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Rob Gronkowski Says Mike Vrabel’s First Move With Patriots Should Be Hiring Familiar Face

Stephen Douglas

Rob Gronkowski reacts to the Mike Vrabel hiring in New England.
Rob Gronkowski reacts to the Mike Vrabel hiring in New England. / FOX
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The New England Patriots have hired Mike Vrabel as their new head coach. Vrabel will replace Jerod Mayo who was in the unenviable and possibly impossible position of following Bill Belichick's long tenure.

Vrabel, a former Patriots player who won three Super Bowls in New England, will now go about filling out his coaching staff. While he has plenty of names in his rolodex from his time coaching in Houston, Tennessee and finally Cleveland this last season, his former teammate, Rob Gronkowski has an obvious choice for the Patriots' next offensive coordinator.

"If I'm Mike Vrabel," said Gronkowski, "the first thing I would do is call up and dial up the number of Josh McDaniels. A familiar foe to Patriot fans and hire him as the offensive coordinator as soon as possible."

McDaniels was with the Patriots from 2001 to 2008—the same years Vrabel was in New England. McDaniels was hired to be the head coach of the Denver Broncos in 2009 but then returned to New England where he was offensive coordinator under Belichick from 2012 to 2021, which is when he worked with Gronkowski.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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