Heading into 2025, the New England Patriots will look to new head coach Mike Vrabel to turn things around after a disastrous 2024 season. And on Sunday, he made one of his first big moves as head coach by deciding not to bring back a beloved assistant from the past regime.
After a 16-year NFL career where he earned ten Pro Bowl honors as a special teams gunner, Matthew Slater was brought in by former Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo to serve as a special assistant on the Patriots coaching staff.
Given his reputation as potential the greatest special teams player of all time, it certainly makes sense that Mayo and most coaches would want someone like Slater around in an assistant role.
However, Vrabel seemingly doesn’t want any holdovers from the past coaching staff in New England. According to Mike Reiss of ESPN.com, Slater’s position won’t carry over to the new regime under Mike Vrabel.
It’s interesting to see Vrabel decide not to carry Slater’s position over from the past season. Particularly because Slater was far more than just your average special teams coach.
During an recent appearance with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye recently called Slater a key mentor during his rookie season, outlining how Slater helped him in “all aspects of life” throughout his rookie season.
Given how important Maye is to the future of the Patriots organization, it sure seems like Maye would have been in favor of keeping Slater if he had any say in the matter.
Instead, Vrabel will be doing things his way without any assistance from past Patriots coaches from when he wasn’t yet in town.
It will be interesting to see whether Slater’s absence this coming season will play any role in the Patriots next season. Who knows, maybe without Slater’s presence Maye takes a step back as he enters his sophomore season in the NFL.
Either way, Vrabel clearly has a plan in place to help turn the Patriots organization around. Even if that doesn’ include Matthew Slater…
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.