The Tennessee Titans will host the New England Patriots on Sunday and that means one thing: Head coach Mike Vrabel returns to Nashville after he was fired following the 2023 NFL season.
The team was 6-11 that season and has gotten markedly worse since his departure.
“There is going to be, probably, a lot to be said about this,” Vrabel said. “I think it would be filed under the category of, is it interesting or important? I would probably say this would be very interesting, but in the end not very important to our preparation or what we need to continue to try to do to improve as a team.
“But, having spent six years there or seven years there, I think it will be nice to see some people that I haven’t seen in a few years that helped us win, players and staff. We’ve got a huge job we’ve got to do here as we try to prepare for them.”
Vrabel will have extra motivation facing the Tennessee Titans
Vrabel spent six seasons as the Titans’ head coach from 2018-2023 and was relieved of his duties after back-to-back losing seasons.
“There’s probably a little bit about Coach Vrabel that’s fired up for it,” center Garrett Bradbury said. “But he’s such a football coach through and through that it’s just — we need to have a good Tuesday, we need to have a good Wednesday, we need to have a good Thursday, we need to execute on Sunday. So, we’ll worry about that later.
“When we start making things bigger than what they are or focusing down the road, it’s just — we’ve got to win in the moment. No matter what you did yesterday or tomorrow, you just have to have a good today. That’s kind of the message that Coach Vrabel shares.”
The Patriots are currently 4-2 and lead the AFC East division at the moment. Raise your hand if you saw that coming before the season.
Tennessee Titans owner said she considered trading Vrabel
When Vrabel was fired in early January of 2024, Titans’ owner Amy Adams Strunk was asked if she gave consideration to trading him rather than firing him outright.
“Yes, there was,” Strunk said at the time. “But there’s a bit of misconception about a coach’s contract, say versus a player’s contract. A coach’s contract, you can’t trade them unless they are a willing partner to that trade.
“So, yes, we thought about it but at the end of the day with league rules the way they are it would have maybe put us back three weeks and you know, to get the right head coach I was just not willing to go to the back of the line and take a chance of missing out on someone we really wanted.”
The irony in all of this is that the Titans just fired the coach who replaced Vrabel this week. In theory, that should make this game a little extra sweet for Vrabel, but the players seem to just be focused on winning this game.
“We’ve got a lot of Tennessee people in this building, so it will be a little extra for them,” Bradbury said. “But players, we just have to show up and execute.”
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