How will the Titans fare without a defensive coordinator

Vrabel The DC

If there’s any reason to believe in this experiment, it should be that Mike Vrabel understands defense inside and out.

Vrabel’s experience with NFL defenses began with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1997, when he kicked off a professional playing career as a linebacker that would last 14 seasons. But more valuable than his playing days, Vrabel has experience as a defensive coach as well, both in leading position groups and coordinating an entire NFL defense.

This is where opinions on Vrabel’s defensive ability can start to split. It’s clear the Titans head coach has experience at multiple levels, but how much of that experience is good experience?

You could look at his time spent working with Urban Meyer at Ohio State, where Vrabel the defensive line coach helped the Buckeyes reach a combined 38-3 record over his three seasons coaching in college. In those three years, the Buckeyes ranked no lower than 31st in points allowed per game and managed to get even better as a group each year as Vrabel got more experience.

It’s a similar story for Vrabel’s days as a position coach for the Houston Texans. While coaching linebackers, Vrabel’s Houston defenses were consistently one of the best ranking units in the NFL. The problems showed up when Vrabel was given a promotion, where, as defensive coordinator, Vrabel’s Texans finished ranked 20th in yards allowed per game and dead last in points allowed per game.

This was Vrabel’s sole experience as a dedicated defensive coordinator, and the results were… not pretty. But taking one look at the Texans 2017 defensive depth chart, it’s hard to pin the poor performance solely on Vrabel.