Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will miss the third day of the draft to participate in counseling, given the recent controversy that continues to reverberate throughout the league.
After the Patriots made their first-round pick on Thursday night, V.P. of player personnel Eliot Wolf met with reporters. He was eventually asked about Vrabel’s absence, and how things will work without Vrabel in the room.
“I just refer to the statement,” Wolf said. “That’s a personal thing that Mike’s dealing with and going through, and obviously we support him. As far as the work is concerned on Saturday, not too worried about that. Just as far as the process that we have in place, the people that we have in place. And it’s going to be different without his presence there, but we feel really good about the people that we have in place to make up for it.”
Wolf also was asked what the organization will be missing, without Vrabel.
“The stability of him as a person, some of the leadership, some of the presence,” Wolf said. “He does a nice job for us with the undrafted players. Obviously, he’s a tremendous recruiter, so that’s maybe something that we’ll be missing. But again, we’re very confident in the people we have with the process. The assistant coaches have done a tremendous job, as have the scouts, preparing for day three. And we’re excited about it.”
Wolf said that he’ll be able to contact Vrabel if necessary. Wolf will have final say on the picks made.
As it relates to undrafted players, the absence of Vrabel becomes a potentially significant wrinkle. Someone else will need to fill his role as a “tremendous recruiter,” underscoring the impact of Vrabel not being with the team during the scramble for rookies who aren’t among those who are drafted.
Patriots Clips
ESPN had largely ignored the Mike Vrabel situation, for most of the 16 days since it emerged. By Thursday, it had become something no one could ignore.
It wasn’t ignored when ESPN draft host Mike Greenberg interviewed Commissioner Roger Goodell before the start of the first round of the draft.
“This is not a Personal Conduct Policy [situation], as we know of today,” Goodell said. “It’s a personal matter, and we’ll leave it at that.”
“Is that the kind of thing that typically you would talk with the team about if the Patriots seem to be handling that?” Greenberg asked.
“The teams handle these matters when they’re matters when their personal matters, and they handle it,” Goodell said. “They have a lot more information that can benefit everyone involved.”
Goodell left the door open by adding the words “as we know of today.” Further evidence (and plenty has been emerging) could change what the league knows in the future.
The NFL has previously said it’s not reviewing the situation under the Personal Conduct Policy. The policy contains a catch-all provision prohibiting “[c]onduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL clubs, or NFL personnel.” That’s obviously very broad.
Again, there could be more evidence. At some point, Dianna Russini (formerly of ESPN and The Athletic) could decide to tell her story. Depending on the story she tells, it could prompt the league to take a closer look at the situation.
That seems unlikely, for now. She has issued multiple denials of anything improper, both in response to the initial batch of photos published by the New York Post and in her resignation letter from The Athletic. More recently, she has deleted her Twitter account.
The Titans went offense at No. 4 in round one. That had to be a hard thing for coach Robert Saleh to do.
He ultimately got a defensive player by trading back into the first round.
The Patriots had traded No. 31 to the Bills, who traded No. 31 to the Titans. Who took Auburn edge rusher Keldric Faulk.
He’s a guy who could get plenty of one-on-one opportunities, given that defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons continues to be a dominant player.
To get pick No. 31, the Titans gave up pick No. 35, No. 66, and No. 101. They got back pick No. 69 and No. 165.
After the 28th overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft was traded twice, the Patriots ended up with it and selected Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu.
It’s the second straight year the Patriots have taken an offensive tackle in the first round, as they continue to prioritize protecting quarterback Drake Maye.
Lomu joins last year’s first-round pick, Will Campbell, in what the Patriots hope will be their pair of starting tackles for years to come.
The 28th pick originally belonged to the Texans, who traded it to the Bills, and the Bills then traded it to the Patriots. New England hopes that the music stopped with an offensive tackle who will start for the Patriots for years to come.
For NFL insiders who break transactional news in real time, the Twitter account is their most important tool.
Dianna Russini, who covered the NFL for The Athletic, has now deleted her Twitter account.
She had posted only two items since the photos with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel emerged 16 days ago. The first, a seemingly innocuous trial balloon passing along an article about the ongoing labor fight between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association, was a disaster; the replies were overrun with toxic and hateful content.
Five days later, she posted her resignation letter on Twitter, with the replies turned off.
In multiple statements made this week, Vrabel sharply contradicted her claim that the photos reveal nothing improper. In her resignation letter, she referred to the situation as “attacks” against her, and she complained that, “unfortunately, commentators in various media have engaged in self-feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts.”
She said she was resigning “not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career.”
Given that any reporter’s career hinges on objectivity and credibility, it will be very difficult for her to resume that role, in any capacity. The deletion of her Twitter account could at some level be an acknowledgement of this reality.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel made a hastily scheduled appearance in front of reporters at the team’s facility on Thursday evening to discuss his decision to step away from the team for the final day of the draft in order to go into counseling.
