With both the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers choosing new head coaches this week in former Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales, it is looking increasingly possible that former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel — who seemed like he was going to be one of the top candidates on the market — could end this cycle without getting a head-coaching job.
It’s a bit of a surprise, but also not quite unprecedented. New England Patriots legend Bill Belichick seems like he could be in the same situation. So just as we did with Belichick, we’re going to lay out the remaining options for Vrabel next season.
These are the only two remaining head-coaching openings. If Vrabel is going to be a head coach next year, it has to be in one of these two jobs. The only issue with that is neither the Seahawks nor Commanders has actually interviewed Vrabel for the position. The only two teams that did — the Falcons and Panthers — have already hired other candidates. So, unless one of these two teams is going to circle back around to Vrabel after already giving second interviews to some candidates, it’s not happening for him this year.
Defensive coordinator jobs
Prior to landing in Tennessee, Vrabel spent two years as the linebackers coach and then one year as the defensive coordinator of the Houston Texans. He has mostly had named defensive coordinators who called the plays during his time in Tennessee, though, so it’s been six years since he was consistently calling defensive plays. Still, if he doesn’t end up in Seattle or Washington, teams could come calling.
There are several defensive coordinator jobs that are vacant right now, including those of the Packers, Giants, Rams and Dolphins. Vrabel has not interviewed for any of those jobs yet, and might not be interested in being a coordinator again, but those jobs are available.
Teams with new head coaches like the Chargers, Panthers, Titans (not happening, obviously), Seahawks and Commanders could potentially hire new defensive coordinators, and the jobs in Buffalo (under head coach Sean McDermott), Atlanta (under new head coach Morris), Las Vegas (under Antonio Pierce) and New England (under new head coach Jerod Mayo) either are or could technically be open as well. And if Mike Macdonald and/or Dan Quinn get one of the open head-coaching jobs, the Ravens and/or Cowboys could have open slots.
Obviously the Patriots seem like the most logical landing spot among those groups, but we don’t know if Vrabel would be interested or willing to work under Mayo, nor whether Mayo would want to bring him in. They were only teammates in New England for one season (Mayo’s rookie year) and never worked on the same staff together.
Take a year off
We’ve seen head coaches who are not interested in taking a step backward and being coordinators do this before. A lot of times it’s by choice, as they want to take a year to regroup and figure out what they do and don’t do well and where they need to improve. It seems like Vrabel wanted to be a head coach this coming season, but it might not be in the cards. Going away for a year and hitting the interview circuit to sell yourself has been a strong move for certain coaches in the past, and Vrabel could benefit from doing something similar and then trying to get one of the open jobs next offseason.
