If you’ve ever been in a team meeting led by head coach Mike Vrabel, you’d know that the three-time Super Bowl champion likes to show highlights from his playing days.
Maybe it’s one of his 57 career sacks, one of his 11 interceptions, or possibly his favorite, showing off that he caught 10 touchdowns on 10 career targets from Tom Brady as a goal-line tight end. To his credit, Vrabel has plenty of highlights from his decorated playing career.
Another Vrabelism is that the Patriots head coach will get into the trenches during practices and go one-on-one with his players, even as a 49-year-old who is 15 years removed from playing in the NFL. For some, that might be a bit much. However, those who’ve played for Vrabel use a different word to describe the 16th head coach in Patriots history: authentic.
“Most of my coaches couldn’t move like Mike Vrabel,” former Titans and Patriots great Malcolm Butler said. “I’ve never seen that. I know that guy is gonna make sure you hit the gym, and he’ll do some sprints after practice and stuff like that. It made you feel like he wanted to be there. He was really involved mentally and physically. People saw that in him and wanted to play for him.”
“He was not afraid to pull up his highlights to show you how many touchdowns he caught, and he’d tell guys that he had 10 touchdown passes with Brady,” added former Patriots and Titans cornerback Logan Ryan. “He’d show the tight ends how to run a route or show the defensive end how to rush. He gets really involved at practice.”
By demonstrating he can walk the walk and talk the talk, Vrabel establishes belief in his program. Although he was shaped by his playing days under former head coach Bill Belichick, Vrabel’s experience as a player helps him understand the rigors of the NFL season.
“There’s a lot of similarities. But, obviously, Vrabel played, so he was more player friendly when it came to days off and letting guys rest their body,” former New England and Tennessee star Dion Lewis told Patriots.com. “Always being prepared, making sure we do our job, being disciplined, limiting penalties, playing as a team. He definitely had his own way to go about things, but it will definitely look pretty similar.”
In their newest head coach, the Patriots hope Vrabel is the perfect blend of Belichick’s meticulous preparation and a new-age head coach who can relate to today’s players.
“I’m excited for New England because it made a lot of sense. He’s a former Patriot, he’s coming home, he understands what’s expected in that building, and he’s done it as a player. I think they got the best coach available. Obviously, excited for Patriots fans,” Ryan said.
“He went to the school of Bill Belichick. Learn great football, learn situational football, understand the importance of what to do in every situation, and have your team prepared,” Ryan continued. “I never felt like the team on the other sideline had a better plan or that our plan wasn’t a suitable plan to win. I always felt like we had a good enough plan to win.”
Offensive Philosophy
Vrabel is inheriting a struggling offense with a promising second-year quarterback, with the new Pats HC referring to Drake Maye as a “young, dynamic” player in his introductory press conference.
During his time in Tennessee, Vrabel’s offense was a West Coast scheme built around a potent rushing attack. In his six seasons as Titans head coach, Tennessee had the highest early-down rush frequency in the NFL (45.3%). They also ranked second in rush attempts and rushing yards while operating a wide-zone scheme branched off the Shanahan tree.
Vrabel’s first offensive coordinator was current Packers coach Matt LaFleur. LaFleur worked under the Shanahan’s and Rams head coach Sean McVay, so he brought that system to Nashville. When it was successful in year one, Arthur Smith continued running the same offense as Vrabel’s offensive coordinator when LaFleur became the head coach in Green Bay. Eventually, Smith would also leave to become a head coach.
“LaFleur was our OC, so we were doing more like the Rams [system]. The outside zones with the boots. A lot of motions and things like that. Like the Shanahan’s,” Lewis said. “We had a lot of nasty, physical guys up front who loved to run the ball. We just did what our team personality was, and that went back to Vrabel. He’s a hard-nosed guy.”
Although the Titans were successful with top-10 scoring offenses in 2019 and 2020, there’s some concern amongst fans that the Patriots will be a conservative, run-first offense in the Vrabel era. However, the Pats head coach’s response made sense when asked about the Titans run-heavy offense.
“Our best player was our running back, as you can see in Baltimore,” Vrabel told WEEI radio last week. “We tried to build the offense around what we felt like was our best player and what was our strength. You base whatever system and scheme that you have on the players that you have.”
Vrabel is obviously referencing five-time Pro Bowl RB Derrick Henry. Henry was Tennessee’s lead-back for Vrabel’s entire run with the Titans. During the six-year span that Henry played for Vrabel, the future Hall of Famer led the NFL in rushing by a wide margin and was the league’s rushing king in 2019 and 2020, rushing for over 2,000 yards and 17 touchdowns during the 2020 season. But it wasn’t just Henry who found success on offense under Vrabel.
