FOXBORO -- It didn't take long for Milton Williams to get a taste of how Mike Vrabel tries to motivate his players.
In the team's first week of voluntary offseason workouts, the new Patriots head coach saw his prized free-agent acquisition -- fresh off signing a four-year, $100 million contract with New England -- running at something less than 100 percent.
And Williams heard about it.
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SIGN UP HERE "We was out there running and Coach Vrabes called me out in front of everybody, which I liked," Williams told reporters on Tuesday. "He called me out and let me know, like, 'Hey, you're gonna be here, you need to set the standard.' Since then, I'm trying to make sure every day I'm coming in and try to put my best foot forward and go from there."
Williams arrived to Foxboro coming off a long season with the Eagles in their pursuit of a Super Bowl title. For Philadelphia, he was a key piece in a rotation of pass-rushers that applied pressure to opposing quarterbacks in waves.
While New England will have other talented pieces to turn to in 2025 -- like Christian Barmore (if healthy) and Keion White -- Williams has been open to the idea of playing more snaps for the Patriots than he did at his last stop.
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To do so, he'll have to push himself during his offseason conditioning, which means opening up the throttle when running with his teammates. He'll continue to train following OTAs in his home state of Texas prior to training camp, he said.
What Vrabel saw in that early-offseason run was Williams coasting to finish a timed run with additional time to spare. But instead of just getting by in the required amount of time, Vrabel pushed Williams to do more.
"Don't let them catch you," Vrabel said, according to Williams. "If you can make it faster, make it."
Williams took the demand in stride.
"I knew I was going to make it," Williams said, "but (Vrabel) wanted me to just go and just empty the tank every rep. ... Every rep since then, I just try to make sure I'm the first one back. I feel like that's going to help me, push me to where I want to be. The guys that are running with me, that's going to push them even harder."
When asked about Vrabel's prodding, Williams added: "I like that. I don't mind. I don't think I'm bigger than the next person. I don't mind being called out.
"Him calling me out is just going to help the other guys. We ain't got no excuses for nobody to not be giving their all."
Coming from the highest-paid player in the history of the organization? That has to be music to Vrabel's ears.