Following his first head coaching stint in Tennessee, Mike Vrabel has been serving as a coaching and personnel consultant in Cleveland. His job with the Browns was obviously a last-second alternative after he attempted to go after another head coaching gig in the offseason and failed.
We had heard rumors back in January following the hiring of Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles that Vrabel was the second option for the job. That rumor was reiterated by Diana Russini of The Athletic recently. Vrabel had reportedly nailed his interview with the Chargers, and there was legitimate concern that Harbaugh might have backed out of the agreement to become head coach. Unfortunately for Vrabel, Harbaugh returned to the NFL, leaving Vrabel in a quick search for work.
The next head coaching cycle should give Vrabel a bit more time to find a job, and according to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com, he may not be the only one who departs. Kay claims that, should Vrabel leave for his next head coaching gig in 2025, there’s an expectation that he will attempt to bring pass game specialist and tight ends coach Tommy Rees with him.
Rees doesn’t have much NFL experience. Starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Northwestern, Rees spent one season as an offensive assistant for the Chargers in 2016 before going back to the collegiate ranks. He spent three seasons as Notre Dame’s quarterbacks coach before earning the offensive coordinator title for three more years. Before joining Cleveland, he spent a single season as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Alabama.
Here are a couple other coaching rumors from around the NFL:
- Another coach who took a small role in 2024 was former NFL defensive coordinator Sean Desai. Desai has spent two separate seasons as a coordinator in the NFL, both times failing to retain his position into the next year. After being fired by the Eagles following the loss of six of their final seven games, Desai took the role of senior defensive assistant with the Rams, calling the scout team defense against the team’s offense in practice. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Desai is expected to be a hot name in the upcoming cycle as a candidate to once again become a defensive coordinator.
- In the realm of college, Falcons pass game specialist Chandler Whitmer has been hired to serve as the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator for Indiana in 2025, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel. He is set to replace Tino Sunseri who will take the opportunity to call plays at UCLA next year. Whitmer brings four years of NFL experience, previously working as a quality control coach with quarterbacks for the Chargers. He also spent time as a graduate assistant with Clemson and Ohio State. This will be his first job as a full-time position coach.
The Eagles had a great defense the year before and the year after Desai,and a crummy defense during his year as DC. Maybe there were factors beyond his control, but that history doesn’t say he should be a “hot” name for another DC job.
LB and Secondary were an issue last year. Tons of injuries where they were pulling guys off the street like Leonard LB Edmunds S Roby CB You also had a locker room cancer in Reddick who left. It’s hard to fault a guy who’s unit is performing poorly due to injuries esp when your offense spends as much time on the field as your defense
You look at this year they went out drafted and signed guys to improve the defense. Are getting healthy production from guys like Dean Smith etc but the biggest difference is Philly went from 14th in Time of Possession to 1st. When your offense is spending way more time on the field than your defense it definitely helps keep the defense ready.
Agree. Desai is best off calling practice squad plays. He’s a terrible at being a DC.
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I think Vrabel would be the choice to replace AP in Las Vegas if the Raiders move on from him.
You meant when not “if”.
NE media begging Kraft to replace Mayo with Vrabel. (Hold the Mayo jokes incoming!)
I doubt Vrabel has any regrets about leaving the Patriots and there are much better opportunities for him now. Kraft is too cheap to pay for a HC as good as Vrabel anyway.
Please Jets – hire Rex back. I beg you.