The New England Patriots aren’t done signing defensive players who played for head coach Mike Vrabel with the Tennessee Titans. A second linebacker was added to a changing front seven, following the arrival of Robert Spillane earlier during 2025 NFL free agency.
Spillane will be joined by Jack Gibbens, who agreed a “one-year deal” on Wednesday, March 19, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. The player who’s amassed “167 tackles over three seasons in Tennessee,” was an undrafted free agent in 2022, but caught Vrabel’s eye after time on the practice squad.
Gibbens is the third former Titans starter to move to Gillette Stadium this offseason. It’s a trio headlined by edge-rusher Harold Landry III. Like Spillane, Gibbens also fits a subtle change taking place among the linebacker corps in New England.
Jack Gibbens Adds Missing Skills to Patriots Defense
He wasn’t a regular starter, but Gibbens brings skills the Patriots have been missing defensively. Particularly at the linebacker level.
Specifically, Chad Graff of The Athletic noted “Gibbens was mostly a role player with the Titans last year (234 snaps in 10 games) but was really good in coverage.”
What Gibbens’ coverage skills represent is a shift in what the Patriots look for from their linebackers. For years, including when Vrabel won three Super Bowls with the franchise in the early 2000s, the Pats preferred big-bodied linebackers able to blitz, play downhill, take on offensive linemen and stuff the run in tight spaces.
Vrabel the head coach wants something more. Notably, greater speed and range in the open field, especially against the pass.
Coverage was an issue last season, when players like 6-foot-2, 255-pounder Jahlani Tavai ranked 156th out of 189 linebackers graded in coverage by Pro Football Focus. Tavai was one of many bulky thumpers on the 2024 roster, along with Raekwon McMillan and Ja’Whaun Bentley, but Vrabel is moving toward something different.
Sub-250 pound linebackers will now chase sideline to sideline behind a lighter, more active four-man front.
Patriots Reloading Changing Front Seven
Vrabel and new defensive coordinator Terrell Williams have been given what they need to remake the front seven. Aside from Landry, Spillane and Gibbens, the Patriots put a $104 million Super Bowl winner along the interior.
Yet another of Vrabel’s former Titans players is the template for how the Patriots will use their new main man up front. It’s another reminder the so-called ‘Patriots Way’ will increasingly resemble the way things were done in Tennessee on Vrabel’s watch.
This significant a change in defensive personnel and style may seem like overkill. After all, defense has long been a Patriots strength, even after the magic faded on offense once Tom Brady left town in 2020 and former head coach Bill Belichick became increasingly idiosyncratic.
The outlier was last season, when an apparently loaded unit failed to deliver. Identical rankings of 22nd for points and yards showed the Patriots need a change on defense.
Vrabel is delivering the changes, but he’s relying heavily on familiar faces to put his ideas into practice. That’s a risk when his final Titans defense in 2023 ranked 16th in points and 18th in yards, per Pro Football Reference.
A rebuilding Patriots program needs more than a middle-of-the-pack unit this year.
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