Cleveland Browns consultant Mike Vrabel during training camp
at The Greenbrier
By Dan Labbe, cleveland.com
Published: Jul. 31, 2024, 5:53 p.m.
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va.
-- It’s hard to believe Mike Vrabel isn’t a head coach in the NFL this season,
but his bad luck in the coaching cycle is good fortune for the Browns and
both parties will benefit from being together, for however long their
relationship lasts
“I remember when (head coach)
Kevin (Stefanski) and I were talking about (hiring Vrabel), we were like, ‘Do
you think he’d do this?’” GM Andrew Berry said on Monday. “Or he’s going to
maybe want to take the year off with his family? And so we kind of came in
softly, tactfully, and it was, from the very beginning, ‘Oh, yeah, I’d love to
do this.’”
Vrabel’s time as head coach
in Tennessee came to an end last January after six years of generally
overachieving, building a reputation as a hard-nosed, detail-oriented coach who
wreaked havoc as an underdog and wasn’t afraid to play chicken with his former head coach, Bill
Belichick.
He’s the perfect mix of
football guy and analytics, bridging the gap between the two sides, learning
from the likes of Belichick and Urban Meyer about building winning programs.
“He has such a unique
perspective because here’s a former All-Pro player, coached in Power 5 college,
defensive coordinator and then very, very successful head coach in Tennessee,”
Berry said. “So there’s nothing that he hasn’t seen or that he can’t provide
insight into, whether it’s how we’re practicing on the field, how we game plan,
player development and player support areas, how we think about acquiring
players.”
Vrabel ending up in Cleveland
during this unexpected gap year is a testament to how stable the Browns
organization has become in such a short time under Berry and Stefanski. Vrabel
certainly doesn’t need this job. He’s a hot name in the next coaching cycle
before it even begins. He and Belichick might be the two scariest men in
football, at least if you’re a coach whose seat is starting the season a little
warm.
“Have a lot of respect for
this organization,” Vrabel said. “What (owners) Jimmy and Dee (Haslam) have
done, have a ton of respect for Andrew and Kevin and what they’ve been able to
do in a short amount of time. And I trust them and I trust them that they would
do right by me and that they would help me and that the position and the fit
would be beneficial to everybody.”
For Stefanski, there are
plenty of coaches who might be intimidated having Vrabel in the building, even
if they’re a two-time coach of the year. Vrabel is a native son, someone the
Browns probably should have hired in 2018 instead of running it back with Hue
Jackson after his 1-31 masterpiece.
After a brief detour, it
worked out just fine and the Browns ended up with Stefanski and Berry at the
helm.
Instead of being intimidated
— admittedly two NFL of the Year awards and a new extension make it easier —
Stefanski and Berry understand the importance of having smart people around and
being opportunistic to take advantage of however long Vrabel is not in a head
coaching chair.
“We’re probably on borrowed
time with him,” Berry admitted.
You see how the Browns are
benefitting every day when Vrabel spends time with the tight ends or working
alongside his former teammate, Bubba Ventrone, on special teams.
This is a two way street,
though, and Vrabel is going to benefit from his time here in ways you can’t
see.
He has been working with
Berry and his staff and was helping in the pre-draft process, writing up
reports on players, almost making it sound like he was doing work the scouting
staff does.
“They give you a list of
players, you try to evaluate them, you try to figure out what they can do,
figure out what they do best, figure out what their areas of focus are, write
up a report and then when asked about them in the meeting, try to give a concise
answer to how you see the player, how they could fit, what roles they could
fill, what positions they may be able to play,” Vrabel said, “and if they don’t
call on you, then you just go on to the next player.”
Yes, Vrabel brings his
knowledge and background as a player and coach for members of this organization
to learn from, but he’s learning, too. He’s being exposed to how a team like
the Browns, who rely heavily on data and analytics, approach player acquisition
and team-building as well as how they utilize information on the field.
“This is the opportunity that
I think is best for me right now to be able to go through draft meetings,
personnel meetings with Andrew and his staff and see how that all got navigated
and how they may do things,” he said. “And there’s 32 flavors in this league
and everybody does it a little differently. So it’s been fun to be a part of
this and try to help where I can and most especially learn.”
Vrabel is like a USB stick
already loaded with valuable information and now he’s getting plugged into a
Browns organization on the leading edge of football’s analytics revolution. The
Browns are getting plenty of information from him, but he’ll go back into the
coaching world soon, too, after he unplugs, having learned new ways of doing
things, adding to his vast store of knowledge.
The Browns and Vrabel are a
perfect match, and not just because Vrabel ate dog bones in junior high. The
two sides are helping each other — the Browns benefitting from one of the
game’s top coaches helping players and other coaches grow and develop and Vrabel
gets to learn some new tricks, too, as he sets up his next move.
He’s also being reminded of
what football can be.
“You can work hard and have a
good time at the same time,” Vrabel said.
He’s doing both with the
Browns and both he and the Browns will be better because of it.
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