After being shut out during this year’s HC interview cycle, Mike Vrabel is expected to resurface as one of the top candidates in 2025. Vrabel has built considerable momentum considering where his stock was coming off his Titans firing, to the point staff options are starting to emerge in connection with the second-chance HC aspirant.
Vrabel has already been connected to the Bears, Jets and Patriots. It would stand to reason the six-year HC veteran will take a few interviews. Unlike former mentor Bill Belichick, Vrabel appears likely to become an NFL head coach again soon.
Prior to what could be a blitz of Vrabel rumors over the next several weeks, SI.com’s Albert Breer connected him to two offensive coordinator options during an interview with ESPN 1000‘s Kap & J.Hood; h/t Yardbarker.com. Browns pass-game specialist Tommy Rees is coming up in connection with a Vrabel hire, while Breer adds Josh McDaniels — whose Patriots tenure overlapped with Vrabel’s linebacker run in New England — is also being mentioned as a potential Vrabel OC.
Vrabel has worked as a Browns consultant this year, doing so while Rees has served as the team’s QBs coach. Rees previously spent three years as Notre Dame’s OC and was Alabama’s offensive play-caller in Nick Saban’s final season. Rees is just 32 and has been an NFL staffer for one year, but he certainly brings worthwhile college credentials.
A veteran of the HC interview circuit, McDaniels appears highly unlikely to be asked to lead a team again. His one season leading an offense away from the Patriots (a 2011 Rams gig) did not go well, either. But McDaniels being onboard during Tom Brady‘s rise and again during the legend’s extended run in his 30s and 40s should keep him in conversations. Though, the ex-Raiders coach did not partake in any known interviews following that firing. McDaniels and Vrabel overlapped in New England from 2001-08, and Breer notes the Cleveland-area natives have maintained a relationship since. McDaniels makes for a natural North Carolina OC candidate, seeing as he helped his former boss pick a destination in recent weeks. But McDaniels has not coached in college since 1999.
Vrabel, 49, is also being loosely tied to one of his former Titans coworkers. Not every team looking to hire a head coach will be in the GM market; the Bears are not, and it does not look like the Saints are firing Mickey Loomis. But the Jets are; the Jaguars may be in this boat soon, too. If a GM slot is available, Breer adds Ryan Cowden could be a name to watch. Cowden took a job with the Giants after his interim GM stay with the Titans wrapped. Vrabel wanted Cowden to be named full-time GM in Tennessee, with that being among the causes of friction between the then-Titans HC and ownership.
An interesting competitor could emerge for Vrabel as well. Ryan Day’s Ohio State status may depend on how the Buckeyes fare in the upcoming playoff, and Graziano adds rumblings have pegged Vrabel as a top candidate if that job becomes open. Vrabel is an Ohio State alum who coached under Urban Meyer from 2011-13, between his retirement as a player and debut as an NFL assistant.
Belichick looks to have taken the North Carolina job because no surefire NFL landing spot would reveal itself. Vrabel, however, probably has a much better shot to land a job soon. Though, it will be interesting to see where Ohio State — should the Big Ten power move on from Day — would fall in Vrabel’s pecking order.
I guess there’s an advantage in hiring an OC who definitely won’t be poached for a head coach job, but maybe not if it’s because he has the worst people skills of any coach in recent memory and three organizations hate the guy.
And that OC has his system, which is inflexible and needs all new players to run it.
Or will at least take time and patience to implement because it isn’t like any other system in football.
McDaniels drafted Tebow. Enough said, he’s incompetent.
“Prior to what could be a blitz of Vrabel rumors over the next several weeks”.
Perhaps the blitz could be reduced if the rumors initiated by Vrabel’s agent were omitted 🙂
Brady doesn’t want Vrabel???
Fire Mayo and hire Vrabel please! Don’t waste a year of Maye being on the cheap contract. Reunite McDaniels in New England would be great.
Fire Mayo and hire anybody else. I have never seen such a clueless coach in all my life.
It’s amazing that some posters here are losing their minds on a rumor that Tom Brady is basically taking over football operations for the Raiders and announcing games. Thus far, according to some suspect pundits, Tommy B will have control over the draft pick, a new QB, and the new head coach search. People have drunk that Kool-Aid and already asked for seconds, while not even trying to connect a former trusted teammate that was also a team leader to his cause. If Tommy B does have all of that control, I would have to believe that Mike Vrabel is also consulting with the organization on the path forward.