Despite heading the worst scoring defense in the league in 2017 as the defensive coordinator of the Houston Texans, Mike Vrabel got his first head coaching opportunity in 2018. And it’s a good thing no one put too much stock in that one season as DC.
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Vrabel joined a Tennessee Titans organization that had just returned to relevance with their first playoff win in nearly a decade and a half in 2017. Mike Mularkey was winding down his coaching career and agreed to step away, opening the door for Vrabel. After another 9-7 season in 2018, Vrabel led the team on an improbable run to the AFC Championship in 2019. Two years later, a 12-5 record earned him Coach of the Year honors.
However, that triumph was followed immediately by a Divisional Round loss and two losing seasons in 2022 and 2023. While Vrabel was still seemingly one of the most reliable and respected coaches in the NFL, the Titans dismissed him under unclear circumstances.
During a recent appearance on Bussin’ With the Boys, hosted by two former Vrabel players in Taylor Lewan (2018-2022) and Will Compton (2018), the ex-HC opened up about the incident, saying he was “sh*t-canned.”
“You walk upstairs… And I just said, ‘Give me an hour, and I’ll be out of here. I just wanna talk to my staff.’ … Everybody makes decisions, and they said, ‘Any questions?’ And I said, ‘No. I got the point. I got the drift,'” Vrabel recounted.
“At that point, no, there was no discussion. I heard the message, and I just said, ‘Give me an hour, I’d like to talk to my staff and I’ll box my stuff up.'”
Before he had been fired, the common thread in reports about his status in Tennessee was that he would receive an extension and a promotion, so his dismissal came as quite a surprise.
In the end, it turned out that disagreements with owner Amy Strunk over the appointment of GM Ran Carthon, Vrabel’s control of the roster, his attendance at a Patriots Hall of Fame ceremony during Tennessee’s bye week last year, and apparent barbs aimed at Strunk and the Titans spelled the end of this marriage.
Vrabel decided to take the 2024 season off, only serving in a small consulting role with the Cleveland Browns.
When asked if there was any veracity to the rumors that he almost went the college route a year before his former coach and mentor, Bill Belichick, did it, Vrabel was adamant that there was no chance he was ever going to go down a level.
It also felt like he was waiting for a certain job—Belichick’s old job—to become available again. Jerod Mayo had been tapped by Belichick as his successor, but it seemed the Patriots establishment was just waiting for him to fail so they could go after another Patriots Super Bowl champion linebacker in Vrabel.
He said after the 2024 season ended, things started to ramp up quickly between him and the team he played for from 2001 to 2008.
“After the season, that’s when it heats up. That’s when people call… I think the timing was right, and I had an opportunity to come back here, probably prior, as an assistant. [I] didn’t think that was something that I wanted to do or that was what was best for me at that particular time. And then I think the timing was right.”
Vrabel says that he met with the Jets and Bears as well as the Patriots, and that all three were similar interviews. However, his prior history with Patriots owner Robert Kraft makes that hard to believe.
Vrabel has seemingly rebuilt the franchise into a competitive team after two seasons at the bottom of the barrel. The Titans, meanwhile, seem like they could be turning a corner with Brian Callahan at HC and No. 1 pick Cam Ward at QB. Vegas is setting the Patriots’ win total at 8.5 while Tennessee’s sits at 6.5.
Only time will tell which side came out on top following the surprising Vrabel-Titans divorce.
