Vrabel Minimizes Return to Titans: Focused on Patriots’ Triumphs

Foxborough, Mass. – New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel downplayed his upcoming return to Tennessee, where his team will face the Titans on Sunday. Vrabel, who was head coach of the Titans from 2018 to 2023, achieved a record of 56-48 (including playoffs). During his tenure, the team won divisional titles in 2020 and 2021, three playoff appearances, and reached the AFC final in the 2019 season. Vrabel, recognized as the AP Coach of the Year in 2021, was fired by owner Amy Adams Strunk after Tennessee recorded a 6-11 record in 2023.

“It will be nice to see some people I haven’t seen in a few years who helped us win, players and staff,” Vrabel said on Monday, a day after the Patriots’ 25-19 victory over the Saints, the team’s third straight win. “But we have a big job to do here as we prepare for them.”

Mike Vrabel

In his weekly radio interview on WEEI, Vrabel added: “I think it will feel different, but it can’t be different; the way we prepare, the way we try to put together a game plan. But we have to recognize the obvious, me having spent time there, so a lot of people on the other side that I know who coach or worked with them.” In his first season as Patriots coach, Vrabel has gotten his team to play with an identity similar to that of his former Titans teams: one that prioritizes “effort and finishing” and “ball security and ball disruption.” Quarterback Drake Maye has reached his best level in recent weeks, becoming the fourth player in NFL history under 24 years old to record at least 200 passing yards and a passer rating of 100 or more in five consecutive games. The others are Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City (seven straight games in 2018, five games in 2018-19), former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino (six straight games in 1984), and Dak Prescott of Dallas (five straight games in 2016). Veteran center Garrett Bradbury was one of the Patriots players who acknowledged Vrabel’s return to Tennessee.

“There’s probably a little bit of Coach Vrabel that’s excited about it, but… we’ll worry about [that] later. When we start making things bigger than they are or focusing on the future; we have to live in the moment,” he said.

Garrett Bradbury

“It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, you have to have a good today. That’s the message Coach Vrabel shares. We have a lot of guys, former Tennessee players in this building, so there will be a little more for them. But as players we have to show up and execute.” Veteran offensive lineman Morgan Moses echoed those thoughts in an interview with WBZ-TV, saying about Vrabel: “He’s a selfless guy, so he doesn’t want it to be about him.”