Mike Vrabel New England Patriots
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NBC has released their ranking for every NFL coach. There, they had an interesting ranking for Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots.
Around the NFL, teams are preparing to begin their offseason programs while preparing for the draft at the end of April. It’s a busy time for everyone, particularly coaches, as they look to gear back up.
With that in mind, Patrick Daugherty of NBC decided to take a look at all those different head coaches and put together a ranking, No. 1 through No. 22, with new hires excluded from the list. Naturally, that included Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots.
Vrabel is an interesting coach to try to fit into a ranking. He’s only been with the Patriots for one season, and the season before he landed in New England, he was a consultant for the Cleveland Browns. Still, he hit the ground running in New England and quickly took the Patriots to the Super Bowl.
In the end, NBC decided to rank Vrabel at No. 7 overall. That’s right in between Jim Harbaugh of the Los Angeles Chargers and Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions.
Is New England Patriots Head Coach Mike Vrabel Fairly Ranked?
Mike Vrabel New England Patriots
GettyNew England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel
There is always room to debate a list like this. It’s part of why fans are seemingly drawn to them like a moth to flames. However, NBC having Vrabel around No. 7 feels about fair.
As it stands, there are six head coaches who have won the Super Bowl. John Harbaugh, as a new hire, is kept in his own category away from the rest of the rankings. One Super Bowl-winning coach behind Vrabel is Nick Sirianni of the Philadelphia Eagles, who has an argument to be much higher than No. 9 given his .694 winning percentage, two Super Bowl appearances, and one win there. The remaining four Super Bowl-winning coaches are ahead of Vrabel.
The two coaches without Super Bowls ahead of Vrabel are Kyle Shanahan and Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh has a better winning percentage and a Super Bowl loss on his resume, while Vrabel actually has a better winning percentage than Shanahan, while also losing the Super Bowl. So, at a certain point, it’s splitting hairs, but there’s a good argument for Vrabel to be a bit above him.
One thing Vrabel certainly deserves credit for is fixing the Patriots. When he landed in New England, the situation was dysfunctional at best. That’s something the team’s EVP of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf recently addressed.
“We had varying levels of dysfunction over the last three years, before 2025,” Wolf said. “And it was kind of rewarding to be able to, first of all, we won, but we also had some stability for the first time in a few years. That’s always rewarding and just kind of understanding that for our staff, it’s easier for them to understand exactly what kind of players we’re looking for. So in those areas, it’s been fun.”
One challenge when assessing coaches is separating their record from the situation they inherit. Vrabel deserves extra credit for the turnaround last season than just his record, when putting together these rankings. In the same way, a coach like Liam Coen deserves credit for improving the Jacksonville Jaguars. That’s probably being seen in the No. 7 ranking.
Vrabel’s Time in Tennessee Played a Factor in the Ranking
Mike Vrabel Tennessee Titans
GettyHead coach Mike Vrabel during his time with the Tennessee Titans.
One thing that NBC made clear in these rankings is that they’re not just based on a coach’s current job. They’re based on their entire career. So, for Mike Vrabel, that includes his time with the Tennessee Titans.
“Mike Vrabel overachieved until he didn’t in Tennessee,” Daugherty wrote. “The dysfunctional Titans cut bait the second Vrabel stopped working miracles with an overtaxed, quarterback-free roster.”
There is clearly some criticism of how Tennessee put a poor roster around Vrabel there. At the same time, it acknowledges how he’s overdelivered given the circumstances. He continued that overdelivery last season with the Patriots.
The hope in New England is that the Patriots will be able to give Vrabel a better roster in 2026. There, with more talent, he’ll continue to overperform and get over the hump to win a Super Bowl. If he can do that, he won’t have to worry about where he lands in any coaching rankings.