Mike Vrabel was a foundational piece of the first era of the Patriots dynasty under Bill Belichick from 2001 until he was traded away to Chiefs following the 2008 season.
Vrabel went from lower-level free agent signing to All-Pro edge defender while helping New England win three Super Bowls along the way.
Now, entrenched as the head coach of the AFC-leading Titans and maybe one of the more underrated coaches in the NFL, current New England players say you can very much see Vrabel’s Patriots history in his Tennessee team.
“I think Vrabel’s kind of built his team kind of how he played,” Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower said. “Which is all those things: tough, dependable, accountable, physical, smart. All those things, you can see that with how they call the game offensively and how they are disciplined on defense and how they are able to cause turnovers and make plays off of that. They’re situationally sound and things of that nature. I think that Vrabel’s kind of shaped his team to be what he wants it to be and they’re pretty good at it.”
First-year Patriots tight end Jonnu Smith has a unique perspective on the connection between Vrabel and New England. Smith spent the last three years playing for Vrabel in Tennessee and now very much sees a comparison between his current coach and his former one.
“Great guy. Great energy. A lot like this guy. You know what I mean? Not as far as personality wise, but just coaching styles,” Smith said. “They demand a lot of their players and that’s what a great coach should, wanting them to be the best. And demand their best every snap. You can’t ask for a better coach than that. He knows his stuff. He’s a great guy off the field as well. It was a great opportunity, great experience playing for him.”
Smith also recalls that Vrabel brought a little something extra to past battles with the Patriots when the tight end was still with Tennessee.
“He was fired up. He was ready,” Smith said. “He also knew that this was a … he knew the history of this team, of course and all the success that they’d had and playing here and all that. But he knew how to channel his emotions and a lot of hype around games like this and just ignore the noise and things like a good coach should say. That’s kind just the mindset that we had going into the week.”
Vrabel leads his 8-3 Titans into Foxborough on Sunday to take on the 7-4 Patriots having beaten his former coach in his only two chances in the series – a 20-13 win on Wild Card Weekend at Gillette in Tom Brady’s final game in New England January 2020 and a 34-10 regular season win in Tennessee in 2018.
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