A certain type of person would find some sort of satisfaction in what transpired down in Tennessee earlier this week, but Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel is not one of those people.
The Titans fired head coach Brian Callahan on Monday six games into his second season on the job, as the team sits at 1-5 while looking rudderless on the football field.
Callahan was the man Tennessee chose to replace Vrabel after he was ousted at the end of the 2023 season. After turning their franchise around from a mediocre mess to a consistent top-performer over his first four seasons with the Titans, Vrabel would go 13-21 over his final two years in Nashville. Despite an AFC Championship Game appearance in 2019 as well as earning the top seed in the conference in 2021 while being forced to field a record-amount of players on his gameday roster due to injuries, it wasn’t enough goodwill to save Vrabel’s job after two middling seasons.
The 2021 NFL Coach of the Year was handed his walking papers just two years after winning the award, and the Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker was out of a job.
It took a year, but things ended up working out for Vrabel. After things went awry here for Jerod Mayo, the Krafts called their old friend to interview for the job. And a week after Mayo’s firing, Vrabel was announced as the 16th head coach in franchise history.
Fast forward to mid-October, and New England is sporting a 4-2 record while sitting in first place in the AFC East for the first time since heading into Week 16 of 2021.
Vrabel’s old team, on the other hand, is staring down the barrel of what could potentially be one of their worst seasons in franchise history.
It’s hard not to immediately put Week 7’s contest between the Patriots and Titans within this context. Vrabel is building a winning culture in New England in his first season as head coach the same way he did in Tennessee, and they have the pleasure of watching that culture do its thing in-person on Sunday.
There’s plenty of schadenfreude to be had by Vrabel if he was that type of guy. ‘You fired me, and now look what you got! And now I’m gonna rub it in your face!’ That’s all there if he wants it to be.
Wednesday’s pre-practice press conference at Gillette Stadium for Vrabel showed the 50-year-old head coach taking a much more empathetic approach to the situation.
“Is it true that you reached out to Brian Callahan this week?” Vrabel was asked on Wednesday.
“Is that true? Yeah, sure, of course I did,” said Vrabel. “I mean, I don't want to see anybody that shares a job with you get let go.
“That's a tough feeling with family and school. Whether it's in college or pro, we're in the media every single day. And there's a human element to this that I don't want to forget. I just remember all those coaches or people that reached out after I was let go. I think that that's important because nobody texts when you lose, they all text when you win. So, it's a good reminder.”
Vrabel isn’t just a football coach. He’s a human being, and that’s been evident at every turn since taking over the job in New England.
On a consistent basis, members of Vrabel’s staff have talked about their head coach’s humanity, and how it helps them within their coaching on a day-to-day basis.
“I would say for players and coaches, knowing that the head coach - your boss, whatever - that he cares about your family, knows that he cares about you as a person, [it] makes you want to work for that person that much more,” acting defensive player caller/inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr told the media last Thursday.
“You know you always have his support. Even when he’s hard on you and he challenges you, you know he’s supporting you in the end. And it’s good knowing that you’re not out there by yourself, you know? It’s a very tight staff, and I think he creates that culture.”
This human approach to coaching is something New England wasn’t accustomed to for 24 years while Bill Belichick was roaming the sidelines. The results on the football field spoke for themselves for the large majority of that time, but the players and staff behind the scenes have openly talked about the eggshells they were all constantly walking on as the success rolled along.
Vrabel’s humanistic approach to coaching with a dash of Belichickian hard-ass when needed has yielded positive results early on. Whether or not this new style of doing business for New England helps sustain winning in a similar way remains to be seen.
Six games in, my gut tells me this thing is going to work.
New England is currently a 7-point road favorite at FanDuel. You can get them at -360 on the moneyline, and the total is set at 41.5.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.