If an NFL franchise has a head coach opening this hiring cycle, it'll likely take less than a second for Mike Vrabel's name to be injected into the conversation.
With the 2024 regular season wrapping up this week and Black Monday looming over various organizations, the hiring cycle is set to begin in earnest, with Vrabel sitting effectively at the top of most rankings for available head coaching candidates. Already, Vrabel has interviewed with the New York Jets, which should be the first of many he receives over the next few weeks.
Overall, it's remarkable that Vrabel is even to be had by an organization at this juncture. His firing as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans at the end of the 2023 season was a surprise as the 49-year-old had won NFL Coach of the Year with the team back in 2021. Vrabel had been above .500 (54-45) in the regular season during his tenure as well. Even after his firing, he was considered a top candidate for other organizations but ultimately did not land a job. However, it's a little bit more nuanced than Vrabel simply striking out.
As highlighted in an in-depth piece covering Vrabel's "gap year" in The Athletic, he felt as if he would have landed the opening for the Los Angeles Chargers had it not been for the organization's prior connection with Jim Harbaugh, who they ultimately hired. Beyond that, he never considered himself a serious contender for the Atlanta Falcons job and had little interest in jumping aboard as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers.
During that interview process, Vrabel did notice a consistent line of questioning that suggested he does not collaborate with ownership and the front office, which he dispelled.
"I care about the team. No job is too small for me or anybody else to help the team win," Vrabel said, via The Athletic. "I feel like I can work with anybody. I feel like winning is the ultimate goal and I — just like our team — have got to be willing to adjust and adapt to things that are going on.
"But I believe that I can respectfully disagree, have a conversation and move on and get past it. I'm also not afraid to share my opinion and what I believe in, my convictions about things that relate to helping a football team win, building a team or helping players, helping scouts. I love when coaches and scouts get together post-draft, I love collaborating with the general manager on inactives (on game day). I tried to incorporate that system into Tennessee because it's something that I embraced and loved about what we did in Houston. It's a unique relationship (coach and GM), one that has to remain respectful at all times. I think that it always was. Are we going to disagree? Yeah, I hope that we do so that we can grow. But ultimately, somebody's gotta be in charge."
Instead of landing a head coaching job last year, Vrabel spent the 2024 season as a coaching and personnel consultant with the Cleveland Browns. While he may not have been lurking on an NFL sideline, this delay could prove to be beneficial, with arguably more enticing jobs to be had this cycle. Currently, the New York Jets, Chicago Bears, and New Orleans Saints have head coaching vacancies. More are expected to pop up in the next week or so, including the Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders, and potentially the New England Patriots (where he is in the team's Hall of Fame). Vrabel is likely to be considered a top candidate for all of those openings, giving him potentially the pick of the litter as he embarks on his second act as an NFL head coach.
