2026 NFL Honors: Mike Vrabel named Coach of the Year award after leading historic turnaround with Patriots

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mike Vrabel is preparing his New England Patriots to play the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX, but the head coach will bring some hardware back from Santa Clara regardless. At Thursday's NFL Honors, Vrabel was named Coach of the Year for the 2025 season after spearheading an eye-popping turnaround with New England. 

What Vrabel was able to accomplish in Year 1 with the Patriots was nothing short of remarkable. The franchise had endured back-to-back 4-13 seasons, which resulted in the team moving on from Bill Belichick after the 2023 campaign and then firing Jerod Mayo after a lone season in 2024. 

Vrabel became the first head coach to inherit a 13-loss team and win at least 13 games in his first year. So far, the Patriots have tallied 17 wins in Year 1 of the Vrabel era (including playoffs), which ties him with George Seifert for the most all time. If he wins Super Bowl LX, he'd own the record on his own with 18. 

Beyond that, New England won the AFC East for the first time since 2019 and is now on the doorstep of a Super Bowl appearance. If the Patriots defeat the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX, Vrabel would become the fifth coach to win a Super Bowl in his first season on the job. He's also just the third person to win the Super Bowl as a player and coach for any franchise and the first to do so with the same team. 

This is the second time Vrabel has won the award, first claiming it in 2021 when he was head coach of the Tennessee Titans. This year, he beat out a group of finalists consisting of Liam Coen (Jaguars), Ben Johnson (Bears), Mike Macdonald (Seahawks), and Kyle Shanahan (49ers).