Talk about a one-year turnaround. After being a laughingstock of the league under Jerod Mayo in 2024, the New England Patriots are heading to the Super Bowl in 2025, surviving the snow in Denver for a 10-7 win over the Broncos in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday afternoon.
What changed in just 12 months' time? That's an easy one: Mike Vrabel is now the team's head coach, and it's not a coincidence that the man who engineered a remarkable turnaround with the Tennessee Titans has done the same thing with the team he starred with as a player. The only surprise, really, is that the rest of the league allowed Vrabel to fall into the Patriots' lap.
Seriously: Even two years removed from his firing in Tennessee, we're still asking the question. How did a guy who made three straight playoff appearances from 2019-2021 wind up getting fired by 2023? And how did so many teams pass on the chance to snatch him up once he became available? It's even more puzzling now, as some organizations that could've hired Vrabel over the past year or two now find themselves back on the coaching carousel.
Atlanta Falcons
What they chose instead: Raheem Morris (2024)
Morris did pretty good work as defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams from 2021-2023, but that's hardly a resume that should have put him above Vrabel in Atlanta's pecking order — especially considering that his first go around as a head coach in Tampa resulted in a 17-31 record across three seasons. Morris was a safe hire, a solid citizen and charismatic personality who would do pretty good work on defense without rocking the boat too much.
Two years later, safe is what got Morris fired after consecutive 8-9 seasons. The Falcons got exactly what they bargained for here, when they could've brought a proven, transformative program-builder in.
Cleveland Browns
What they chose instead: Two more years of Kevin Stefanski
This isn't meant to be too hard on Stefanski, a two-time Coach of the Year who doesn't deserve to wear most of the blame for the ongoing dysfunction that eventually sunk his tenure with the Browns. And it's hard to argue that Cleveland should've pulled the trigger when Vrabel was first fired at the end of the 2023 season, considering that Stefanski had just gone 11-6 and made the Wild Card Round with Joe Flacco under center.
After a nightmarish 3-14 campaign in 2024, though, it was clear that the writing was on the wall — whether Stefanski was to blame or not. What Cleveland really needed was a paradigm shift, someone with enough cachet to come in, clean house and leave their imprint on the entire organization. That sure sounds like Vrabel, who just so happened to spend 2024 as a Browns consultant. Cleveland had the Ohio native in the building for an entire year and still opted against making a move; now they're looking to fill their head coaching vacancy under far less certain circumstances.
Las Vegas Raiders
What they chose instead: Antonio Pierce (2024) and Pete Carroll (2025)
This one, on the other hand, requires no hindsight whatsoever. Removing the interim tag from Pierce was a classic blunder even at the time, rewarding an inexperienced candidate for a spirited half-season of 5-4 ball down the stretch of 2023. But Vegas had the opportunity to remedy that mistake a year later, when they wisely moved on from Pierce and jumped back into the carousel — with Vrabel available and his former teammate, Tom Brady, now a member of the Raiders' ownership group.
Not only did Vegas not hire Vrabel, they didn't even bring him in for an interview. The reason? Reportedly, owner Mark Davis was wary of another round of the Patriots Way after the Josh McDaniel experiment had ended in disaster. Of course, Vrabel and McDaniel had virtually nothing else in common as candidates, which Brady presumably could have told him had Davis bothered to ask.
New York Jets
What they chose instead: Aaron Glenn (2025)
Perhaps it's too early to bury Glenn, a talented coach who is by all accounts an excellent leader. The Jets have been chewing up and spitting out head coaches for years now, after all, and it's only been one season (with bad personnel to boot). That said, it was one ugly season, both in terms of performance on the field and how Glenn navigated both in-game management and the New York media.
I'm not about to argue that Vrabel would have led Justin Fields or Brady Cook to a Super Bowl, but he was undoubtedly a more qualified candidate based on his work in Tennessee. Even worse, the Jets actually brought Vrabel in for an interview last cycle, so this wasn't any sort of AFC East rivalry at work.
Tennessee Titans
What they chose instead: Brian Callahan for some reason
You knew they'd be included here somewhere. Failing to hire Vrabel amid a host of other candidates is one thing; firing him the first place — two years removed from a 12-win season — is another. And replacing him with Callahan, whose entire body of work consisted of riding Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase's coattails, is another thing, one that adds insult to injury.
Tennessee is still paying for it years later, as promising No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward struggled to keep his head above water as a rookie. The Titans' decision somehow looks even worse now than it did then, and while Robert Saleh is a solid hire, it's hard to have a ton of faith given the leadership at the top here.
Washington Commanders
What they chose instead: Dan Quinn (2024)
Yes, Quinn made the NFC title game in his first year at the helm in Washington. But let's be honest: That was almost entirely because of Jayden Daniels, Kliff Kingsbury and a defense that managed to come up with turnovers at opportune times until they got exposed by the Eagles.
Quinn is a floor-raiser as a defensive coordinator, even more than that when he's got the right tools to work with. But his system feels a bit outdated at this point, and as a head coaching candidate, it's hard to get too inspired by him — he doesn't bring a ton schematically, and he's vulnerable to being sunk by a poor coordinator hire or two. Maybe he'll be able to right the ship after a disappointing 2025, but Vrabel's body of work is much more impressive, and was even back when the Commanders hired him in 2024.