A week ago, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said the team planned to move fast with its head-coaching search.

Now, Mike Vrabel is doing the same as he builds out his coaching staff.

During a Monday morning interview on WEEI, Vrabel said the Patriots planned to begin speaking with prospective assistants that same day. One of Vrabel’s most important hires will be offensive coordinator, a position recent reports have connected to former Patriots assistant Josh McDaniels and Browns tight ends coach Tommy Rees, among others. Vrabel crossed paths with Rees last year in Cleveland, when he worked for the Browns in a hybrid coaching/consulting role.

On Monday, Vrabel confirmed that McDaniels, whom he worked with as a Patriots player in the 2000s and later competed against as a head coach and coordinator, is on his list of candidates.

“Yeah, it’s a long list,” Vrabel told The Greg Hill Show. “There’s a long list and, you know — I’ve had a relationship with Josh, and I’ve had relationships with other offensive coaches and defensive coaches that we’re going to interview and want to bring in here.”

McDaniels, who hasn’t coached in the NFL since being fired by the Raiders midway through the 2023 season, previously worked as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator from 2006-2008, then again from 2012-2021. He started with the organization as a low-level assistant in 2001, Vrabel’s first year in New England, and won six Super Bowls over his two stints with the Patriots.

Rees just finished his second season in the NFL. He joined the Browns last offseason as a pass game specialist and tight ends coach under new coordinator Ken Dorsey. That followed one year as the offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama and three  seasons working in the same position at Notre Dame.

Rees originally broke into the coaching ranks by spending a year at Northwestern University, then the Chargers in 2016 before jumping back to Notre Dame, his alma mater, as the Fighting Irish’s quarterbacks coach from 2017-2019.

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Per league rules, the Patriots must interview at least two external, minority and/or female candidates for vacant coordinator positions and one minority and/or female candidate to be their next quarterbacks coach.

Vrabel shared Monday he started his week with an hours-long meeting with Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf. Together, Vrabel said, they covered the team’s coaching staff, personnel department and roster. It’s possible Vrabel will retain some assistants already on staff, particularly those who were holdovers from the Bill Belichick era or otherwise had experience in a Belichick-style program.

Vrabel, however, did not give a timeline on when he expects to have his coaching staff assembled.

“It’s a long process. It’s one that, you know, will go out (for) a few weeks. It could go out longer than that, right?” Vrabel said. “It’s always delicate when you have teams that are continuing to play in the playoffs, potentially the movement that could occur with coaches on other staffs and related to their contracts. So it’s not as cut and dry as, ‘Hey, these guys are gonna walk in tomorrow, and we’re gonna have a full staff.’”