Mike Vrabel is a hot name in NFL head coaching circles. The former Tennessee Titans coach has been linked to rumors surrounding the opening with the New York Jets and the potential opening in New England.
Will he finally make his return to the sidelines as a head coach? Or, will he once again wait for the perfect spot before diving back in?
Is Mike Vrabel Making His Head Coaching Return?
Mike Vrabel is apparently going to coach in the National Football League next season. The only question is where.
Vrabel, the former Titans coach, has surfaced in multiple rumors in coaching circles. He has been linked to the opening in New York with the Jets as well as potential openings with the Las Vegas Raiders and the New England Patriots.
REPORT:
Per: @tomecurran
Mike Vrabel would be interested in being the head coach for the New England Patriots. pic.twitter.com/yx0Qqih28a
— Savage (@SavageSports_) December 18, 2024
The former Patriot has a close relationship with Patriots owner Bob Kraft from all of the years he played in New England. Should Jerod Mayo get relieved of his duties after the season, Vrabel would be a perfect fit.
On Tuesday’s episode of Arbella Early Edition, Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran and The MMQB’s Albert Breer broke down Vrabel’s situation and potential link to the Patriots.
Curran says Vrabel would seriously consider returning to the team where he won three Super Bowls as a player from 2001 to 2008.
“Mike Vrabel would be interested in coaching for the New England Patriots,” Curran said. “I think that he looks at the Patriots despite the warts that they’ve shown and says, ‘I’d go back there.’
Breer added that if Vrabel were to go to a new team, he would look to bring in an entirely new regime with him.
“I think he has a real idea of what it should look like and what he would want it to look like going forward,” Breer said. “I think he’d bring a general manager with him. It’d probably be (former Titans director of player personnel) Ryan Cowden. I think he had an offensive coordinator in mind, maybe (Browns pass game specialist and tight ends coach) Tommy Rees, who’s with him in Cleveland, maybe (ex-Patriots offensive coordinator) Josh McDaniels.”
That would make things a bit more complicated for New England considering the Krafts have already brought in Eliot Wolfe. Curran shut the rumors down, claiming that his belief is that the organization continues to be infatuated with Jerod Mayo.
“Given the things that I know about how the Patriots have felt about Jerod Mayo all season long, they were so solidly in his corner that I would imagine that they have not moved out of his corner significantly enough to begin intimating that they would move on from him,” Curran said.
As for the other teams, some believe Vrabel has a deal already put in place for next season. ESPN commentator Dan Orlovsky made an appearance Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show and made it sound like Vrabel was already spoken for.
“I think he knows where he is going to be coaching next season,” Orlovsky said. “There’s a vision for where he likely ends up coaching next year.”
Orlovsky was not finished with his prognostication.
“I just think that Vrabel has probably got a very clear path with where he is likely to be coaching,” Orlovsky said.
Orlovsky said he might as well keep his mouth shut, but he didn’t. He seemed to give the story away.
Mike Vrabel is still out there..
“I think he knows where he’s likely gonna be coaching next season..
There’s a vision for where he likely ends up coaching next year” ~ @danorlovsky7 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/mf1PjjXj9m
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 17, 2024
“I think that there is a vision for where he kind of likely ends up coaching next year, OK,” Orlovsky said. “I am not a reporter. I’ve come on your show before and I said, ‘I’ve heard something’ and they get me in a lot of trouble. So I’m trying not to do that.”
ESPN has previously said Vrabel will get one of the potential seven or eight jobs that could be open next season. There are already three jobs available with the Jets, the Chicago Bears, and the New Orleans Saints.
The coaching jobs with the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New York Giants could also open up based on this season’s futility. However, Giants co-owner John Mara has gone on the record stating he does not anticipate changing coaches of the general manager this offseason.
Vrabel could also bypass the NFL and serve in the college ranks like his former coach Bill Belichick who recently became the head football coach at the University of North Carolina. Which was another idea Orlovsky pitched.
“I would never say never, because it was sort of the same with Jim Harbaugh where he said, ‘No, I’m not going back to college,’ and then the alma mater (Michigan) asked enough times that they got him,” Breer said. “And maybe things go poorly for (Ohio State) … on Saturday. But I don’t see that happening right now.
Vrabel currently serves as a personnel consultant to the Cleveland Browns.