The Titans may have made a really big mistake.
On Sunday, the Patriots beat the Broncos 10-7 in a blizzard during the AFC championship game to clinch a spot in Super Bowl LX. The fact that Mike Vrabel led New England to an AFC title in his first season as the franchise’s head coach is incredible. Meanwhile, his old team is still struggling.
Vrabel was the head coach in Tennessee for six seasons and led the Titans to the playoffs three times. In 2019, he took them to the AFC championship game, where they ultimately came up short in a loss to the Chiefs. After a 6-11 season in 2023, Tennessee fired Vrabel. He was 54-45 during his time with the franchise, and 2-3 during the postseason.
Since moving on from Vrabel, the Titans have gone 6-28 over the past two seasons. His replacement, Brian Callahan, was fired midway through the 2025 season, and they have already moved on to hire Robert Saleh.
Meanwhile, Vrabel led the Patriots to a 14-3 record and three playoff wins this season. In fact, when you include the playoffs, New England has won more games since December 21, the Titans have won since firing Vrabel. That’s a truly mind-blowing stat.
Vrabel took over a Patriots franchise that had gone 4-13 in consecutive seasons and had missed the playoffs in four of the previous five years. They were 0-2 in the playoffs since winning Super Bowl LIII in 2018, and 16-35 since the start of the 2022 season. He has already racked up three playoff wins and 14 regular-season victories. That’s more total wins than the franchise had in the three seasons prior to his arrival.
Yes, having Drake Maye at quarterback certainly made Vrabel’s transition to New England a lot easier. But the culture shift this season has been pretty remarkable.
It increasingly looks like the Patriots hit a home run with their coaching decision, while the Titans made a massive mistake.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as One Brutal Stat Exposes Titans' Mistake Parting Ways With Mike Vrabel.
