Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, right, poses with team owner Robert Kraft after Vrabel’s introductory press conference on Monday in Foxborough, Mass. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Mike Vrabel won three Super Bowl rings as a player for the Patriots. None of those were on his fingers on Monday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.

Vrabel had only his wedding ring on his left hand Monday as he was introduced as the new coach for the team he played eight seasons for. The 49-year-old didn’t talk about the good ol’ days of the Patriots dynasty he helped build. He never once mentioned Tom Brady and only talked about Bill Belichick when prodded. The Patriot Way? It never came up.

Vrabel came off steady, confident and prepared. After a year of Jerod Mayo constantly walking back things he said that didn’t convey his intended message, Vrabel was in control. Patriots owner Robert Kraft seemed to recognize it. Unlike last year when he was the co-headliner of Mayo’s press conference, the longtime New England owner introduced Mayo and left the spotlight all to him.

As great as the Patriots’ past is, Monday wasn’t about returning to it. Instead, Vrabel’s press conference was the first step toward establishing what he and the franchise hope will be a new era of success.

But because Vrabel was here before, there’s a natural temptation to hope his return marks a return to the recent dynastic past. But if that’s the standard, he’s going to fail. So would anyone else.

Mike Vrabel was part of three Super Bowl winners with the Patriots and is now the team’s head coach. Vrabel is not trying to live in the past, saying, “I’m not anyone other than me. I’ve taken those experiences, and I’ve tried to form what I believe is critical to the success of a football team and an organization.” Winslow Townson/Associated Press

To his credit, Vrabel gets it. He’s trying to open a new championship window by mixing lessons he learned — good and bad — from coaches he played and worked for and his own successes and failures during his six seasons as the Titans head coach.

“I’m not anyone other than me. I’ve taken those experiences, and I’ve tried to form what I believe is critical to the success of a football team and an organization,” he said. “Our goals will be to win the AFC East, to host home playoff games, and to compete for championships. That’s what it’s going to take.”

Vrabel won’t be boring his players with stories of his glory days under Belichick.

“It’s special, it’s unique having played here, knowing Bill,” he said. “We’re going to have to focus on things that are going to help us win now, help our players … I’m going to try to explain to the players: There’s things that are interesting and there’s things that are important. I think me having played for Bill is interesting, I just don’t know if it’s important to helping our players.”

He’s right.

The Patriots won six Super Bowls with the greatest quarterback in history and the greatest coach of all time. That was a unique, unreplicable stretch of history. So many of Belichick’s former assistants failed miserably as head coaches when their weak imitations of him fell short.

Vrabel recognized that long before Monday. When he was just starting his coaching career, he said he had a chance to return to New England as an assistant but chose to wade into unfamiliar waters.

“I think it was important for me to go somewhere else, to start another coaching journey,” Vrabel said. “The opportunity at one point probably presented itself to be here coaching, but I felt like it was important to forge my own path somewhere else, and if all those experiences led me back here at the right time and the right opportunity, then that was going to be what was meant to be.”

The right time has arrived.