4 things to know about Mike Vrabel’s coaching style

The Patriots moved quickly on their head coaching search and on Sunday announced they have hired Mike Vrabel as the organization’s next head coach.

Vrabel was the favorite for the job as soon as Jerod Mayo was let go in the hours following the season finale, and things progressed in a hurry.

You probably know plenty about Vrabel the player, a three-time Super Bowl champion in Foxborough as a key part of New England’s vaunted linebacking corps alongside Willie McGinest and Tedy Bruschi (and an occasional goal-line target for Tom Brady).

But you may not be as familiar with Vrabel the coach as he takes over a Patriots team in a rebuild. Here are a few things to know about New England’s new head coach.

He was the NFL Coach of the Year in 2021.

New England will be Vrabel’s second head-coaching job after a six-year stint in Tennessee, where Vrabel led the Titans to three consecutive playoff berths from 2019-2021, including a trip to the AFC Championship Game in 2019.

The high point came in 2021, when Vrabel guided Tennessee to the No. 1 seed and a 12-5 record, the franchise’s highest win total since 2008. That earned the Titans a bye into the divisional round, where they narrowly fell to the eventual AFC champion Bengals.

It also earned Vrabel the NFL Coach of the Year award, an honor he earned ahead of candidates like former Patriots coach Bill Belichick and the Packers’ Matt LaFleur.

He’s a defensive coach, but not a defensive play-caller.

While Vrabel was a key figure in shaping Tennessee’s defensive scheme, he wasn’t calling plays for much of his time in charge; Dean Pees handled those duties during Vrabel’s first two seasons in Tennessee before turning over the play-calling to linebackers coach and eventual defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.

Vrabel was often cagey about who was calling the plays after Pees retired in early 2020 but eventually revealed that Bowen was doing so following the season.

Whoever was in charge, the Titans’ defenses under Vrabel improved immensely, jumping from the 17th-ranked scoring defense in 2017 to third in 2018. Amid some confusion over Vrabel not naming an official defensive coordinator in 2020, Tennessee slipped to 24th, but quickly rebounded to sixth in that 2021 season that earned Vrabel the NFL Coach of the Year award.

It seems likely then, that whomever Vrabel brings in as a defensive coordinator will be calling the plays come game day.

His Titans teams dominated the trenches — on both sides of the ball.

Tennessee was one of the league’s premier ground-and-pound teams in the NFL during Vrabel’s tenure, with the Titans boasting both one of the NFL’s best rushing attacks and stingiest rushing defenses.

It helps when you can build a ground game around Derrick Henry, the most productive and dominant running back over the last decade, but Tennessee finished no lower than sixth in rushing offense for four consecutive seasons from 2018-2021.

It was a similar story on the other side of the ball, where the Titans’ run defense — also built around one of the league’s best at his position in defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons — finished fourth in yards per carry allowed in 2023 and 2021, either side of a first-place finish in 2022.

Improvement on that front would be more than welcome for a Patriots team that finished dead last in total rushing offense and 23rd in total rushing defense.

Over Vrabel’s entire six-year tenure, the Titans amassed the second-most rushing yards of any team in the league and allowed the fewest yards per carry in that span.

He has a reputation as a tough-love coach.

Vrabel bears some similarities to Belichick, bringing some of his old coach’s habits and techniques to Tennessee. He was never afraid to challenge his players and bring out “teach-tape,” showing the team some of its worst plays to focus on improvement.

“I was used to it. But it shocked our Tennessee Titans locker room,” said Logan Ryan, a two-time Super Bowl winner playing for Belichick who later played for Vrabel in Tennessee. “All of our best players, our highest paid players were being challenged. And they weren’t used to that, seeing all of their lowest plays. And that’s kind of embarrassing. So you don’t want to be on that tape.”

There has also been some perception of Vrabel being difficult to work with, particularly when it comes to those above him in the front off and ownership, something he addressed in a story from the Athletic.

“I feel like I can work with anybody,” Vrabel said. “I feel like winning is the ultimate goal and I — just like our team — have got to be willing to adjust and adapt to things that are going on.

“But I believe that I can respectfully disagree, have a conversation and move on and get past it. I’m also not afraid to share my opinion and what I believe in, my convictions about things that relate to helping a football team win … It’s a unique relationship [coach and GM], one that has to remain respectful at all times. I think that it always was. Are we going to disagree? Yeah, I hope that we do so that we can grow. But ultimately, somebody’s gotta be in charge.”