FOXBORO – Sometime after he was hired last January, Mike Vrabel sat inside a windowless room at Patriots headquarters with his new offensive staff.

There was Josh McDaniels, the prodigal Patriot, back again as offensive coordinator.

And then there was everyone else: all the assistants Vrabel had hired for him, none of whom had ever worked with McDaniels before or coached his system.

It was a diverse group; from Todd Downing, Vrabel’s old offensive coordinator in Tennessee, to Thomas Brown, a one-time rising star who had just been run out of Chicago as the interim head coach, and perhaps a new rising star in Ashton Grant, a young ex-Browns assistant turned quarterbacks coach.

Soon enough, these strangers began to piece together an answer to the question that would decide not only their

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