Vrabel explains why he kept playing Stevenson after Patriots RB’s fumbles

When Rhamondre Stevenson went via his fumbling struggles early within the common season, Mike Vrabel felt he had a accountability to let the Patriots working again play his manner out of these errors based mostly on his earlier work.

In an interview with CBS Sports’ Bill Cowher, Vrabel defined he had given Stevenson one other probability due to the way in which Stevenson protected his teammates previous to the 2025 season.

“These are errors. These aren’t acutely aware choices. These had been errors,” Vrabel advised Cowher. “You may coach errors. You may repair errors. You may coach issues. And Rhamondre, I at all times stated watching again from the movie from earlier than I obtained right here, there was no one who protected the quarterback or his teammates greater than Rhamondre.

“So, yup, it’s simple to focus on the man that fumbled. However there’s additionally lots of situations early on the place guys weren’t defending the man with the ball. I feel it’s my job to verify on the subject of each case, you attempt to deal with guys the way in which they deal with the workforce.”

Vrabel didn’t point out any examples of Stevenson defending the quarterback or his teammates in his interview with Cowher. Nonetheless, Stevenson has acquired sturdy marks for his blocking skill. Professional Soccer Focus gave him a 70.5 cross blocking grade this season and a 72.7 cross blocking grade in 2023.

Stevenson also took accountability for his fumbling woes in September after he misplaced two essential fumbles within the Patriots’ Week 3 loss to the Steelers. On the time, Stevenson had 5 misplaced fumbles for the reason that begin of the 2024 season, which was essentially the most within the league.

Stevenson has been fairly protecting of the ball since that Week 3 loss. He’s solely fumbled as soon as since then and hasn’t fumbled in any of his final 11 video games.

There was one event, although, the place Vrabel wasn’t happy with the way Stevenson was carrying the ball. He known as out the working again for the way in which he bumped into the top zone for a landing within the Patriots’ Week 7 win over the Titans.

However that is perhaps the one blemish Stevenson has had over the previous few months. He has 619 yards of whole offense over the Patriots’ final six video games, including six touchdowns over that stretch.

So, Vrabel’s religion in Stevenson has been rewarded. That isn’t a shock to the Patriots’ head coach, although, as he advised Cowher, who coached Vrabel when he was with the Steelers, that he felt the workforce was going to depend on Stevenson in some unspecified time in the future this season as they put together to play the Broncos within the AFC Championship Recreation.

“I felt like that was one thing the place we had been going to want Rhamondre. We had been going to want his skillset,” Vrabel stated. “We had been going to want his safety. We had been going to want his ball manufacturing and all the pieces else. Plenty of examples, and I attempt to do what I really feel like is true on the time.””