Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel has had a lot of success ever since being hired prior to the 2018 season.
Vrabel currently has a career record of 48-34 while leading his team to three playoff appearances, two division championships, two playoff wins, and one AFC Championship appearance.
In fact, the only time Vrabel has missed the playoffs during his tenure has been whenever he’s been forced to play with a backup quarterback by season’s end.
In 2018, Tennessee lost a primetime play-in game in the season finale with Blaine Gabbert under center, and most recently last season when the Titans lost another primetime play-in game to the Jaguars with Josh Dobbs.
Despite that relatively impressive resume, it appears that the 2021 Coach of the Year is being largely overlooked as we head into the 2023 season.
Tennessee finished the year with an overall record of 7-10 after its once-promising season (the Titans were 7-3 and in first place before their seven-game skid) eventually spiraled out of control, largely due to injuries.
You would think someone with Vrabel’s accomplishments would get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his place among the better head coaches in the NFL, but that’s hardly the case in most cases.
Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports recently ranked all 32 head coaches, and has the Titans’ head coach coming in at No. 13 overall, stating the following as his reasons:
His commitment to a retro, bruising, run-first approach is both his blessing and curse: the man’s reliance on vets like Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry hasn’t really yielded more than early-round playoff bids, and yet year in and year out, he gets more out of his physical teams than you’d expect, always good for at least wild-card contention in the AFC South.
Even though I personally would have Vrabel in the top 10, Benjamin was at least fair when it came to his logic and rationale.
The only coaches ranked in front of Vrabel have either won a Super Bowl, been to a Super Bowl, or they’re at the head of a perennial Super Bowl contender.
You could make an argument that Vrabel has been better than some of those coaches ranked ahead of him as of late, but I can’t get too upset at him being ranked behind those that have either accomplished the ultimate achievement or, at the very least, been very close to doing so.
