The Tennessee Titans may have not accomplished the ultimate goal of making it to Super Bowl LIV this year, but their success that brought them to the AFC Championship Game didn’t go unnoticed.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman and coach Jimmy Johnson were just two prominent figures to praise the Titans ahead of the Super Bowl.
“When Mike Vrabel was a defensive coordinator… I’m asked from time to time when these head-coaching jobs come open as to who I recommend, and that year, the only guy I was recommending was Mike Vrabel,” Aikman said. “I never played with Mike, never was on a team where he was on the staff, but I would watch him. We’d do Houston Texans games, and I’d go over and watch him coach linebackers and I just loved his approach. I loved his intensity. I felt that he was smart, I felt he had a great pedigree having been raised, essentially, with the New England Patriots.”
Like Aikman, Johnson was also high on Vrabel, commending his decision on making the quarterback switch from Marcus Mariota to Ryan Tannehill.
Mariota was benched in favor of Tannehill in the third quarter of Week 6’s shutout loss to the Denver Broncos.
The Titans never looked back, officially naming Tannehill the starter in Week 7.
“Vrabel, he did as good a job of coaching as anybody in this league. The decision he made at quarterback, putting Tannehill in, that’s not easy to do for a head coach,” Johnson said. “But I watch (the Titans) play, they don’t make a lot of mistakes, they play great defense, they run the ball. It’s old-school football. But they’re a physical, physical football team. I love the way Vrabel has coached.”
The Titans face a long offseason ahead, but will be poised to make another run for the big game in 2020.
