INDIANAPOLIS — In a recent meeting involving the Patriots’ braintrust, Mike Vrabel veered from the topic at hand to address something that’s been top of mind from the day he was hired.

A weakness he watched fester from afar last season. Not a roster hole, nor a talent issue, but a crippling football problem nonetheless.

A lack of toughness.

At the combine, the Patriots are now running every interview and meeting to remake themselves in Vrabel’s image. To find tough, smart players who can fit his vision of a hardy, if not nasty, football team that won’t get pushed around.

Yes, that means refortifying their offensive and defensive lines, which would have been non-negotiable offseason to-dos even if Jerod Mayo had remained as head coach. But almost more than replenishing their talent pool, Vrabel wants the organization to return to its roots as he knew them; roots he helped set and tend as a player.

At the combine, Vrabel has impressed upon some around the league he thinks the Patriots briefly lost their way as a franchise. And he knows he can light a path to winning football because he’s done it before – even at his old team’s expense.

The Titans were always tough under Vrabel, even clobbering Bill Belichick and Tom Brady over a 24-point upset in his first season as head coach, then again the next year to end the Brady era in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. The Patriots had more talent, more experience, more of virtually everything in both matchups. It didn’t matter.

Tennessee won, reached the AFC Championship Game weeks later and captured the No. 1 seed in the AFC two seasons after that. Vrabel later got fired because the Titans leaked too much talent in his final years and never found a quarterback. Now, Vrabel has one in Drake Maye, plus a league-leading $127.7 million in cap space to put players around him.

The Patriots you saw last will not be the Patriots you see next.

“I think what the roster looks like today is going to be vastly different than what it looks like in the end of August,” Vrabel said this week. “We’ve got a lot of time. The fit – the players will determine their role just like we always say. How hard they work, what they’re willing to do to help us, how many positions they’re willing to play, their versatility, so we’ve got a lot of time for that.”

Free agency should allow the Patriots to restock their offensive line in a way they failed to last year. Players like Chukwuma Okorafor, who left the team after one game, won’t be counted as building blocks for Vrabel. Whether it’s Ronnie Stanley, Alaric Jackson or Dan Moore, who knows.

But the next tackles and guards will be tougher. Physical. Violent. Same with the defensive line.

Defensively, the Patriots are pivoting to a new, attacking front under defensive coordinator Terrell Williams. The front office has been seeking smaller defensive tackles to replace the Patriots’ traditional two-gapping run-stoppers like Davon Godchaux, who received permission to seek a trade this week. As for a possible replacement, Williams has a simple way of describing the type of player he’s seeking.

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“I don’t know any other way to explain it other than we’re looking for violent players,” he said earlier this offseason. “That’s just what it has to be.”

Regardless of how free agency unfolds, signs currently point to Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham or LSU offensive tackle Will Campbell as the Patriots’ likely targets with the No. 4 overall pick, provided Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter comes off the board beforehand. Graham and Campbell play with the kind of ferocity and toughness Vrabel wants, not to mention would fill positional needs. Carter and Graham both met formally with the Patriots this week, described their interviews as positive and said Vrabel left a distinct impression.

“Very serious, very upfront guy. Like, he’s all about his business, which is what I like,” Carter said. “He was really straightforward with me.”

Other first-round prospects who met with Vrabel, like Marshall edge rusher Mike Green, likely won’t be in consideration at fourth overall. But they, too, have learned that what Vrabel wants from his next players goes beyond replacing all the talent the Patriots have lost, but their identity, as well.

“He’s a great guy. He played on the Patriots, so he’s committed to the process,” Green said. “He definitely shows the same amount of culture that the team has in players that he wants.”