Foxborough, MA – Are the Patriots going to be Vrabel to improve in 2025? My horrendous yet exquisite pun aside, the Patriots wasted very little time after their regular season finished, firing Mayo the very next day. Less than a week later, they’ve already started a new era, hiring Mike Vrabel to be their next head coach. Here, I give my take on what the era will look like.
As a player, Vrabel was an excellent NFL linebacker, playing the majority of his career in New England, also bookending his career in Pittsburgh and Kansas City. He was a fundamentally sound player with excellent hitting technique, plenty of power and aggression, and phenomenal spatial awareness that allowed him to arrive to the ball carrier early and often. His versatility was exceptional – although he prioritized defending the run and pass rush, he was a capable coverage linebacker too. His football IQ was always exceptional, he was always one to hit the film room and analyze the game, allowing him to refine his playing style as his career went along.
He ended his career with a gaudy stat line, with 828 tackles, 66 sacks, 11 interceptions, 20 forced fumbles, and 44 pass deflections. As a fun bonus, he also had offensive moments, catching 10 passes, all of which were touchdowns, and for someone who was barely used on offense, he had surprisingly sure hands and great route-running sense. He was an all-Pro, a Patriots hall-of-famer, and a 3-time super bowl champion.
His coaching tenure has been limited compared to his playing tenure, but it has actually been quite successful. He had a brief stint as the linebackers coach at Ohio State, and enjoyed some very successful defenses in his time under Urban Meyer. He then had a successful few years in Houston as their linebackers coach, then defensive coordinator, presiding over some very successful defenses there.
His entire head coaching career has been in Tennessee, where he enjoyed early success, making the playoffs in only his second year, and actually winning two away games to make the AFC Championship. He later saw himself becoming the coach of the year in 2021, but was then let go after some stagnation and declining play from the team.
Vrabel was always a defense-first coach, focusing on fundamentals, accountability, and learning from mistakes. His offenses were much more inconsistent than his defenses, but that was partially due to lots of roster tumult, especially at quarterback. After a year off, he finds himself back where he enjoyed his prime years as a player, in Foxborough.
Vrabel has played and coached successfully at every level and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table. His acumen as a player has carried into his coaching, and he is an excellent strategist and his versatility during his career should allow him to contribute insights on both sides of the ball.
He brings an accountability-first mindset that manifests as a modern-day version of what the Patriots had in Bill Belichick, but with more of an ability to talk on the players’ level. While, as mentioned above, his offenses have been inconsistent, they have shown moments of explosiveness, and in Drake Maye, he may very well be working with the best quarterback he has coached. After a year of relative inconsistency on the defensive side of the ball, Patriots nation will be hoping for him to re-tighten the screws on that side of the ball as well.
The offseason will be critical to Vrabel’s success as a Patriot head coach. On the offensive side of the ball, the Patriots need to surround Maye with requisite talent, especially at wide receiver and need to protect him much better than 2024’s patchwork offensive line did. With Alex Van Pelt having been let go, his recommendation and the team’s ultimate hire at offensive coordinator will be critical, as the team will be undergoing their 4th straight transition at that position, and desperately need to avoid the kind of backslide that Mac Jones experienced after Josh McDaniels left.
In a way, yes. The Patriots are hiring another defensive-minded head coach that used to play in New England at linebacker. However, in Mayo’s case, it was hard to decouple his work as a defensive coordinator with the mastermind supervising him in Belichick. While Vrabel has experienced the Belichick system as a player, he has also built a strong body of work outside of New England and has proof of concept that his defenses and his overall coaching style yields results wherever he goes.
Vrabel is a proven commodity with experience and can bring meaningful change to the Patriots at a time where they desperately need it. Massive improvements aren’t going to come immediately, but Vrabel can still show his ability to bring forward progress to the team and hopefully tighten up the many mistakes that cost the Patriots winnable games in 2024-25. If the Patriots have a successful offseason and fill in their personnel and coaching gaps properly, Vrabel has the ability to bring them back to being a contender.
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