Cut The Crap, Mike Vrabel Isn't Going Anywhere

A recent article by an off-the-radar website suggests that Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel could be among the next coaches to be fired.

Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK

NASHVILLE - Recently, I've read two articles from little-known websites that profess Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel is on the hot seat and could be in deep trouble if his team struggles for a second consecutive season. 

One article from the Sportsbook Review website said this about Vrabel and his current situation in Nashville. 

The 2022 NFL season was Vrabel's first in four years as head coach of the Tennessee Titans with a sub-.500 record. At 7-10, the Titans still finished second in one of the NFL's weakest divisions on the heels of back-to-back NFC South titles and three straight trips to the postseason.

However, he now stands to be an early scapegoat of a front office that failed to make a clear decision on the team's intended direction for the next few seasons. Veteran QB Ryan Tannehill will start the season as the QB1 in Nashville, ahead of 2023 second-round picks Will Levis and 2022 third-round pick Malik Willis. Running back Derrick Henry is suddenly 29-years-old and was forced to lead the league in carries in three of the last four seasons while still accruing 219 carries over just eight games in 2021.

With the Titans now firmly behind the Jacksonville Jaguars in the division picture, they'll need to fend off the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans for as long as possible as those two rivals each begin a new era with a top rookie QB under center. Whether or not Vrabel pivots from Tannehill to Levis (or Willis) at the right time could decide his fate sooner than later.   

Let's get a few things straight here regarding Vrabel and the possibility he could be sent packing after this season should his team struggle. 

He's not going anywhere. Even though former general manager Jon Robinson was fired mid-season, the head coach won the battle for control over the roster. Robinson helped Vrabel's cause by trading AJ Brown before the 2022 draft. 

Winning that battle means that Vrabel gained power at that point, and depending on how much influence the head coach had on hiring new general manager Ran Carthon, he could still have more juice with owner Amy Adams-Strunk than Carthon. 

Add to that the fact that last season's epic collapse and season-ending losing streak marked the first such season of his head coaching career. Having a second consecutive bad campaign in the face of the bad moves made under Robinson, like trading Brown, and wasting draft capital on Dennis Daly, among others, could almost be expected, and many are predicting it.      

That said, as for the Titans being "firmly" behind Jacksonville, I go back to December 11 of last year when this "firmly" behind the Jaguars Titans team managed to take the mighty band of Floridians into the final minutes of a winner-take-all matchup, in Jacksonville with a quarterback who had been on the roster two weeks. 

I'm not trashing Doug Marone's squad, and Trevor Lawrence is currently the best quarterback in the division, slightly ahead of Ryan Tannehill. Still, I don't see a big difference between these two teams on paper. 

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk agrees with me, as he recently stated in a video for his site.   

I don't think he clashes with ownership. I think he and Jon Robinson [former GM] clashed, and guess who won? Who won? Robinson didn't win. Vrabel won. Now, I don't know how much say Vrabel had in the hiring of Ran Carthon, the new GM, but if Carthon’s smart and realizes Vrabel’s got the juice here, Vrabel was the Coach of the Year, Vrabel takes whatever he gets thrown and turns it into something, that year that he won Coach of the Year they set the record, they shattered the record for the number of total players on a roster in a given season.

So I think Vrabel’s fine. I think Vrabel falls into the category just like with Mike Tomlin. If he would get fired, he would instantly be a top candidate for every vacancy, and there would be teams that currently have coaches that would think about firing their coach to try to hire Vrabel.

Adams-Strunk knows this, and from the interaction between the owner and her coach during the recently completed offseason program practices, she's not thinking anything about moving on from the man she hired in 2018. 

So, cut the crap and stop reading these articles filled with nothing but stuff like this. That said, there's a phrase that says, "Physician treat thyself," which is good advice for me too.  

Titans Related Stories

• 'HALF OF THEM' DON'T KNOW VRABEL PLAYED IN THE NFL: In a recent Titans podcast, Titans head coach Mike Vrabel joked that half of his current players didn't even know he played in the NFL or caught a touchdown pass. CLICK HERE
• MY INAUGURAL ALL-TIME ALL-TITANS TEAM: OFFENSIVE EDITION: Here's my all-time all-Titans team for the franchise since it arrived in Nashville. CLICK HERE
• MY INAUGURAL ALL-TIME ALL-TITANS TEAM: DEFENSIVE EDITION: Here's my all-time all-Titans team for the franchise since it arrived in Nashville. CLICK HERE