Mike Vrabel is no longer the last head coach to be fired by the Titans.
But that won’t make his return Sunday to Tennessee any less intriguing.
A day after the Patriots held off New Orleans 25-19 for a third straight road win, Vrabel took a peek ahead to their next trip to play the Titans.
“Having spent six years there or seven years there, I think it’ll be nice to see some people that I haven’t seen in a few years that helped us win, players and staff,” Vrabel said Monday. “But we’ve got a huge job to do here as we prepare for them.”
Vrabel downplayed the significance of Sunday’s reunion, which will pit his 4-2 Patriots against the 1-5 Titans. Vrabel spoke roughly an hour before the Titans fired his successor, Brian Callahan, after a year and a half. Vrabel went 6-11 over his final season in Tennessee, where he was fired in Jan. 2024.
Over six seasons, Vrabel finished 54-45 as the Titans’ head coach and won two division titles. He also clinched a Wild Card playoff berth in 2019, when Tennessee made a run to the AFC Championship Game and beat the Patriots along the way. Two years later, he was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year.
Vrabel also minimized the expected storylines this week during a Monday morning interview on WEEI. Patriots veterans are already echoing Vrabel’s message, starting with veteran center Garrett Bradbury.
“It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, you have to have a good today. That’s kind of the message Coach Vrabel shares,” Bradbury said, as transcribed by ESPN. “We have a lot of guys, former Tennessee people in this building, so there will be a little extra for them. But as players we have to show up and execute.”
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