Former Patriots' Champion Interested in Coaching Team

A former New England Patriots' Super Bowl champion is interested in coming back as the head coach.

Aug 4, 2024; Cleveland Browns advisor Mike Vrabel during practice at the Browns training facility in Berea, Ohio. / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Throughout the course of the 2024 NFL season, the New England Patriots have been rumored to potentially move on from first-year head coach Jerod Mayo.

Time after time, he has made mistakes with his words in the media and the team has looked completely unprepared on game day. A lot of those issues usually come back on the shoulders of the head coach.

Mayo could very well end up being brought back for the 2025 season, but the Patriots have a tough decision to make. Do they truly believe in Mayo enough to pass on some of the elite head coaching options that will be available during the upcoming offseason?

One of those available coaches is former New England Super Bowl champion Mike Vrabel.

Vrabel would be exactly the kind of head coach that the Patriots need for the future. He knows how to build a championship culture and has proven himself capable of being an elite NFL head coach. It also sounds like he would love the opportunity to come back to New England and coach.

According to longtime team reporter Tom E. Curran, Vrabel would have interest in being the next head coach for the Patriots.

“Mike Vrabel would be interested in coaching for the New England Patriots,” Curran said. “I think that he looks at the Patriots, and despite the warts, says, ‘I’ll go back there.'”

On the outside looking in, New England has a chance to take a huge jump in 2025. If they have good coaching and make the right moves with their draft capital and massive amount of cap space, it might not be long before the Patriots are back in the playoffs.

However, with a young team, the head coach has to be the right guy to lead and develop.

So far this season, Mayo has done nothing to give confidence that he can be that kind of head coach. In fact, he has given major reason to believe that he is not capable of being that kind of coach.

Will New England actually move on from him after just one year? That seems unlikely at this point in time.

All of that being said, if the Patriots and Robert Kraft like Vrabel enough and think that he could be the guy, they can't afford to wait. Vrabel won't be available after this offseason.

It's going to be very interesting to see what New England chooses to do.

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