Mike Vrabel has all the potential to be a great coach for the Tennessee Titans.
It is fun to take side on this debate right now even though we have no idea what Mike Vrabel will look like as a head coach. Having said that, I think Vrabel has everything you want in a head coach.
Top end coaching history.
No head coach is ever hired coming off of a Super Bowl win. No one fires an elite head coach, it just doesn’t make sense.
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So, then you have three options:
1. Hire a college head coach that you believe has the skills to transcend to the next level.
2. Hire a guy who used to be a head coach, but who was fired because he had a bad year or two or because he just wasn’t getting the most out of his team.
3. Hire a coordinator with no coaching experience because they have been a standout as a coordinator or position coach.
The Tennessee Titans choose the third option.
In 2016, without J.J. Watt, the Houston Texans had the NFL’s top defense. This was while that defense had to deal with Brock Osweiler turning over the ball and being just all around awful.
This year, the Texans lost Watt and Mercilus (their two best defenders) early in the season. On top of that, they lost A.J. Bouye due to incompetence at GM. Once all that happened it took its toll on the Texans who finished the season 20th.
Still, those raw numbers don’t tell the full story.
FanSided
Getting the most out of talent.
By the end of last year, Vrabel was coaching a unit that consisted of:
-Jadeveon Clowney
-2 UDFAs and a 4th round pic on the DL
-3 of 4 starting DBs will be 30 or older by the end of the year. The other one was a 7th round pick.
-a couple of 2nd round LBs
-Oh yea and Brian Cushing so…you know.
That is a bad group of talent. Maybe the least talented defensive unit overall in the NFL. Still, he got the most out of his talent and made them an average unit.
Development
Most coaches get credit with the production of their unit as a whole, but with Vrabel you can see the development of his players. Guys like Benardrick McKinney and Zach Cunningham actually look like NFL players.
I know some people thought highly of them, but really neither of those players looked like anything special in college and they were overdrafted by a bad GM.
So to get those guys to compete at a pretty solid level with a group of second stingers in front of them and no help in the secondary, that is nothing to scoff at.
On top of that, his college coaching resume is equally as impressive. At Ohio State where he coached for 3 years, he had a hand in coaching and developing:
-Ryan Shazier (1st round pick)
-Joey Bosa (1st round pick)
-Johnathan Hankins (2nd round)
-Adolphus Washington (3rd round)
-John Simon (4th round)
-Michael Bennett (6th round)
That is a pretty great resume of talent produced in your first three years of college coaching.
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Let’s all wait and see
Is this the best coaching hire that has ever been? I mean, no probably not. Can it work? Absolutely.
You are talking about a player who played linebacker, rushed the passer, blocked, played special teams, and even caught touchdown passes in the NFL. He understands the game from every angle.
Not only that, but he had develop talent at the college and NFL levels. He is praised as a teacher and a leader at all levels even back to his time in New England. That resume and history can’t be ignored.
He and Jon Robinson know what it takes to win championships in the NFL and they know the work it takes to create and sustain a dynasty.
Finally, he has a clean slate. I am not knocking these coaches, but he doesn’t have the negative head coaching history of someone like Josh McDaniels.
Sure you worry about the offensive side of the ball, but don’t. He saw in 2016 that a dominant defense with garbage offense can’t win you a title, or at least you can’t have sustainable success there. He is going to put the right guys in place there to support and protect Marcus Mariota.
The Titans got a leader who is praised as a teacher and who has developed some of the league’s top talent in college. He has coached both defensive linemen and linebackers, and he is inheriting three really at talented DBs. At the very least, you can trust him to give the Titans a dominant unit (defense) which is something they haven’t had in a long time.