How worried should Bills be with New England finding their next head coach?

One of the Buffalo Bills' AFC East rivals is bringing home one of their own. The New England Patriots made headlines Sunday by naming former Pats standout Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. While the Bills are gearing up for wild-card round matchup with the Denver Broncos, they should also keep an eye on what the Evil Empire has going on in Foxborough.

Vrabel is returning home to New England after helping them win three Super Bowls from 2001 to 2004 as a player and was a member of the 2007 team that had a 16-0 regular season and lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. He spent most of the 2024 season as a coaching and personnel consultant for the Cleveland Browns but he is back as the head guy on the sideline, as he led the Tennessee Titans to a 54-45 record across six seasons as their head coach.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, left, shares a laugh with Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel after a joint training camp practice at Saint Thomas Sports Park Aug. 14, 2019 in Nashville. | George Walker IV / Tennessean.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

In those six seasons with the Titans, Vrabel won two AFC South titles and led Tennessee to three playoff appearances, including a berth in the AFC Championship game during the 2019 season. He was also named NFL Coach of the Year during the 2021 season for guiding the Titans to a 12-5 record and the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

Now, of course, the Bills are onto bigger and better things in the AFC playoffs. But how worried should they be about their rivals bringing one of the best available coaching candidates home? There are already rumors about him getting the band back together with coaches from the Pats' glory days, like Matt Patricia and Josh McDaniels.

"Look for Vrabel to potentially bring Josh McDaniels [back to New England] as his offensive coordinator."

- @jjones9 with the latest on Mike Vrabel's potential future as Patriots head coach pic.twitter.com/CjLeCp1Ynh
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 11, 2025

Vrabel also has a lot to look forward to this offseason. The Pats are slated to have the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and they enter an ensuing NFL free-agency period with the most cap space in the NFL ($133.52 million, according to Spotrac). He also appears to have a couple of cornerstone pieces in 2024 Second-Team All-Pro cornerback Christian Gonzalez and quarterback Drake Maye, who showed tons of promise during his rookie campaign.

Again, the Bills are off to bigger and better things right now than the Patriots. But for the future? This could be concerning. One thing the Bills have benefitted from in the Josh Allen and Sean McDermott era is that the AFC East has not been super competitive in that span. Vrabel heading to New England could eventually cause problems for the Bills and their recent reign over the division.

Maybe it's not during the 2025 season, but New England could be more competitive than it has been under Vrabel, especially since compiling an 8-26 record over the last two seasons.