Mike Vrabel is proving different than other Belichick disciples
By John Buhler
Mike Vrabel played the bulk of his NFL career with the New England Patriots, but we’d be doing him a disservice to say he’s truly a Bill Belichick disciple.
Mike Vrabel is different.
He coaches the Tennessee Titans with the same ferocious energy he used to play 14 years in the NFL with three different franchises, most notably the New England Patriots. Vrabel won three Super Bowls in New England playing linebacker for Bill Belichick, earning his only career trip to the Pro Bowl during the near-undefeated season of 2007.
So one would think Vrabel is undoubtedly a steadfast disciple of the Belichick coaching tree, a tree that has not been as fruitful as its once-promising branches had led us to believe. While Vrabel gets ready for the biggest game of his newfound coaching life, we need to remind ourselves that he’s no Bill O’Brien, no Josh McDaniels, no Romeo Crennel, no Charlie Weis. He’s better.
People tend to forget this because they assume Vrabel was on one of Belichick’s coaching staffs at some point. Nope. In fact, Vrabel was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs along with backup quarterback Matt Cassel after the 2008 season. Vrabel played his final two years for the franchise he’ll face in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday afternoon.
Once Vrabel retired after the 2010 season, he went back to college, joining Luke Fickell’s staff on the Ohio State Buckeyes. A year later, Urban Meyer came out of retirement to coach Ohio State. Vrabel grew as a defensive line coach for two years before going back to the NFL.
In 2014, Vrabel joined O’Brien’s first Houston Texans staff as the linebackers coach. He held the position for three years before taking over as defensive coordinator in 2017. It didn’t last long, as Vrabel was picked to replace Mike Mularkey as the next head coach of the Titans in 2018. Two years later, his plucky football team one win away from the Super Bowl.
Sure, the Belichick connection is obvious with Vrabel. Coaches he’s worked with in O’Brien and Crennel are two of the most discussed branches of the Belichick tree. That being said, Vrabel feels like he better represents the Meyer coaching tree than he does the Belichick one. Just look at Meyer’s disciples and try to convince yourself that Vrabel isn’t having the same kind of success.
Noted Meyer disciples include Fickell, Dan Mullen, Ryan Day and Tom Herman, all of whom have had varying levels of success at the college level. In short, none of these coaches have busted once on their own as so many Belichick disciples have over the years. The really cool part is his team is giving us a fresh, but retro feel to it. The Titans want to beat you up and that’s football at its core.
Few teams in football this year were able to cultivate such a strong identity so quickly. Tennessee plays great defense at all levels, will run the football down your throat with leading rusher Derrick Henry and will design smart passing concepts off the run with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith dialing it up and quarterback Ryan Tannehill executing it.
At first glance, the Titans’ coaching style feels a tad too machismo to be sustainable in the modern NFL. Upon further inspection, you’ll find a team that is clever, willing to adjust on the fly and rarely makes mental mistakes to beat themselves. No, this is not the most talented team left in the playoffs, but there is a good chance it might be the most well-coached one.
At its core, this team feels more like a Meyer team or a Belichick offshoot twice removed than a direct branch from the Evil Empire. But if there is anything this Titans team reminds us of New England, it’s a team-first culture.
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Would upsetting the Chiefs in Arrowhead be another remarkable chapter in the story that is the 2019 Titans? Without question, but the Titans don’t need to get to the Super Bowl to prove their point. They have a phenomenal up-and-coming head coach in Vrabel, a guy who will get better with every game under his belt, just like the players on the team he coaches.