As he stood at the podium for his first pre-draft press conference as the coach of the New England Patriots, Mike Vrabel was asked a a simple yet complicated question.
“Mike, do you feel like there’s a tackle in this class that would be worthy of being taken at four overall?” NBC Sports’ Phil Perry asked.
The first word of Vrabel’s answer wasn’t ‘yes.’ In fact, in his 82-word response, he said there were starters at tackle in this draft, but never admitted, confirmed or even indicated there was somebody good enough to go at No. 4.