Jets are on the verge of making the right coaching hire, but it might not matter

The New York Jets interviewed Mike Vrabel for their open head coaching position on Friday morning, according to the team's official Twitter / X account. Jets fans are giddy at the thought of hiring Vrabel — who served as a "coaching and personnel consultant" for the Cleveland Browns in 2024 — and are begging the team to ink Vrabel to a contract before he leaves the building.

You can't blame Jets fans for wanting Vrabel, who went 54-45 in six years as the head coach of the Titans. He's a good football coach who gets buy-in from his teams. Those Tennessee teams were competitive every year despite not having a star-studded roster most years.

But it might not matter who the Jets hire — head coach isn't the problem in New York. It's ownership, it's a quarterback who checked out long ago, it's a team not willing to play for each other; head coach is always important in the NFL, but Mike Vrabel won't be the savior of this franchise no matter how good of a coach he is.

Robert Saleh was a good coach, too

And he got thrown to the curb because he lost to the potential NFC Champions in London. Saleh wasn't Andy Reid, but he at least had this team competing through a few weeks; he was fired after going 2-3 this year, and this team fell off a proverbial cliff, going 2-9 the rest of the season.

If the ownership of a team is toxic, the product on the field will not be good for extended periods. We know this to be true — even if a team has a good season or two, sustained success is impossible to come by when there's dysfunction at the very top, and Woody Johnson appears to love dysfunction.

Mike Vrabel would be a good hire for this team because, again, he's a good coach for any team. But he's more likely to become a scapegoat for upper management than he is to lead this team to a Super Bowl, just like Saleh was in 2024. I wish Vrabel the best — but he's walking into a hornets nest if he takes this job.