With O'Brien Gone, Vrabel Has Done as Much as Any AFC South Coach

None of the three currently in charge have won more playoff games or as frequently during the regular season.

NASHVILLE – With the Houston Texans’ decision Tuesday to fire Bill O’Brien, a case can be made that Mike Vrabel is the most accomplished head coach among the AFC South’s four franchises.

Vrabel only has been the Tennessee Titans head coach since the start of 2018, but he has done things that none of his peers in the division have. Never mind that Jacksonville’s Doug Marrone (pictured, left) and Houston’s interim head coach, Romeo Crennel, have much more experience as head coaches. Frank Reich has been in charge at Indianapolis as long as Vrabel has.

Consider:

• Vrabel’s career winning percentage, .600, is the best of the bunch.

• Granted, it is a small sample, but Vrabel is the only one of the four who has not had a losing season.

• His two playoff wins (in three games) tie him with Marrone for the most among the four. Marrone, however, has been a head coach for five full seasons and parts of two others.

A comparison of the current head coaches of the four AFC South franchises:

Coach, team	Games	Wins	Losses	Win Pct.	Playoff record	Division titles
Mike Vrabel, Tennessee	35	21	14	.600	2-1	0
Frank Reich, Indianapolis	36	20	16	.556	1-1	0
Doug Marrone, Jacksonville	86	38	48	.442	2-1	1
Romeo Crennel, Houston	83	28	55	.337	0-0	0

“I try not to panic. I try to assess the situation and do what's best for the team,” Vrabel said last week. “I think I've had a lot of great role models and coaches. You start with my dad who was a high school basketball coach. They were both … [my] parents were both educators, were both principals.

“I think spending eight years in New England playing for Bill (Belichick), certainly try to take that approach when things come up. You just deal with them and you put the team first and you figure out a way to get things handled.”

Of course, O’Brien also was a factor in Vrabel’s professional development. The two worked together for four years with the Texans. For the first three (2014-16), Vrabel was O’Brien’s linebackers coach and in 2017 he was the defensive coordinator.

The two coached against each other four times the last two years and each won twice.

Like Vrabel, O’Brien was 9-7 in each of his first two seasons (his first three, actually) but twice that was good enough to finish first in the division. In fact, under O’Brien, Houston finished first four of the last five seasons. The exception was 2017 when Jacksonville ended up on top. That makes Marrone the only one among the four now in charge with a division title to his credit.

“I think everybody understands and realizes that Bill is a friend of mine,” Vrabel said. “He was a mentor for me in Houston. Hired me. Gave me my first job in the NFL. I know his family well.

“We understand what coaching in this league brings. And I’m confident that he will have a job whenever he wants one. He’s a good football coach. He’s coached a lot of successful teams, whether it’s in college or the NFL. And I’ve got a lot of respect for Bill.”