My Two Cents: If Firing Mike Vrabel is About Control, How Do Titans Get It Right From Here?
NASHVILLE — When Bill Parcells first said it, it was true then. And it's still true today.
"You are what your record says you are,'' the Hall of Fame NFL head coach said. And he's not wrong.
When Tennessee Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk fired Mike Vrabel on Tuesday morning, the fact that her head coach went 6-18 in his past 24 games certainly had to come into play. That's a massive mark in the negative column.
The recent losses mattered, mostly because the positives far outweigh the negatives with Vrabel. No one with a football brain would deny that Vrabel isn't a top-10 coach in this league. He's won a lot of games here in Tennessee — he was 54-45 in his six years, but was 48-27 at one time — and has great command of his locker room and a lot of respect from player after player.
He was a Super Bowl-winning linebacker in New England and a respected assistant coach before getting hired by the Titans on Jan. 20, 2018. He went 9-7 his first two seasons, and missed the playoffs in 2018, but the Titans made it in 2019 and stunned the football world.
First, as a No. 6 seed in the AFC, Tennessee upset the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, and then beat No. 1 seed Baltimore in the divisional round. They lost the AFC Championship Game to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the Super Bowl two weeks later.
But even though the Titans won the AFC South in 2020 and 2021 — going 11-5 and 12-5 — Vrabel & Co. failed in the playoffs, losing to the Baltimore Ravens in 2020, and the Cincinnati Bengals a year later as a No. 1 seed. He was the NFL's Coach of the Year that season.
But these past two years have been a mess, and it's not really all of Vrabel's fault. Not even close. They were 7-3 at one time in 2022 but lost their last seven games, blowing the division lead and losing a winner-take-all game to Jacksonville on the final weekend of the season.
The Titans went 6-11 this year, struggling offensively behind what might be the worst offensive line in the league. Still, they weren't that far off. They lost two home games in overtime and missed an extra point in regulation in both games.
They also scored a go-ahead touchdown against Seattle on Dec. 24 with just 3:20 to go, but couldn't hold the lead. In total, they lost seven one-score games.
Is all of that Vrabel's fault? Of course not. He was dealt a bad hand with the roster moves of former GM Jon Robinson, though the Vrabel haters will surely tell you that he had to have some say in those picks.
But it's hard to deny how ugly it was to finish last year with that seven-game losing streak. This year, going 6-11, also was ugly at times. The Titans are the clear No. 4 team in the AFC South all of a sudden, and they've won only one of their past 10 division games.
This 6-18 swoon is not just a blip but a barometer of what this team is right now. It's also obvious that winning only two playoff games in six years isn't good enough, either.
Big picture, I'm not sure this is really all about Vrabel anyway. Owner Amy Adams Strunk hired Ran Carthon as a general manager a year ago, and it's been unclear who has the loudest voice in the room. Even though I haven't seen it, there have been a few national stories about acrimony between the Vrabel and Carthon. Maybe that was a potential long-term issue that Adams didn't want to deal with.
Carthon is meeting with the media at 4 p.m. CT on Tuesday, and it's going to be interesting to see how much he's willing to talk about this alleged power structure struggle.
This is all about the future now, not the present or even the past.
Maybe six years was enough. Maybe not.
But it seems clear that rebuilding this Titans team — and make no mistake, this team is in rebuilding mode — couldn't be done with Vrabel and Carthon in the same room. Maybe there were differing opinions.
But that's where we are now? Who's really in control? Is it all about Carthon now, and was that something Vrabel couldn't handle? Is this as much Vrabel wanting to leave as it is the Titans wanting to move on from him?
Maybe Amy just didn't want to listen to the bickering, or the ego battles over one big decision after another.
This is certainly a time of transition, and maybe going forward with a new coach at the same time is the right thing to do.
Derrick Henry's four-year, $50 million contract has expired and he's a free agent. Is it time to move on from him? Did Carthon and Vrabel disagree on that? Ryan Tannehill, the 35-year-old veteran quarterback who has started here for most of the past five years, is a free agent, too. He's most certainly out the door as well, despite leading the Titans to a win on Sunday. Most everyone, it seems, is more than ready to move on from the Tannehill era.
There is a lot to be excited about with the Titans. They seem to have found their quarterback of the future in Will Levis. He showed a lot in eight-plus games, and has plenty of respect in the locker room — even for a rookie.
There is a No. 7 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft that can generate a fine player. And there's also around $80 million in salary cap space to be utilized in the offseason. This rebuild can be done quickly — provided every personnel decision turns out to be a good one.
It's still a bit of a shock to think of Vrabel not being the man in charge of the Titans. But things change, and they change quickly in the NFL.
If this is Ran Carthon's team now, we're going to find out quickly if he's up to the task. Mike Vrabel is a known commodity, and the players were certainly surprised to see him gone.
This will take some getting used to, but it's sure going to make for an interesting offseason.
Related stories on Mike Vrabel
- TITANS FIRE MIKE VRABEL: The Tennessee Titans fired coach Mike Vrabel on Tuesday morning after six seasons at the helm of the Nashville franchise. Owner Amy Adams Strunk made the call, and will start an immediate search for Vrabel's replacement. She said the "decision was as difficult as any I’ve made as controlling owner.''CLICK HERE
- LEVIS WANTED VRABEL RETURN: Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis believes that Mike Vrabel wants to return as coach. Vrabel is under contract, but rumors persist that his job status is uncertain. CLICK HERE
- TITANS DRAFT DAILY: With the No. 7 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Tennessee can address their offensive line weaknesses. CLICK HERE
- HENRY'S PROUD FAREWELL: The Tennessee Titans' inspired performance in a season-ending win featured Derrick Henry's 153 rushing yards and then his postgame thank-you to the Nissan Stadium fans. CLICK HERE
