Mike Vrabel: I tell Drake Maye and our defense, QBs who stay in bounds get hit

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel says he loved the hit linebacker Christian Elliss put on Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart on Monday night. And Vrabel knows what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Vrabel said on WEEI that he also tells Patriots quarterback Drake Maye that quarterbacks are fair game when they're running along the sideline if they don't get out of bounds. Elliss drilled Dart while he was still inbounds, and it was the kind of good, clean legal hit that Vrabel knows his own quarterback will take if he doesn't protect himself by stepping out of bounds.

"We show that to Drake and our defenders are being coached the same way," Vrabel said. "When I say [to Maye], 'We better not get cute over there by the sideline because this is legal,' I turn around and tell the defense, 'If this is happening, we need to try to knock the shit out of him as legally as possible.'"

The Patriots’ defense hit Dart hard multiple times, and Vrabel loved to see that.

"I thought it was good. I thought it was excellent," Vrabel said. "If you're in bounds and you're not sliding . . . If there's a football player running down the sideline we're gonna have to hit him."