Mike Vrabel led a remarkable turnaround in his first year as the New England Patriots' head coach, and now he has an AP Coach of the Year Award to show for it.
Vrabel beat out Jacksonville's Liam Coen, Chicago's Ben Johnson, San Francisco's Kyle Shanahan, and Seattle's Mike Macdonald. The latter will be his opponent in Super Bowl 60 on Sunday.
This is the second time Vrabel has won the award, as he also did so in 2021 with the Tennessee Titans.
The Patriots went 4-13 in both 2023 and 2024, in the final year of Bill Belichick's tenure and the only year of Jerod Mayo's. In Year 1 with Vrabel in charge, they authored one of the biggest turnarounds in NFL history, going 14-3, winning the AFC East, and claiming the No. 2 seed in the conference.
While voting for the award was conducted before the playoffs, Vrabel and the Patriots have gone on to add three playoff wins over the Chargers, Texans and Broncos to punch their ticket to Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara, California.
Vrabel was not the only member of his staff to take home some hardware at Thursday night's NFL Honors in San Francisco, as offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was also named the AP Assistant Coach of the Year.
Quarterback Drake Maye was also up for MVP, to be awarded after the time of this posting. Maye's emergence as one of the elite players in the league has been one of the most significant developments for the Patriots, and something both Vrabel and McDaniels deserve plenty of credit for.