ESPN won’t comment on whether it will be reviewing the reporting of former ESPN (and The Athletic) reporter Dianna Russini, given the photos published last week of Russini with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel in March 2020. That won’t stop others from reviewing her reporting as to matters relating to Vrabel’s team at the time.
As it relates to the 2021 trade that sent receiver Julio Jones from the Falcons to the Titans, it’s fair to wonder whether the reporting was calculated to help Tennessee secure the player under the most favorable terms.
Tony Farmer, who has been extensively covering the situation on Twitter, has found another report that objectively merits scrutiny.
As Farmer notes, Russini reported — only four days after the March 2020 photos reportedly were taken — that the Titans were “not interested” in quarterback Tom Brady, and that they were instead focused on extending the contract of quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who had been named the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year in 2019.
While this item lacks the potential strategic benefits to the Titans of the Julio Jones reporting, it’s another bread crumb on a trail that people are now examining. And it’s fair to question whether the Titans were simply putting a positive P.R. spin on the possibility that the Brady had said “no thanks” to the Titans before the Titans created the impression that they were saying “no thanks” to Brady.
Although the 2020 negotiating window had not yet opened, rampant Brady tampering was happening. Teams were talking to him (and about him) before the official window for talking to him (or about him) had opened. It’s not unreasonable to think that, by March 15, he had crossed Tennessee off the list.
For now, it’s another piece of a puzzle that spans at least six years. And it underscores the reality that the NFL insider game isn’t about gumshoe reporting. It’s about leveraging the right relationships in order to be in position to be handed key pieces information, sometimes in ways that potentially benefit the source.
This latest nugget also helps explain ESPN’s relative silence regarding the entire story. ESPN largely ignored it until it had no choice but to cover it. While some have suggested it’s a result of the NFL’s recent acquisition of a 10-percent stake in ESPN, it’s possible ESPN doesn’t want to face the question of what it knew, and when it knew it.
In the aftermath of the April 7 publication by the New York Post of photos featuring Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and NFL reporter Dianna Russini at a resort in Arizona, Vrabel has become the subject of a search for any existing images. And for the discovery of any new ones.
The Post has obtained photographs of Vrabel in the Salt Lake City airport. Per the report, the photos were taken on Saturday. He was alone at the time, shopping in one of the stores in the terminal.
Saturday, of course, was the third day of the draft. Vrabel announced last week that he’d be absent from the draft room for “counseling, starting this weekend.” On Saturday, ESPN reported that he’d be in “constant contact” with the Patriots during the third day of the draft, before retracting it.
As of early 2025, Vrabel owned a home in Park City, Utah.
We’ll defer any speculation or guesswork to others. The facts are the facts, if the facts as reported by the Post are accurate. The biggest takeaway is that Vrabel — who is very hard to miss — will now have eyes (and cameras) on him wherever he goes. Until the current situation dissolves to background noise, if then.
The Patriots released wide receiver John Jiles and tight end Marshall Lang on Monday, the team announced.
Jiles, 25, spent the past two seasons on the New England practice squad, and he signed a futures contract with the Patriots on Feb. 10. He has never played a regular-season game.
Jiles entered the NFL as a rookie free agent in 2024, signing with the Giants.
Lang, 24, had two stints on the New England practice squad last season, and he also spent time on the Seahawks’ practice squad.
Lang entered the NFL as a rookie free agent out of Northwestern in 2025, signing with the Seahawks. Seattle released him out of the preseason.
He appeared in 47 games during his college career and finished with 48 receptions for 491 yards and four touchdowns.
On Saturday, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel wasn’t with the team for the third day of the draft. On Monday, Vrabel is back with the team.
Via Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston, Vrabel has returned to work with the Patriots.
It ends the chapter but doesn’t close the book on the controversy that erupted 20 days ago. Based on things Vrabel said during a pair of short media appearances last week, it’s possible that he’ll be absent again for counseling in the coming days and weeks.
And the decision not to be present for rounds four through seven of the selection process continues to be unusual, to say the least. It’s a fairly important day on the offseason calendar. Also, it was a Saturday.
Why not Monday? As in this Monday, after the dust settled on the final day of the draft and the mad scramble for undrafted free agents. As Patriots V.P. of player personnel Eliot Wolf said last week, Vrabel is a “tremendous recruiter.” The Patriots didn’t have those skills available to them when trying to extract commitments from players who weren’t going to be drafted.
Overall, the story itself has died down. The Patriots and Vrabel have stopped creating new developments that demand coverage. Neither the New York Post nor TMZ have published new reports or photos in recent days.
Even if the parties involved provide no further short-term oxygen, there’s always a chance something else will happen. And even if nothing else happens, it’s a situation that won’t quickly be forgotten — and that will hover over the Patriots for the balance of the offseason.
Last year, North Carolina G.M. Mike Lombardi crowed that the Tar Heels were the NFL’s 33rd franchise. The other 32 had no interest in any of their draft-eligible players.
None of the players from the first year of the Bill Belichick tenure at Chapel Hill were among the 257 draft picks from the 2026 selection process.
None. As in not one. And they arrived in time to take advantage of the transfer portal to find one-year players who would then exit for the NFL. Given that it was too late to put together a strong class of incoming freshmen, they were even more likely to seek and find established players.
That was the basic problem with the program in 2025. They didn’t have enough good players. And it was Lombardi’s job to find them.
Between finding them and coaching them up, Belichick and company didn’t do enough to get any of them drafted.
