Why Mike Vrabel might not be the right guy to fix the Patriots

Patriot fans are in desperation mode after the last couple weeks of watching horrible football. The consistent name that keeps being brought up while Patriots fans are looking for answers to turn the franchise around is former Patriots linebacker and former Tennessee Titans head coach, Mike Vrabel. On the Joe Murray show we probably get at least two calls a night from people clamoring for the Patriots to hire Mike Vrabel in the off-season. While on paper this may seem like like a good fit, and something that could turn the Patriots around quickly, I'll explain why Joe Murray and I are out on the idea of Vrabel to the Patriots. Mike Vrabel is an NFL coach and if you're the Patriots, hiring him is an immediate upgrade. There's no arguing that. Vrabel would bring a sense of stability and culture to a Patriots team that desperately needs it. However after taking a deeper dive into his time at Tennessee, I don't believe he's the best fit to be the Patriots coach of the future. If you're making me pick Vrabel or Mayo for next year I'm taking Vrabel, I think just about everyone would. But just because he's better than Mayo shouldn't mean he's the end all be all for the Patriots. Vrabel took over a Titans team that had pretty good talent all over the roster. Before Vrabel got there the Titans were 9-7 and coming off a wildcard playoff win over the Chiefs 22-21. In his first two years, Vrabel went 9-7 and in year 2 he got the Titans to the AFC Championship game where they ended up losing to the Chiefs. All these are pluses for Vrabel, but after that stretch he never won another playoff game in Tennessee even though his team had better regular season records. The real problem for me comes in Vrabel's last two seasons in which he went 7-10 and 6-11. This includes a stretch of his last 25 games as a head coach in which he lost 18 of those 25 games. Were there roster issues and some problems between Vrabel and the GM in Tennessee? Absolutely, but why would Patriots fans look at their roster construction and current GM situation and feel good about hiring a guy who's team got progressively worse the longer he was the head coach? Vrabel also made questionable decisions around his staff that should give Patriots fans pause. When Arthur Smith left, Vrabel made Todd Downing his OC because of their close relationship. With Downing as OC the Titans finished 30th in total offense and 28th in points scored per game. Sound familiar to any hirings or promotions around New England in the last couple years? I like Vrabel and I think he should get another shot in the NFL. But as a Patriots fan, I don't want it to be as head coach of the Patriots. With all the issues the Patriots have and the team's biggest asset being Drake Maye and his future, I think the Patriots need to look more at what a team like the Vikings has done with their coaching staff and try to emulate that. https://x.com/SavageSports_/status/1869353034398171247 The Vikings have former Patriots QB Kevin O'Connell as their HC and another former Patriot coach Brian Flores running their defense. I think it's imperative that the Patriots get an offensive-minded head coach that can develop Drake Maye into the superstar QB fans expect him to be. They need to do this while hiring a legitimate defensive coordinator like Flores who can get the Patriots back to their structured defensive ways. If the Patriots do end up moving on from Mayo and Vrabel is the new head coach, it would make the team better and should give Foxboro a sense of stability they are currently lacking. For me though, it just seems like a short term fix to try and appease fans. The talent in Tennessee when Vrabel took over is far, far superior to what the Patriots currently have and the AFC South was arguably the weakest division in football for most if not all of Vrabel's tenure there. The Patriots are a long ways away from having the talent to compete at the top of the NFL and Drake Maye needs to be the team's top priority. Hiring a defensive-minded coach like Vrabel, who previously clashed with upper management and had a team that struggled to score points because of hiring decisions he made seems like the Patriots repeating the same mistakes over and over again.