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Mike Vrabel hiring winners and losers: Patriots land top coaching candidate
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- Mike Vrabel hiring winners and losers: Patriots land top coaching candidate
The New England Patriots fired head coach Jerod Mayo just hours after their Week 18 win over the Buffalo Bills . One week later, they have brought in his replacement.
The Patriots announced Sunday they had hired former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel to be their 16th head coach.
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Vrabel spent the 2024 NFL season serving as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns but was one of the hottest coaching candidates on the market because of his success in Tennessee. He led the Titans to three consecutive playoff appearances and led them to the AFC championship game during the 2020 NFL playoffs (played after the 2019 season).
Now, Vrabel will look to do the same with the Patriots, a team with which he played eight seasons and won three Super Bowls. Here are the winners and losers of New England hiring the 49-year-old as their next head coach.
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Winners
New England Patriots
Let's start with the easy one. The Patriots are big winners here, as they landed one of the most coveted coaching candidates on the market this offseason.
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Vrabel brings with him plenty of coaching experience to New England after going 54-45 during his six seasons with the Titans. He built a reputation as a quality leader who instilled a hard-nosed mentality with his defenses that allowed him to get the most out of middling rosters. The best example of this came when Tennessee earned the AFC's No. 1 seed in 2021 with Ryan Tannehill at quarterback. They did so thanks to a strong, connected defense that punched above its weight class.
In many ways, Vrabel represents everything the Patriots hoped they were getting in Mayo. He's a strong, defensive-minded coach with long-time ties to New England who could give the team the identity it lacked under Mayo as the team further transitions into the post-Bill Belichick era.
Mike Vrabel
The NFL looks set to have six head coaching openings during the 2025 offseason, barring a surprise from one of the league's 14 playoff teams. Vrabel might have landed the best job of the bunch .
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The reasons are simple. The Patriots already have an established quarterback in Drake Maye . The No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft performed very well as a rookie despite having poor blocking and minimal receiving weapons around him. He should only grow as he develops and New England's roster improves, so Vrabel won't have to worry about hunting for an effective starting quarterback.
Beyond that, the Patriots have a lot of resources with which to improve the roster. They have the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, which they can target for use on a two-way player like Travis Hunter or a pass rushing star like Abdul Carter . New England also has a whopping $120 million in projected cap space, per OverTheCap.com , so the team is positioned to overhaul what presently looks like a weak roster.
It's hard to imagine any other job allowing Vrabel this sort of fast track to potential success. Add in his familiarity with the organization and this seems like the clear-cut best landing spot for him.
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Robert Kraft
Kraft called firing Mayo " one of the hardest decisions I have ever made ." He has to be feeling better about it after landing Vrabel, who will bring some much-needed experience to the fold as the team looks to transition away from Belichick.
The Patriots landed Vrabel thanks, in part, to Kraft's fast action after the team's Week 18 win over the Bills. He fired Mayo just hours after the game instead of waiting for the NFL's proverbial "Black Monday." That helped the Patriots get into the coaching search fray quicker than most expected, which may have proved critical given the interest surrounding Vrabel league-wide.
ROBERT KRAFT: Patriots owner opens up about decision to fire Jerod Mayo
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Losers
New York Jets , other teams interested in Mike Vrabel
The Patriots weren't the only team interested in adding Vrabel to the fold. The Jets, Chicago Bears , New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders were also tied to the ex-Titans coach by various rumors and interview requests. He would have been a stabilizing force and coaching upgrade for all four squads, but now, they will have to move onto their next candidates.
Tennessee Titans
The Titans fired Vrabel after the 2023 NFL season. A year later, that move is not looking like a very good one,.
Vrabel's replacement, Brian Callahan, guided the Titans to a 3-14 record in his first season. They finished tied for the worst record in the NFL with the Browns and New York Giants , landing the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL draft as result. The team's inability to perform at a high level led them to fire general manager Ran Carthon , who they signed to an extension during the 2024 NFL offseason, after just two years – and after an impressive spending spree in 2024.
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With Vrabel, the Titans were always a tough team that could be an AFC South and wild card competitor regardless of the state of the roster. Now, they are looking like one of the NFL's worst teams, despite sporting a better roster on paper than what Vrabel had.
If Amy Adams Strunk and Co. could have a mulligan, they might decide keeping Vrabel around was better for the team. Perhaps things will move in a better direction if Callahan can get a higher-quality quarterback, but with the 2025 NFL draft being weak at the position, things aren't looking too rosy in Tennessee.
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Jerod Mayo
There's no doubt that Mayo was put into an unforgiving situation in New England. The team's roster was decimated by Belichick's mismanagement of resources later in his time with the team, and the Patriots were particularly thin on offensive talent as a result.
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Still, Mayo has lost some of his luster as a high-end coaching candidate as a result of his year-long stint with the Patriots. The issue wasn't necessarily that the team finished the season with a 4-13 record. That was to be expected with the roster he was given. It was more about the Patriots' lack of identity and direction as the season wore on; that was what led to his dismissal and what might discourage teams when evaluating him for a top job in the coming years.
In truth, Mayo may have been thrust into the head coaching job too early. The 38-year-old, who has been coaching since 2019, needed more seasoning before taking on the role. As such, his failure isn't entirely on him; but nonetheless, it dumped some cold water on his future prospects of becoming an NFL head coach.
Robert Kraft
Yes, Kraft can be both a winner and loser in this situation. Why? He was the one who approved a succession clause as part of Mayo's contract with the Patriots.
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"I feared I would lose him and committed to making him our next head coach," Kraft said in the statement announcing Mayo's firing .
That contract clause may have been good in theory. In practice, it pushed Mayo into the Patriots' head coaching job before he was ready with the team moving on from Belichick earlier than expected. It also prevented them from evaluating other coaching candidates on the market, like Vrabel, during the 2024 NFL offseason.
So, while the Patriots ultimately ended up with arguably the best possible candidate for their coaching job, it took an extra year for them to get there. They also may have burned a bridge with Mayo – who is a promising, young defensive mind – so Kraft deserves plenty of criticism for his failings in this area.
(This story has been updated with a new video.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL winners and losers: Mike Vrabel, Patriots look like perfect pair
