2026 is under way at Gillette Stadium with the veterans reporting and the entire roster taking part in pre-camp conditioning tests.
The boss, Mike Vrabel, stepped to the microphone for his first press conference of the preseason and wiped the slate clean from 2025’s run to the Super Bowl.
A new journey has begun
His first point of business? Vrabel made it clear that readying this roster for the season is on him and his coaches.
“We all have to build a team, and I have to do my best to prepare us to win,” said Vrabel on Friday morning.
“We’re going to start tomorrow by building and teaching, and going out the next day and be sure we get it fixed. The kind of football team I want to create is one that doesn’t make excuses, that doesn’t care what the environment is.
“A lot of things are going to come up. My job is to make sure that we’re prepared for whatever does happen.”
Plenty to worry about from the start
Questions remain, of course.
Will Christian Gonzalez get a contract and will he practice when the first open season is held on Saturday morning?
Will second-round pick Gabe Jacas, the only non-quarterback in the draft to not have signed a contract yet, be available to the club to help ease the potential lack of talent at edge rusher?
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But Vrabel has upwards of healthy, happy 90 bodies in camp to begin molding into a football team. And that, for the coach who turned a 4-13 team into a 14-3 AFC champion in just one season, is all he needs to focus on right now.
“We learned how to win (last year), but the journey we are getting ready to go on is not always going to be smooth sailing,” said Vrabel. “We’d love to say we’re going to win 10 games in a row. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but there’s going to be things on the field that we are going to have to deal with. There will be things off the field, personally, professionally, but that’s what we do.”