Vrabel made the announcement of that plan on Wednesday night amid the continued fallout from the publication of multiple sets of photos showing him and former The Athletic reporter Dianna Russini in social settings over the last six years. Vrabel did not address any details of their relationship, but said that his “previous actions don’t meet the standard that I hold myself to.”
“I take accountability for my actions and the actions that caused a distraction to the people that I care most about: my family, football team, the organization and our fans. . . . my family needs me this weekend and that’s where I’ll be,” Vrabel said.
Vrabel said he will continue working “however long it takes” on the “necessary steps” to give his family and the team the “best version” of himself.
Vrabel previously addressed reporters on Tuesday, but did not take any questions on the topic. He took a few questions on Thursday, including one that asked about the change of tone from his initial response calling it “laughable” to draw any inappropriate conclusions about his relationship with Russini. Vrabel referenced an “attempt to protect” his family while referring to it as a “private and personal matter.”
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel has been at the top of the headlines in the hours leading up to the 2026 NFL Draft and he’s sure to remain there as things get underway in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
The Patriots announced that Vrabel will address the media from the team’s facility around 7:20 p.m. ET. The draft’s official start time is 8 p.m. ET.
Vrabel announced on Wednesday night that he will not be with the team for the third and final day of the draft for counseling. The announcement came a couple of weeks after Page Six published pictures of Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini — who has since resigned from The Athletic — spending time together at a resort in Arizona. Both of them released statements denying any inappropriate behavior, but Vrabel’s Wednesday announcement and a Tuesday statement about “difficult conversations with people that I care about” moved things in a different direction.
Thursday has already seen the publication of more photos of Vrabel and Russini together in different locations over a long period of time as well as a statement from the Patriots showing support for Vrabel’s “commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans.”
Vrabel’s pre-draft appearance will add more to a story that has moved front and center ahead one of the NFL’s biggest nights of the year.
Sixteen days after the story first surfaced, it has become a full-blown media feeding frenzy.
After reportedly passing on the initial photos of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini, TMZ is in on the action.
It has posted a photo of Vrabel and Russini at a Mississippi casino in January 2024, in the weeks after his firing by the Titans.
The photo itself is objectively innocuous. But TMZ adds some reporting to the image.
“A witness tells us they snapped the pic when they recognized Vrabel ... and assumed at the time that the woman by his side was his wife based on their body language,” TMZ reports. “They didn’t realize until the recent bombshell news that the lady was actually Russini.”
TMZ adds that the source “didn’t see any PDA,” but explains that “the two were quite comfortable together, drinking and chatting with other gamblers ... and when Vrabel left the roulette table to play some blackjack, Russini followed ... but sat across from him.”
The broader point is that, currently, anyone and everyone with old photos of Vrabel and Russini will be potentially tracking them down and making them available to outlets like TMZ and the New York Post. Which could lead to more and more photos being published, for as long as the story continues to have legs.
Who knows how long that will be? Already, 16 days in the current climate feels like an eternity.
The first day of the 2026 draft has been overtaken by a story that has slowly gained steam for 16 days. With Thursday’s publication of photos showing Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini together in March 2020 seeming to be, in many respects, a tipping point in the controversy, the Patriots have issued a statement of support for Vrabel.
“The New England Patriots fully support Mike Vrabel’s decision to prioritize his family first, as well as his own well-being,” the team said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. “Mike has been open with us about his commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans, and we respect the steps he is taking to follow through on that commitment.
“We are confident in the leadership and communication Mike has established with our personnel staff throughout this pre-draft process. While he will not be present at the facility on Saturday, we know the draft evaluations are complete and Eliot Wolf and his personnel staff are prepared to execute our draft as planned this weekend.”
The gesture should quiet speculation that the momentum of the overall story could be building toward something far more significant than Vrabel missing rounds four through seven of the draft. Unless and until more evidence emerges.
At this point, it’s impossible to assume it won’t. The past two weeks point to the possibility if not likelihood that it will.
A day ago, it would have been foolish to even suggest it. Now, it’s a fair question to raise and resolve.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel is expected to be in the team’s draft room tonight for the first round.
Vrabel announced early Thursday that he won’t be with the team for the third day of the draft, which consists of rounds four through seven. Instead, he’ll be attending counseling.
The statement came hours after the New York Post sought comment from Vrabel about the latest set of photos featuring Vrabel and former ESPN/Athletic reporter Dianna Russini from March 2020.
The team announced on Wednesday that Vrabel or V.P. of player personnel Eliot Wolf will be available to reporters after the Patriots make their pick in round one.
Via Mark Daniels of MassLive, Vrabel is expected to speak tonight if the Patriots make their pick. If they trade out, Wolf will speak to reporters on Friday.
