Mike Vrabel next NFL team coaching job odds: Patriots clear-cut favorites over Falcons, Commanders, Panthers after Titans fire former Coach of the Year

Another NFL head coaching job has opened as 2021 NFL Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel was fired by the Tennessee Titans on Tuesday following back-to-back losing seasons. He immediately becomes arguably the most qualified candidate on the open market in terms of NFL experience – other than Bill Belichick, if the future Hall of Famer decides to leave New England. All signs point to the Patriots moving on from Belichick, and they are clear favorites per SportsLine oddsmakers to be Vrabel's 2024 team if he doesn't take a year off.

Vrabel spent six seasons with the Titans and finished with a 54-45 regular-season record, going 2-3 in the playoffs. He led the club to a pair of AFC South titles and the conference title game following the 2019 season, a loss in Kansas City. Both of the playoff wins under Vrabel came that season.

He won a battle for control of the team during the 2022 season with then-general manager Jon Robinson, who was shockingly fired in December of that year. This past offseason, the team hired former 49ers Director of Player Personnel Ran Carthon as the new GM.

After starting 7-3 in 2022, the Titans lost their final seven games to miss the playoffs for the first time since Vrabel's first year in 2018 and also become the first team the 1994 Eagles to lose its final seven games after entering that stretch with a winning record. This season, the Titans finished 6-11, their worst record since 2015. Dating to the start of that 2022 skid, Tennessee totaled just one win away from Nashville and went 1-8 against AFC South foes.

Titans Under Mike Vrabel

All-Pro running back Derrick Henry, who has played his final game with the Titans, told The Athletic he was "shocked" to hear the news: "Coach Vrabel is a leader of men. He is a great coach and teacher... I know he will get another opportunity right away. I look forward to it."

Henry is right: Vrabel will be in high demand. The 48-year-old won three Super Bowl rings as a linebacker with the Patriots (2001-08) and was a member of the franchise's All-2000s Team, so there's an obvious link. Only yesterday, Bleacher Report's Jordan Schultz tweeted: "As the Titans weigh HC Mike Vrabel's future this week, he's interested in the idea of returning to the Patriots, should New England part ways with Bill Belichick."

Belichick is still under contract with New England and has offered to give up player personnel control in an effort to keep his job, but most reports out of Foxborough are that it's too late. New England is 6-18 since Week 12 last season, tied for the second-worst record in the NFL with Tennessee. Only Arizona (4-19) is worse.

There are a lot of Ohio State fans on social media urging the school to fire Ryan Day and hire the former Buckeyes linebacker Vrabel, but that's highly unlikely. Maybe after next season if Day loses a fourth straight game to Michigan.

The other NFL teams Vrabel has ties to are Pittsburgh, where he played for three seasons, Kansas City (played one season) and Houston (started his NFL coaching career as an assistant there), but none of those jobs are open or expected to become so. The Texans job definitely won't open and the other two only would be available only if Mike Tomlin and Andy Reid, respectively, decide to step away.

We will look at Titans head coaching possibilities later in the week as the team heads into a transitionary period with young quarterback Will Levis at the helm and Henry, Ryan Tannehill and other veterans out the door.

Via SportsLine oddsmakers: Which NFL team will Mike Vrabel coach in 2024 (if any)?

• Patriots +200
• Falcons +500
• Commanders +600
• Panthers +700
• Chargers +1000
• Bears +1200
• Raiders +1500

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