Breaking News: The Patriots and Bill Belichick are parting ways!
Bill Belichick is out. According to multiple reports, the Patriots are expected to part ways with him after 24 seasons together.
The head coaching carousel continues to turn elsewhere, too. Not only did the Seahawks make waves on Wednesday afternoon when announcing they and Pete Carroll “amicably agreed” for him to no longer be their head coach, but Belichick’s long-time friend and coaching counterpart Nick Saban announced his retirement from the University of Alabama.
And still, the big fish on the market remains Mike Vrabel.
There is reportedly “mutual interest” between the former Titans head coach and New England.
Here are four reasons why Vrabel would be the perfect candidate to be Belichick's successor:
4 - His ability to connect with players.
“He’s the absolute best,” former Titans offensive lineman Taylor Lewan, who played under Vrabel for five seasons in Tennessee, told The Rich Eisen Show on Tuesday while finding out live on air that his former head coach had been fired. “I think they just made a big mistake.”
"Wow,” was Titans running back Derrick Henry’s reaction, via a phone call with The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. “Wow,” he continued. “I'm shocked. Coach Vrabel is a leader of men. He is a great coach and teacher. I know he will get another opportunity right away. I look forward to it."
“Appreciate you more than ever,” wrote Titans defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons on his Instagram story with a picture of he and Vrabel. “Bigger than football.”
Notice a trend? Vrabel had a clear connection with his players in Tennessee.
Now that’s not to say this is any different than what Belichick has with his players. In fact, several Patriots noted this season that they wanted to play for the head coach. Jabrill Peppers even said they let him down.
The difference here, however is that much like the once-thought-to-be New England heir apparent in Jerod Mayo, Vrabel has played the game. He’s been through the grind of a season. He understands what it takes from a player's point of view. The balance between life and football.
Some of the more successful coaches of the last several years (Dan Campbell, Kevin O’Connell, Doug Pederson, DeMeco Ryans) played. It matters, and current players gravitate towards it.
3 - He carefully embraces analytics.
While Belichick is widely considered not only the greatest head coach of all-time but also currently one of the best in-game coaches in football, his use of analytics (or lack thereof), whether that be from a sports science perspective or for in-game decision-making, has been thought to have brought his team down in recent years.
According to an article from The Athetic’s Chad Graff, Belichick once said that he uses analytics “less than zero” percent of the time when making in-game decisions, and the Patriots are one of only four NFL teams that don’t “employ a multiperson analytics and research department.”
On the flipside, Mike Vrabel has used this new-aged approach of coaching football to his advantage. Analytics can be a killer if you live and die by them, as seen with former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley, but Vrabel’s careful blend of the numbers with his instincts has boded well for the head coach:
“The thing you have to realize,” Vrabel once told Paul Kuhharsky about his use of analytics, “Is football's been using analytics forever. Now they've just been taken, I guess, to a new level. We've always used number to calculate what's the tendencies, right? If they are in this formation or this personnel group. If this guy goes into the game it's a pass 75 percent of the time. Those types of things.”
“Now,” he continued. “I think analytics are going to take us to the next step of being able to understand situations. When are the odds in your favor of going for it or kicking an onside kick, punting it, calling timeouts? But at the end of the day, those numbers have to line up with my instincts as a head coach on when to do those things. When those numbers and my instincts are in alignment, then that's when you use the numbers.”
While it’s not the end all be all, Vrabel’s openness to shift and embrace new idea could be a gamechanger for the Patriots.
2 - He’s a culture builder.
It’s undeniable that Mike Vrabel built one of the strongest cultures in the NFL over his six seasons with the Titans. You saw it through the success they had and the brand of football they played.
It was a culture that came about, according to Vrabel, in part due to his best players being his hardest workers:
“I’ve always thought that,” the coach told Scott Pioli in an interview with NFL Network this past offseason. “And I’ve always thought that I have to hold them the most accountable because of the message that it sends to the players. It’s easy to get our message across when our best players are our hardest workers and the ones that are the most engaged in meetings.”
This, of course, sounds a lot like the approach Belichick took with Tom Brady and the Patriots. The quarterback was always known as the hardest worker in Foxborough, and was a guy who, as Randy Moss pointed out, would have his “head torn off” by Belichick. No one was above the team.
“At times, of course it’s tough to play for [Vrabel],” former Titans linebacker Will Compton said on his Bussin’ with the Boys podcast on Tuesday. “But he understands what it takes to get it done… Vrabe, the way he always had everything structured, I know it was some [things] from the Patriots, some he kind of did his own thing, but he always clearly defined how you were going to win. What the standard was. What the culture was gonna be. He was never scared of any conversation. He never beat around the bush with anybody, you always knew where you stood.”
That culture resulted in plenty of winning, to my next point.
1 - He understands what it takes to win.
“We like to win,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft told ESPN’s College GameDay last month when asked what it’ll take to get his team back to the top. “So we want to do everything we can to get our team back so we can be winning it.”
If you bring in Vrabel, you’re not only getting a head coach with experience, but one who knows how to win. A characteristic he learned as a player with the Patriots.
“You don’t know what kind of culture you have until things aren’t going well,” Vrabel himself said in Tom Brady’s Man in the Arena series on ESPN+ when talking about team culture as it relates to winning. “And when you’re winning 21 games in a row, the culture looks pretty good. When you have some failure and you don’t do some things that you’re supposed to do, then you’ll define what your culture looks like and how strong it is.”
Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, and Tom Brady spoke about how the 2004-2005 Patriots challenged each other to work harder when the going got tough, proving Vrabel’s culture-building above that it starts from the top down.
“It wasn’t about the more you can do,” Bruschi explained of the attitude. “It was who could to the most.”
“You think you’re coming into the weight room at 6:30 in the morning?” Brady would say to his teammates. “I’ve already got a half hour on you. I’ve been here since six.”
“Still not doing the extra, huh?” Vrabel would say to his teammates. “I’m getting the edge on you today.” He said while it sounded cute and fun, he was also being serious.
This attitude and culture that Vrabel built with Brady and Bruschi, among others, helped lift the rest of their team up. They finished the 2004-05 campaign 14-2 and ultimately won Super Bowl XXXIX over the Philadelphia Eagles.
While it may not look it from the outside in given his 56-48 record, Vrabel brought winning ways of winning with him to Tennessee for some time. The Titans went to an AFC Championship, and went 11-5 and 12-5 in back-to-back years before issues in the front office derailed momentum in Nashville.
“You can point a lot of fingers,” Lewan explained of Tennessee's struggles. "But I didn't think the finger you could truly point was at Vrabel.”
Vrabel very well could, and frankly should, get the opportunity to win again in Foxborough.
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
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