Mike Vrabel was one of the most shocking coaches to not get hired during the 2024 NFL cycle.
While it made sense — as weird as it sounds for the GOAT to not get hired by an NFL team after winning 6 Super Bowls — Bill Belichick is known for demanding full control and hasn’t done a whole lot of winning since Tom Brady left.
As for Vrabel on the other hand, that stands as one of the stranger developments of this cycle that he’s currently sitting without a job. The 48-year-old was fired by the Titans back on Jan. 9 after a 6-11 season in Nashville. However, Vrabel was instantly looked at as a top head-coaching candidate this cycle even with his tenure in Tennessee running its course.
Vrabel interviewed with some teams, including the Panthers, Falcons and Chargers, but all of them went in different directions. As for Washington, the Commanders did not seem interested in bringing Vrabel aboard by all accounts and opted for Dan Quinn. So what gives?
It feels like teams may look back on this year’s hiring cycle and regret not bringing the longtime Tennessee Titans coach in for 2024.
Mike Vrabel is 54-45 in his six seasons as the head coach for the Titans, 2-3 in the playoffs, won Coach of the Year in 2021 and won the AFC South division twice. Certainly, that résumé should warrant more buzz than he received.
Well, the answer could simply be that things didn’t fall correctly into place for him on multiple fronts.
Let’s look at the teams that interviewed Mike Vrabel.
The Chargers decided to go with Jim Harbaugh, who was arguably the top head-coaching candidate this cycle, so it’s hard to argue with their decision there. While the Falcons went with a defensive-minded head coach in their search, Raheem Morris may have had the edge over Vrabel due to his familiarity with ownership coaching for the franchise from 2015-2020.
Meanwhile, the Panthers decided to hire an offensive-minded coach in former Bucs OC Dave Canales to try and get Bryce Young on a positive track in his development. Vrabel came up through the coaching ranks as a defensive coordinator and, outside of his two seasons with Arthur Smith as his OC in 2019 and 2020, the Titans offense has ranked in the bottom third of the league in points per game and total yards per game during his tenure. For a franchise like Carolina that desperately needs to boost its offense, Vrabel’s fit didn’t make much sense.
Finally, the wild card for Mike Vrabel was the New England Patriots, who he played for from 2001 to 2009. After they parted ways with Belichick, he was looked at as a logical replacement, but the franchise opted to go with its in-house option of Jerod Mayo. When you lay it out, the stars didn’t exactly align for Vrabel on multiple fronts during this cycle.
The biggest second-guess out of the teams that made a coaching hire could arguably be the Commanders. They hired Quinn, who comes over as a defensive-minded coach. While he led Dallas to a top-ranked defense in the league over the last few years and was successful as a former head coach (taking the Falcons to Super Bowl LI), you can make the case that Vrabel is the better coach.
Mike Vrabel Scared NFL Teams During Coaching SearchBecause ‘He’s A Very Large Human’ According To Report
There are obviously several factors that play into a coaching decision, but a report from NFL Insider Dianna Russini almost didn’t sound real as to one of the reasons teams opted to steer clear from Vrabel.
When asked about the Vrabel situation at the Senior Bowl, Russini gave one of the strangest factors ever that went into the decision for teams not hiring him.
“I don’t think there was a fit for him. I don’t think he sat in front of any owner who thought that his style was going to work for what they were looking for…I had a GM at the Senior Bowl who mentioned to me Vrabel’s physical build. That he’s a very large human being. And can be very intimidating to people in an organization that are going to be part of these decisions. And that is a factor.”
Mike Vrabel’s physical build and being a “very large human” really scared NFL owners and GMs away from hiring him. These are men who work around massive NFL humans on a daily basis, but apparently they don’t want a physically gifted, really good head coach running their team.