FOXBOROUGH - Whether he was a player, or now a head coach, Mike Vrabel always commanded a room.
Former Tennessee Titan Taylor Lewan was spot on when he said in a recent video that Vrabel's "stage presence is top tier for a coach."
Vrabel's introductory press conference as the New England Patriots next head coach on Monday proved the point in spades.
He was direct, succinctly outlined the Vrabel Way, along with his vision for the team and did so in a way that sent a powerful message to his players, along with those in attendance at the Sports Illustrated Pavillion.
"We're going to play with detail. We're going to play with technique. We're going to play with fundamentals," he said. "There's going to be a brand of football that everybody associated with our team or our fans is going to be proud of."
It was hard not to buy in to what Vrabel was selling.
He will get the most out of his roster. He will elevate whatever talent is in the building. He's so good at motivating, he could inspire a stone. Or, as the saying goes, charm a snake.
"I want to galvanize our football team. I want to galvanize this building," he went on. "I want to galvanize our fans."
The front office also has to do its job. Specifically, the personnel people rating and selecting talent. Like Jerod Mayo before him, Vrabel is saddled with the worst roster in the NFL.
That has to change. It behooves whoever is picking the groceries to do a better job than what's been on display the past half-dozen years.
Asked to describe what kind of players he wanted to wear a Patriot uniform to help him win, Vrabel quickly shot back: "Eliot [Wolf] is going to laugh. I'm going to say good ones."
Of late, the roster has been bereft of having more "good ones" than not.
Listening to Vrabel talk about Wolf, and how that's ultimately going to work is a bit of a mystery. Although, it's hard imagining Vrabel ceding final say on personnel.
Wolf will likely be involved through the draft, but after that, all bets are off.
"I think the most important thing is there's a shared organizational vision for what we want to do and how we want to work and how we want to acquire players, Vrabel said. "There's numerous ways to acquire players through free agency, trade, draft, post-draft process, post after training camp.
"Again, I'm just excited to sit down with Eliot and his staff. I've met more with Eliot over the weekend than I have ... I've had conversations with him, but I need to sit down with his staff and figure out where we're at, what we need to do. I'm confident that those types of decisions are all going to sort themselves out. We don't always want to be on the same page. That's not the environment we want to create. But we want to have a shared vision, and there's also different ways to get there."
Translation: Vrabel's way.
While he indicated nothing has been finalized to bring aboard Ryan Cowden, who according to one report is expected to be slotted in as the No. 2 behind Wolf, the front office is far from being set at this stage.
"Eliot and I will have conversations. As it relates to the staff, nothing's been finalized. Nothing's been determined," Vrabel said. "As with any staff, there's going to be turnover. There's going to be new coaches and new faces, some that I will have history with and some that I won't. That's what the interview process is, and that's what we're going to do, as Tom mentioned, with the coordinators and being able to sit down with a bunch of coaches and being able to get the best and the right fit around our players."
However it shakes out, the end result has to produce more talent. Vrabel will be fine squeezing every ounce out of an inferior roster.
But if the goal is to legitimately get back in the winner's circle, bringing aboard more talent, more playmakers is the key.