Titans hire Mike Vrabel as Head Coach

Also, the context is that they are right in the middle of a super bowl run and do not want the distraction.

 

Interesting read. Sounds reasonable.

Grading 2018 NFL coaching hires: Lions, Colts get high marks, questions for Titans, Raiders

Tennessee Titans

• Coach: Mike Vrabel
• Grade: B-

To be clear: I really like Vrabel as a head coach. He's got the Belichick stamp too. But there are some concerns here with the process for me. Most notably was the way the Titans handled things with Mike Mularkey. They were planning to fire him if he missed the playoffs and then he made the postseason. They were planning to fire him if he lost to the Chiefs, then he beat Kansas City. He was miffed about his job being involved in rumors leading up to the wild-card round, so Tennessee gave him a public vote of confidence, only to fire him a week later.

The presumption was GM Jon Robinson -- who has done a nice job in player evaluation and acquisition thus far -- convinced owner Amy Adams Strunk to can Mularkey in order to get McDaniels. They clearly got involved too late and reacted by going to get Vrabel, who played in New England while Robinson was there. Now, that's not a bad thing. Vrabel was a hot coaching candidate in this cycle. Look at what Belichick said about him when he was traded out of New England in 2009.

"When Mike arrived in 2001, we knew we were adding a solid outside linebacker," Belichick said at the time. "But where Mike took it from there exceeded our highest hopes. Mike Vrabel epitomizes everything a coach could seek in a professional football player: toughness, intelligence, play-making, leadership, versatility and consistency at the highest level. ... The toughest aspect of my job is the day I stop coaching people like Mike, who did everything in his power to contribute to team success. Of all the players I have coached in my career, there is nobody I enjoyed working with more than Mike."

Vrabel definitely has a little bit of Belichick in him too. From last year:

That sounds familiar.

The concern with Vrabel is a lack of experience at the coordinator level (although Wilks had just one year as a DC as well) and the Texans taking a step back last year with him running the defense (although J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus both got hurt).

Additionally, the Titans new coach immediately lost out on his top choice for both offensive coordinator (Ryan Day chose to stay at Ohio State) and defensive coordinator (James Bettcher chose the Giants instead). Coordinators are going to be key in this job.

Ultimately I think the Titans did the right thing, especially for Marcus Mariota, in firing Mularkey and moving on to a new coach. But they have to get the offensive coordinator selection right or else this could look like a questionable move. Developing Mariota is priority No. 1 and there is a danger in bringing in a green, defensive coach if there is not a quarterback-grooming coordinator coming along with him.

 

Love it, hows he is active on Twitter!

 

What are the chances that Vrabels knows more offense than defense? I think were really cutting this guy short here... I mean wasnt Belichick considered to be a D minded coach at one time? He still is, but the way his team has performed on offense through out the years is amazing

 

tb12 and jmcd probably help lol

 

I'd say a defensive minded coach has a lot of insight on how offenses work and weaknesses in defenses and how they can be exploited.

If you think about it, a DCs job isn't to just run a defense, but to figure out how to stop different offenses...so they should know what's going on with an offense as well as they know what defense is best suited to stop it.


I mean, they don't just throw any old defense out there...you have to match what the offense is doing and the offense has to adjust to what the defense is doing etc... I would think someone involved in football long enough has plenty of knowledge on both sides of the ball.

Of course some coaches and players have a better understanding and some probably just "do what they're supposed to do" versus learning every aspect of every play...but from all accounts Vrabel has always been dedicated and knows his stuff.

 

Right. In some cases an offensive minded head coach may be more detrimental to the offenses success(Mularkey) because they believe in their systems and are stubborn to change if something isn't working.

 

Anyone read this?

 

no

what can it possibly say that we dont already know