For the Patriots, This Coaching Search Was Always Going to End With Mike Vrabel
After a hasty (and perhaps disingenuous) coaching search, the Patriots have hired Vrabel. Now it’s up to the former New England linebacker to build the team around Drake Maye and lead the Patriots back to prominence.
One of the last times Mike Vrabel coached in New England came in the playoffs after the 2019 season, when his Titans team eliminated the Patriots from the playoffs in the wild-card round, in what was ultimately Tom Brady’s final game as a Patriot. With a little under seven minutes to play and holding a one-point lead, Vrabel used one of Bill Belichick’s tricks against him. Before punting, the Titans took a delay-of-game penalty, then committed a false start, and then committed a neutral zone infraction to burn nearly two minutes of the game clock—without the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that would have come if the Titans had merely committed back-to-back delays of game.
Belichick was livid, probably because Vrabel’s trick hurt New England’s chances to come back but also because Vrabel was getting cheeky with a tactic Belichick helped (perhaps unintentionally) expose. Earlier that season, Belichick had pulled the same trick against the Jets while up 33-0, calling the strategy a “loophole.” On the visitor’s sideline, Vrabel had the faintest hint of a smirk.
The move worked. The Patriots’ final possession in the game came with 15 seconds left on the clock and no timeouts. It ended when Brady threw a game-sealing pick-six to Titans safety Logan Ryan, a former Patriot, which turned out to be Brady’s last throw in New England. Vrabel walked out of Gillette Stadium a winner, and the Patriots, for the most part, have been in the wilderness ever since.
Now, it’s Vrabel’s job to lead them out of it. The former Patriots linebacker was hired Sunday as New England’s 16th head coach, just a week after team owner Robert Kraft fired Vrabel’s former teammate Jerod Mayo, who held the job as Belichick’s successor for just one season. But as much as Vrabel’s relationships in New England helped make him the Patriots’ top choice for the job, he’s the right one because he’s proved that he’s the rare coach with ties to that former dynasty who refuses to live in Belichick’s shadow.
Kraft clearly wanted Vrabel for the job. It’s possible that Vrabel’s availability was a factor in the haste with which Mayo was ultimately fired, a move that was considered unlikely late into the regular season. This deal was finalized so quickly in large part because the Patriots interviewed only three other candidates—Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, and former Texans offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton.
The rush was a tough look. Both Leftwich and Hamilton haven’t coached in the NFL since 2022. Both are trying to get back in, but neither was widely considered likely to get a head coaching job this cycle, which leaves the impression that the Patriots interviewed the two Black candidates merely to satisfy the Rooney Rule when they’d already made up their minds. The Patriots tried to interview a third Black candidate, Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, but he denied their request, presumably because he didn’t view New England as a legitimate opportunity. That’s unfortunate, especially since the Patriots were criticized for skirting the rule last offseason when they elevated Eliot Wolf to their de facto general manager spot.
Ultimately, Vrabel was the right choice. And since he was a popular candidate—Vrabel also interviewed with the Jets and the Bears and had reported interest from at least two of the remaining three teams with openings (the Saints and Jaguars)—the Patriots had an incentive to move fast.
Yes, the Patriots know Vrabel. But he wanted them, too—Vrabel reportedly told Brady, now a part owner of the Raiders, that it was a waste of time to try to woo him to Las Vegas since he was bound for New England. He won three Super Bowls with the Patriots and has a clear fondness for the organization. In 2023, Vrabel unintentionally irked Titans ownership when he was back in New England getting inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame and told fans that “it’s not like this everywhere.”
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Even though Vrabel can give the Krafts and Patriots fans all the warm, nostalgic fuzzies, he’s not simply some extension of the Patriot Way. He represents a departure from the Patriots system that has grown stale in recent years. He played under Belichick but isn’t a branch of his coaching tree. He was never part of Belichick’s staff, starting his coaching career at Ohio State, his alma mater, in 2011. Vrabel coached linebackers in Columbus before spending four seasons with the Houston Texans, after which he got the head coaching job in Tennessee. Vrabel went 54-45 in six years with the Titans, leading Tennessee to three playoff appearances and two wins.
That experience as an NFL head coach, as the Patriots are coming off of a season in which Mayo and his staff looked woefully green, is a critical quality that likely made Vrabel more appealing to Kraft than, say, Johnson, who has never held the top job (though his offensive talents could have potentially helped quarterback Drake Maye). In Tennessee, Vrabel ran his team with some Belichick-ian hard-assery—he showed lowlight reels in meetings and called out players in front of their teammates. But he also coached with a signature empathy.
The biggest question facing Vrabel now is what he’ll do at offensive coordinator. The Patriots fired Alex Van Pelt along with Mayo. Van Pelt’s play calling was criticized regularly in 2024, but he did oversee Maye’s excellent rookie season, in which the 22-year-old quarterback showed impressive development. Finding someone who can continue that development—hopefully with better scheme and game management, too—is critical, particularly as Maye will likely need to learn a new offensive scheme.
Vrabel is reportedly interested in former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. After spending last season as a consultant on Kevin Stefanski’s staff in Cleveland, Vrabel could also look at Browns passing game specialist and tight ends coach Tommy Rees. There is also a possible connection to Rams tight ends coach and passing game coordinator Nick Caley, a former Patriots assistant who interviewed for New England’s offensive coordinator job last offseason before choosing to stay in Los Angeles.
Vrabel will also have to solidify his personnel department—and his relationship with it. Wolf is remaining in his role, though Vrabel is reportedly bringing Giants personnel adviser Ryan Cowden, who worked with him in Tennessee, along with him to New England. Power struggles with Titans general managers Jon Robinson and Ran Carthon impacted Vrabel’s tenure in Tennessee, so expect him to take those dynamics seriously. The Patriots are entering a pivotal offseason in which they’ll control the fourth pick in the draft and have more than $100 million in salary cap room to use in free agency. Those resources are essential to surround Maye with talent and for Vrabel to put his stamp on the roster—based on his time in Tennessee, likely with big-bodied players with a reputation for toughness.
Given how badly the Patriots bungled their initial Belichick succession plan, Vrabel’s hiring is a bit of a coup. He’s pretty much everything they could wish for: an experienced head coach with franchise ties who still knows how to be himself. Maybe the dynasty isn’t done paying off after all.
