Bear Digest

Why Bears Interview with Mike Vrabel Can't Be Taken Seriously

Mike Vrabel is no doubt a "leader of men" but besides the competition the Bears face he just doesn't seem in tune with their organization and personnel.

Gene Chamberlain

Former Titans coach Mike Vrabel seems like a perfect fit for New England or the Raiders but there are reasons the Bears wouldn't be.
Former Titans coach Mike Vrabel seems like a perfect fit for New England or the Raiders but there are reasons the Bears wouldn't be. / Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK
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Mike Vrabel talked to the Bears on Wednesday, and now we can all move on.

Not that Vrabel isn't a serious candidate or wouldn't succeed, but it's difficult to see how the Bears would ever hire him when New England set their eyes on a favorite son long ago and now the Raiders have an opening with Tom Brady there luring his buddies.

It's almost as if the Bears should have simply called Vrabel's agent and canceled the interview. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Wednesday the entire thing could be wrapped up Thursday or even early Friday with Vrabel going to the Patriots.

At least they can do virtual interviews now, so no hard feelings and good luck trying to live up to the Bill Belichick era's accomplishments.

If something did click and a miracle happened, there would be changes made with the Bears as Vrabel comes aboard.

1. Leadership

The players had a real problem with Matt Eberflus' leadership ability. They may or may not label it this way. They talk about accountability by coaches. This is basically part of his leadership.

Vrabel would command respect. As DeMarcus Walker said in he locker room on Monday: "I feel like discipline will be laid right down from the first day. A lot of those small things that we have done and gotten away with, that won’t happen. That’s just from my personal experience."

Of course, he used a bit more colorful language in describing it: "I tell you what, a lot of bull(stuff) is going to get cut out. I'm sorry but that's the truth, though."

Players constantly said after the Colts game that they wanted to be "coached harder" and wanted more accountability.

It won't simply be a bunch of yelling at players by Vrabel. It's an understanding of how to get players to realize how they need to maximize their skills.

"The skill set that you have, why not maximize everything?" Walker said. "You don't want to leave no doubt behind of, ;Oh, if I could've done this a little bit more, we could've done this.' Right now, you want to bring in a guy who's going to leave no doubt."

The catch phrase about Vrabel has become "leader of men," and it's easy to see why.

After Vrabel's firing in Tennessee, Henry told The Athletic's Dianna Russini: "I'm shocked. Coach Vrabel is a leader of men. He is a great coach and teacher.

"Wow. Wow. I'm shocked," Henry told The Athletic's Dianna Russini. "Coach Vrabel is a leader of men. He is a great coach and teacher."

The Bears could need both a coach and teacher judging by all of their mental errors the past few years.

2. Handling Caleb Williams

A defensive side hire and tough guy hardly sounds like the hire to bring along Caleb Williams, but Ryan Tannehill became a    far better quarterback with Tennessee under Vrabel than in Miami. His passer rating went from an average of 87 with Miami to 97.8 with the Titans, completion percentage from 62.8% to 66.6% and he threw for a rock-solid 7.8 yards an attempt after he was throwing for a respectable 7.0 yards an attempt in Miami.

The Vrabel's ability was finding offensive coordinators to accomplish this and also establishing a running game with Derrick Henry to make the play-action game work.

However, Vrabel did not always have coordinators who went on to big things so this could be hit or miss. He had Matt LaFleur and Arthur Smith and they went on, obviously, to be head coaches. He had Tim Kelly one season and Todd Downing two seasons and the Titans offense started to decline. The Titans were hurt massively by the loss of A.J. Brown and it affected their attack in numerous negative ways after Smith had them 12th and then second in the league on offense. So, it's possible Downing and Kelly were better coordinators than their statistics suggested.

This would be the greatest area of concern because Vrabel is definitely old-school type with the run and defense, right out of the classic Bears mentality. But can something like this work in developing Williams.

3. Personnel Discrepancy

There would be a need to change the type of players they draft or sign on the defensive line, and they'd need another running back.

A speed back like D'Andre Swift would fit only as the secondary option. Vrabel likes the hammer. Henry fit him to a tee.

Roschon Johnson hasn't achieved much yet and is a power back but they would need the combination of speed and power to punish defenses.

If he opted for an offensive line and coordinators from a system like Tennessee ran, the Bears would be fine on the offensive line because most of their linemen were acquired to run wide zone blocking like the Titans ran.

However, Vrabel is a solid 3-4 guy and it requires bigger linemen at certain spots on the line.

Walker played in it with the Titans.

"Honestly, I'm fine," Walker said, pointing out he has played in both a defense that reads and one that gets in gaps like the Bears did under Eberflus.

Gervon Dexter made strides in his second year as an attacking 3-technique.

"So I've pretty much played in every scheme, 3-4, 4-3 in college," he said. "Know I can play in any scheme."

They'd have to fill other spots, however. And although Dexter was in a 3-4 in college, he played best in a 4-3.

4. Organizational Incompatibility

It's questionable whether Vrabel would fit with the Halas Hall crowd. Oh, the players would love him or grow to respect him. The people running the show might feel intimidated or afraid of him.

While writing about Vrabel and Bill Belichick, SI.com's Albert Breer described the problem.

"Both guys run detailed, demanding programs," Breer said. "Neither guy is going to give some dude in corporate warm feelings as a co-worker. Which, more and more, I think is a problem for NFL owners.

"They want people to like to come to the office. They want to be able to play with the toy they bought themselves. They want to get some validation of their own genius from the guys they hire."

The Bears definitely used to be a tough and demanding type of organization.

Now Halas Hall is a feel-good, cheery, indecisive operation and they haven't come to grips with how to meld the two styles.

After Vrabel found out the Titans had traded Brown out from under him, he got up and walked away from everyone else in a meeting for a few moments. He was not happy.

This is the type of thing the Bears would not be able to handle. The McCaskeys kicked out the toughness when they rid themselves of Mike Ditka.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.