Mike Vrabel's Patriots are a surprising 4-2 and in first place in the AFC East.
Mike Vrabel's Patriots are a surprising 4-2 and in first place in the AFC East.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
FOXBOROUGH — Getting fired by the Titans after the 2023 season stung for Mike Vrabel, but the Patriots’ first-year coach was asked Wednesday if he is now grateful for how things worked out.
“Of course I’m grateful for the opportunity and being here,” Vrabel said. “I love coaching, I love being here and everything else. You just hope that if you get another shot, another opportunity, like we tell our players, be ready for it and take advantage of it.”
Vrabel was being diplomatic, of course. What he probably wanted to say was, “Ab-so-bleeping-lutely.”
Because getting fired has turned out to be the best thing that happened to Vrabel.
Vrabel resurfaced quickly with the Patriots in 2025, and already is the toast of New England, with his team a surprising 4-2 and in first place in the AFC East.
Contrast that to the Titans, the opponents Sunday in Nashville. They are the NFL’s biggest train wreck.
The Titans dropped to 1-5 with Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Raiders, prompting owner Amy Adams Strunk to fire coach Brian Callahan on Monday morning. Callahan, hired in January 2024 to replace Vrabel, went 4-19 in 1⅓ seasons, struggling to develop quarterbacks Will Levis and Cam Ward, while often looking overmatched on the sideline. Offensive consultant Mike McCoy, formerly the Chargers head coach from 2013-16, was named interim head coach.
“To this point in the season, we just weren’t seeing the growth that we needed to see to get this program in the right direction,” Titans executive vice president Chad Brinker said Monday night. “We’ve got to be better than this. And I want to acknowledge the fact that we’re all frustrated.”
With the Patriots, Vrabel has close to the perfect setup. He’s the coach of a blue-chip franchise, with stable ownership, a good amount of roster autonomy, a terrific young quarterback, in a world-class sports town, and the sentimental bonus of it being the team he once helped lead to three Super Bowl championships.
The Titans, meanwhile, are in disarray. The franchise has been adrift since firing Jeff Fisher in 2011 after 17 seasons, hopping from one coach to the next — Mike Munchak to Ken Whisenhunt to Mike Mularkey to Vrabel to Callahan to TBD. The only two coaches to win playoff games were Mularkey and Vrabel, and the Titans fired both.
Their dysfunction emanates from Strunk, daughter of late owner Bud Adams who took control of the team in 2015. Strunk wasn’t at Monday night’s news conference and hasn’t spoken to reporters in more than two years.
“Obviously, Amy is involved in every conversation that we have,” Brinker said. “I’m here representing her.”
Two years ago is also when Strunk began tinkering with the Titans’ leadership structure. From 2018-22, the Titans had stability with Vrabel and general manager Jon Robinson. They had a winning record four times, made the playoffs three times, won two division titles, earned a No. 1 playoff seed, and reached an AFC Championship game. Vrabel’s 54 regular-season wins are third-most in franchise history, one behind Bum Phillips.
But the Titans fell apart in 2022, finishing 7-10. Strunk blamed the GM, firing Robinson and hiring Ran Carthon. The Titans finished 6-11 in 2023, and Strunk this time blamed the coach, firing Vrabel for Callahan.
Mike Vrabel had 54 regular-season wins as coach of the Titans, third-most in franchise history.
Mike Vrabel had 54 regular-season wins as coach of the Titans, third-most in franchise history.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press
The Titans were even worse in 2024, finishing 3-14 with eight losses by multiple scores. Strunk went back to blaming the GM (Carthon), replacing him with Brinker and new GM Mike Borgonzi.
Now, with the Titans 1-5 and ranked close to last in almost every offensive category, Strunk is blaming the coach again, firing Callahan and leaving Brinker and Borgonzi to find the next coach.
The timing can’t be a coincidence, with Vrabel coming to Nashville on Sunday. Firing Callahan and acknowledging the mistake before the game blunts some of the criticism that surely would be coming the Titans’ way.
“I think our process was right,” Brinker said of hiring Callahan. “We believed in Brian and wanted to give him that opportunity. And unfortunately, like I said, it just didn’t work out.”
Because the optics of Vrabel coming back on Sunday are horrible. Vrabel is the conquering hero, while the Titans have been rudderless since firing Robinson and Vrabel.
Carthon, an outside-the-box hire from San Francisco, wasn’t given enough time to establish his plan. Callahan, hired because he was supposed to be a quarterback guru with Joe Burrow, was overmatched.
Former Titans coach Brian Callahan often appeared overmatched on the sideline.
Former Titans coach Brian Callahan often appeared overmatched on the sideline.Rick Scuteri/Associated Press
Callahan got nothing out of Levis, and Ward this year ranks 33rd out of 34 quarterbacks in passer rating (67.6) and last in completion percentage (55.0). Callahan repeatedly threw his players under the bus in his news conferences, including Ward, the No. 1 pick and only positive thing going for the franchise. Yet Callahan didn’t know the basic rule that for a catch, one elbow equals two feet, and even the Titans’ website called him out for embarrassing clock management.
The Titans should be 0-6, with their only win a fluke two weeks ago in Arizona. They followed it up with what team leader Jeffery Simmons called “one of our worst weeks of practice” before the loss to the Raiders. A strong candidate to get the No. 1 pick two years in a row, the Titans are so irrelevant that the Fox affiliate in Memphis chose the Cowboys’ game over the Titans last Sunday.
It’s bad timing for the franchise, which has a $2 billion domed stadium set to open in 2027. The Titans’ season-ticket team mobilized after Monday’s news, contacting potential customers who said they would consider season tickets if the team fired Callahan.
Vrabel took the high road on Wednesday, saying he reached out to Callahan this week to offer condolences, and that the Patriots-Titans game isn’t about him getting revenge.
“We’re not trying to win one for the Gipper here,” Vrabel said. “We’re just trying to make sure these guys are focused on improving.”
But Vrabel already won. He got out of Tennessee and landed in a much better spot.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.