4 issues to learn about Mike Vrabel’s teaching type

The Patriots moved rapidly on their head teaching search and on Sunday introduced they’ve employed Mike Vrabel because the group’s subsequent head coach.

Vrabel was the favourite for the job as quickly as Jerod Mayo was let go within the hours following the season finale, and issues progressed in a rush.

You most likely know lots about Vrabel the participant, a three-time Tremendous Bowl champion in Foxborough as a key a part of New England’s vaunted linebacking corps alongside Willie McGinest and Tedy Bruschi (and an occasional goal-line goal for Tom Brady).

However you might not be as conversant in Vrabel the coach as he takes over a Patriots workforce in a rebuild. Right here are some things to learn about New England’s new head coach.

He was the NFL Coach of the 12 months in 2021.

New England will likely be Vrabel’s second head-coaching job after a six-year stint in Tennessee, the place Vrabel led the Titans to a few consecutive playoff berths from 2019-2021, together with a visit to the AFC Championship Recreation in 2019.

The excessive level got here in 2021, when Vrabel guided Tennessee to the No. 1 seed and a 12-5 file, the franchise’s highest win whole since 2008. That earned the Titans a bye into the divisional spherical, the place they narrowly fell to the eventual AFC champion Bengals.

It additionally earned Vrabel the NFL Coach of the 12 months award, an honor he earned forward of candidates like former Patriots coach Invoice Belichick and the Packers’ Matt LaFleur.

He’s a defensive coach, however not a defensive play-caller.

Whereas Vrabel was a key determine in shaping Tennessee’s defensive scheme, he wasn’t calling performs for a lot of his time in cost; Dean Pees dealt with these duties throughout Vrabel’s first two seasons in Tennessee earlier than turning over the play-calling to linebackers coach and eventual defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.

Vrabel was usually cagey about who was calling the performs after Pees retired in early 2020 however finally revealed that Bowen was doing so following the season.

Whoever was in cost, the Titans’ defenses underneath Vrabel improved immensely, leaping from the Seventeenth-ranked scoring protection in 2017 to 3rd in 2018. Amid some confusion over Vrabel not naming an official defensive coordinator in 2020, Tennessee slipped to twenty fourth, however rapidly rebounded to sixth in that 2021 season that earned Vrabel the NFL Coach of the 12 months award.

It appears possible then, that whomever Vrabel brings in as a defensive coordinator will likely be calling the performs come recreation day.

His Titans groups dominated the trenches — on either side of the ball.

Tennessee was one of many league’s premier ground-and-pound groups within the NFL throughout Vrabel’s tenure, with the Titans boasting each one of many NFL’s greatest dashing assaults and stingiest dashing defenses.

It helps when you may construct a floor recreation round Derrick Henry, the best and dominant working again over the past decade, however Tennessee completed no decrease than sixth in dashing offense for 4 consecutive seasons from 2018-2021.

It was the same story on the opposite aspect of the ball, the place the Titans’ run protection — additionally constructed round one of many league’s greatest at his place in defensive deal with Jeffery Simmons — completed fourth in yards per carry allowed in 2023 and 2021, both aspect of a first-place end in 2022.

Enchancment on that entrance could be greater than welcome for a Patriots workforce that completed lifeless final in whole dashing offense and twenty third in whole dashing protection.

Over Vrabel’s complete six-year tenure, the Titans amassed the second-most dashing yards of any workforce within the league and allowed the fewest yards per carry in that span.

He has a status as a tough-love coach.

Vrabel bears some similarities to Belichick, bringing a few of his outdated coach’s habits and methods to Tennessee. He was by no means afraid to problem his gamers and produce out “teach-tape,” exhibiting the workforce a few of its worst performs to give attention to enchancment.

“I used to be used to it. However it shocked our Tennessee Titans locker room,” stated Logan Ryan, a two-time Tremendous Bowl winner taking part in for Belichick who later performed for Vrabel in Tennessee. “All of our greatest gamers, our highest paid gamers have been being challenged. And so they weren’t used to that, seeing all of their lowest performs. And that’s sort of embarrassing. So that you don’t need to be on that tape.”

There has additionally been some notion of Vrabel being tough to work with, notably with regards to these above him within the entrance off and possession, one thing he addressed in a narrative from the Athletic.

“I really feel like I can work with anyone,” Vrabel stated. “I really feel like profitable is the last word aim and I — similar to our workforce — have gotten to be prepared to regulate and adapt to issues which are occurring.

“However I consider that I can respectfully disagree, have a dialog and transfer on and get previous it. I’m additionally not afraid to share my opinion and what I consider in, my convictions about issues that relate to serving to a soccer workforce win … It’s a novel relationship [coach and GM], one which has to stay respectful always. I feel that it at all times was. Are we going to disagree? Yeah, I hope that we achieve this that we are able to develop. However finally, any person’s gotta be in cost.”