A week ago, after the New England Patriots fired head coach Jerod Mayo and quickly moved on to join Mike Vrabel, two league sources close to Vrabel — who had each shared time with him at a franchise previous – explained the to-do list he had prepared during the interview process.
A close connection to an NFL team owner he can completely trust.
A general manager who understands the player he covets mentally and physically.
The ability of both to withstand pain and effort to significantly shape a team’s culture and locker room..
Although they appear on virtually every head coaching search list, these are variables that have given even the most sensible destinations pause. There was no history with Chicago Bears ownership, and the franchise’s executive layer was complicated by the forced marriage of team president Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles. The Dallas Cowboys, who Vrabel would have interviewed with had the position opened, were on standby with Mike McCarthy. Ownership of the New York Jets was mercurial at best. And even the Las Vegas Raiders — with minority owner and former Vrabel teammate Tom Brady defending him — have a line of former coaches and executives wrapping around a block to offer negative comments about owner Mark Davis.
For those who knew Vrabel, the wide range of head coaching opportunities wasn’t really broad at all.
“There’s no way Mike is going to coach the damn Raiders or Jets,” a source close to Vrabel said early last week. “He doesn’t come into the Bears situation after what happened with the (Tennessee) Titans (front office). He’s going to the Patriots. Nothing else will come close.
Less than a week later, it came to fruition, with Vrabel signing a multi-year deal to take over the Patriots shortly after their ouster from Mayo following the team’s final game of the season. It’s a marriage that virtually everyone in the league expected, lending credence to the belief that team owner Robert Kraft left Mayo after a poor season, in part because he thought this would be his last best shot at Vrabel. A chance that – if those close to Vrabel are to be believed – might not have been available if Jim Harbaugh had not accepted the Los Angeles Chargers job a year ago. Looking back, they believe this was Vrabel’s next head coaching job if it hadn’t gone to Harbaugh. And it’s believed that would have also included its hand-selected general manager. It was a pick that most believed would have been former Titans and current New York Giants personnel director Ryan Cowden.
This last point is important because it brings us to the here and now – and how some of these same moving parts should come together in New England. From a front office that should be fine-tuned, to a vitally important offensive coordinator pick, to a roster that’s headed toward immediate churn this offseason, a significant amount of work is already in the works. course. Among the pressing questions…
What will happen with Vice President of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf?
Since Sunday – and it’s important to point out that this is as Vrabel signs his deal – I’ve been told that Wolf will remain in the front office with his title and also retain control of personnel. However, the Patriots are expected to act on Vrabel’s preference and decide to add Cowden to a front office role. That effectively means hiring Cowden away from the Giants, where he currently serves as a personnel advisor to general manager Joe Schoen.
After Jon Robinson was fired as Titans general manager in 2022, Vrabel preferred that Cowden (who had by then become interim general manager) eventually take the job permanently. Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk instead opted to hire Ran Carthon away from the San Francisco 49ers, creating a rift between Vrabel and the front office that would ultimately lead to his firing after the 2023 season.
Cowden has interviewed for other general manager positions in the past and has extensive personnel experience on his resume, including 15 years working his way up the recruiting ladder with the Carolina Panthers before becoming GM. player personnel with the Titans in 2016. was considered instrumental in adding a host of players with the Panthers and Titans who relied on strong offensive and defensive lines, as well as the search for the culture and pattern that Vrabel preferred in defense.
How might he end up fitting in with Wolf, given that he would be inserted into the Patriots’ front office structure with a new coaching regime? It remains to be seen how these roles will ultimately work.
A source on Sunday compared the mix of Vrabel, Wolf and Cowden to what initially developed with the Denver Broncos after Sean Payton was hired in 2023. During the interview process, some believed Payton might ultimately appoint its general director, according to its landing point. But when he was hired by the Broncos, general manager George Paton remained a holdover on the staff, working closely with Payton in the lead-up to the 2023 season to find the types of cultural and schematic fits he wanted. . This also didn’t happen without an addition. In January, shortly after the first season with Payton and Paton working together, the Broncos created a vice president of player personnel position — at Payton’s request — then hired the Saints’ assistant director of college scouting from New Orleans, Cody Rager, to fill it. The result was that Payton got another direct channel to shape the Broncos’ front office, while Paton remained as general manager. For at least the 2025 season, it could be a similar balance between Wolf and Cowden in New England. While Wolf stays and retains personnel power, Vrabel and Cowden play an influential role in shaping these decisions.
For now, many Patriots are waiting to see how exactly those roles are defined.
Is there an inside track for the offensive coordinator?
Former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has emerged as the favorite for the spot. He’s an assistant Vrabel knows well, trusts implicitly to understand how to balance a plan with a running game, and who also has the ability to challenge a quarterback to bring out his toughness and mastery of the plan . Another important note: McDaniels has the chin to take Vrabel’s criticism and crushing mentality as a head coach. That shouldn’t be lost in this equation, especially with an extremely young roster of offensive players who are bound to make mistakes and draw Vrabel’s ire. Although McDaniels failed twice as a head coach, he was a very effective offensive coordinator and collaborator with the quarterbacks. And not just under Tom Brady.
With New England, McDaniels had limited success with Cam Newton in 2020 before injuries derailed their progress, then managed to guide Mac Jones to his best NFL season as a rookie in 2021 before leaving to take over as head coach of the Raiders. Clearly, the schema suitability and trust factor is there.
If McDaniels takes this job, what happens to the rest of the offensive staff? That would mean parting ways with current coordinator Alex Van Pelt and likely quarterbacks coach TC McCartney, both of whom have played significant roles in rookie Drake Maye’s steady progression in 2024. If McDaniels arrives, it will certainly be a change , including for a new playbook and a new scheme. So it’s not without complications.
What types of changes will be made to the list?
On the one hand, a largely disappointing 2024 draft class (outside of Maye’s selection) will get a clean slate from Vrabel and his new staff. Among the many things Vrabel was known for at Tennessee, he often found a way to get the best football out of players, especially on defense.
Guys who can’t follow the program when it comes to going pro – knowing the plan and the playbook, training hard, being on time, showing up in the offseason – won’t make it. not. And they won’t have many chances either. So, the pieces of the 2024 rookie class that are lagging behind in these areas will likely be on a one-shot standard, given their low level of production and some of the red flags that have surfaced among a few players .
As for the rest of the team, what Vrabel relies on has never been a secret. During his best years with the Titans, he had strong offensive and defensive lines, big, physical players with a tough running game and leaders who could take his criticism. Rarely, apart perhaps from Derrick Henry (who almost never deserved it), his stars have been spared from intensive training. His film sessions at Tennessee could often be tough, and Vrabel preferred players who could take them on and then show improvement on the field. Those who wilt in the face of this sort of thing will not stay out of his niche. That’s part of what makes his rhythms with the front office so important.
Clearly, the Patriots already have some defensive pieces that can fall into place and meet Vrabel’s standards. The overall state of the team, on the other hand, appears to be greatly altered over the next few offseasons, particularly on offense around Maye, where it may take several seasons of additions to execute the kind of physical game in which Vrabel leans. .
Overall, there is a lot to do. Patriots owners must have known this was the path they were asking for when they called Vrabel. He’s not a closed book when it comes to his mentality. Anyone who has forgotten this from their playing days with the Patriots will quickly remember it. And it will all start on Monday.
