Coaching Candidate 2018: Mike Vrabel and His Players on His Style

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• His injury-plagued defense stumbled in 2017, but Mike Vrabel’s players and other NFL insiders see the qualities that make him a prime candidate for a head-coaching job: the ability to motivate and develop talent

By Robert Klemko
January 4, 2018

Bernardrick McKinney has a story about the first time he met Mike Vrabel that begins to explain why the first-year defensive coordinator whose Houston Texans defense allowed the most points in football in 2017 is almost certainly going to become an NFL head coach this offseason or the next.

Before the 2015 combine, Vrabel came to Mississippi State to work out McKinney, an inside linebacker. Without much ceremony, Vrabel launched into yelling fits directed at McKinney. Punch harder! Run faster! Run harder! “He was really hard on me. It was very intense,” McKinney says. “Everything I did, he was yelling at me, the whole time. I’m like, Oh my god. I just knew the Texans weren’t gonna pick me. I called my momma and told her I felt like I was just in a boxing ring.”

To his surprise, Houston drafted him in the second round in 2015.

“I was like, they want me?” McKinney says. “I didn’t think I had a good workout, but I guess they did see something in me. Still to this day, he’s on me, trying to make me better. I respect it.”

Vrabel, the former NFL linebacker and utility man who was a key player on three New England championship teams, was searching for what he tries to identify in all Texans draft prospects, a quality he understood to be the driving force behind New England’s success during his eight seasons.

“I’m looking for the guys that love football,” Vrabel told me in August. “Tedy Bruschi loved football, and a lot of those other guys too. They were passionate about it, competitive, they had an energy about it.”

And they loved the game so much, they were open to being challenged in ways that make the average 21-year-old SEC linebacker uncomfortable.

“I think it woke me up,” McKinney says of that pre-draft workout with Vrabel. “I guess he wanted to see my reaction, whether I was going to keep my poise, so I just kept my mouth shut and kept working.

“Everybody coming out of college thinks they’re the top guy. I had to understand that this is a grown-man league and I had to come in and earn it every day. He pushes everybody that way.”

Vrabel’s ability to manage and develop individual players is what earned him a bump from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator last offseason. The promotion came on the heels of glowing endorsements from defensive leaders like J.J. Watt, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year, and Whitney Mercilus, the sixth-year outside linebacker and former first-round pick who struggled in his first two seasons in Wade Phillips’ system, before the Texans brought in Romeo Crennel and Vrabel to transform the defense. Now Mercilus is annually one of Pro Football Focus’s highest-graded edge defenders.

“I think when Vrabel came, the execution, development, everything stepped up,” Mercilus says.

The Texans allowed the fewest yards in football in 2016 despite losing Watt to injury after three games. There were high expectations for both Vrabel and his defense entering 2017; having never been a coordinator, Vrabel landed eighth on a list of future head coaches in my survey of NFL minds last summer.

When I talked to Vrabel in August about his head-coaching aspirations, he said one thing that might make you believe in jinxes: “We’re lucky that J.J.’s here, and we’re lucky that Whitney’s here, and all these great guys,” Vrabel said. “We’re gonna add J.J. back into that mix and see where we can go from there.”

Of course, the Texans lost defensive anchors Watt and Mercilus to season-ending injuring early in 2017. Coupled with the free agency departure of cornerback A.J. Bouye and struggles on the offensive side of the ball after Deshaun Watson’s injury, the Texans defense stumbled, robbing the league of an opportunity to see what kind of unit Vrabel could assemble under better circumstances. But the personnel evaluators who were high on Vrabel last year had never seen him coach a defense; they each pointed to his ability to motivate and develop talent and his unique perspective on Bill Belichick’s success in New England.

Unlike the former Patriots assistants who have crashed and burned in head-coaching roles, Vrabel saw the Hoodie through the eyes of a player. From that experience he came away with some core beliefs about coaching. “That preparation is vitally important,” Vrabel says. “Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a player, being consistent, never predicting how a game is going to go, being ready for constant change, evolution. We try to take [the opponent’s] best plays and best players away from them every week and make them beat us with something that’s not their strength.

“Versatility is a huge thing. If you’re a versatile player, capable of learning more than one spot, then we can move you around and create matchups.

“If I’m making a defensive player in a test tube, I just want tough guys who love football and love their teammates.”

It’s Vrabel’s ability to find and develop those sorts of players that will have him at the helm of a franchise sooner than his 2017 record would suggest.

Vrabel Could Thrive As Lions’ Head Coach: “He’s Headed For Great Things”

Dec 10, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel sits on the bench during the game against the San Francisco 49ers at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

By Will Burchfield

January 3, 2018

Lions fans might not be all that familiar with Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel who will interview with the team on Wednesday for its head coaching vacancy.

Allow Texans beat writer John McClain of the Houston Chronicle to introduce him.

“I’m in my 39th year of covering the NFL, and Mike, as an assistant coach, has got head coach written all over him more than anyone I’ve ever covered,” McClain told 97.1 The Ticket.

Why?

“Not only did he have great credentials as an outside linebacker with the Steelers, Patriots and Chiefs, but everybody he played for, including Bill Belichick, knew that he wanted to be a coach. He didn’t make any bones about it.

“He has talked to Belichick a lot about coaching, why he did things organizationally, as well as the team on the field and off the field,” said McClain.

Vrabel, a one-time All-Pro and three-time Super Bowl champ, enjoyed a 14-year career before getting into coaching. He joined his alma mater, Ohio State, in 2011 as a linebackers/defensive line coach and made the jump to the NFL in 2014 as the Texans linebackers coach.

Houston promoted him to defensive coordinator this season, in large part because other NFL teams were trying to poach him. The Texans defense was ravaged by injuries and allowed the most points in the league, but that did nothing to change McClain’s conviction about Vrabel’s potential as a head coach.

He has that uncanny knack for getting the most out of his players.

“Mike is a very forceful person,” McClain said. “He’s a great interview, he exudes confidence. The players who played under him at linebacker swore by him. Every coach, including (Texans head coach) Bill O’Brien, will tell you: At some point, whether it’s with the Lions or another team, Mike Vrabel’s going to be a head coach.”

In addition to the Lions, Vrabel is expected to interview with the Colts. The belief around Houston is that he’s as good as gone.

If Detroit is Vrabel’s next stop, the Lions will get a gruff, spirited, defensive-minded head coach — a stark departure from Jim Caldwell, who the team fired on Monday.

“He is tough on the players, very demanding. But he’s also very fair. He doesn’t wear his Super Bowl rings, but the players know — not from him but from the media — how successful he was, what a leader he was and how he’s always wanted to be a coach,” McClain said.

He added, “Mike was always a very commanding presence. I know he would get respect from his players.”

That’s not to say Caldwell lacked respect in the Lions’ locker room. Far from it. But his ability to motivate his players seemed to wane as his tenure wore on. The Lions came out flat in far too many games this season, and it cost them down the stretch.

By all accounts, Vrabel has no trouble inspiring his troops. Players respond to his strong personality and on-field success.

Lions general manager Bob Quinn is familiar with Vrabel as the two spent eight years together in the Patriots organization. Such a connection could give Vrabel an edge in the interview process.

McClain said it’s only a matter of time before Vrabel lands a head coaching gig. In many ways, it’s always been his calling. He joined the Texans’ staff in 2014 because he wanted to study under Romeo Crennel, his defensive coordinator for four seasons with the Patriots.

Crennel, at the time, was the Texans defensive coordinator.

“He wanted to learn more from Romeo. Not just about playing and coaching as he did with the Patriots, but about coaching a defense, about doing everything it takes to run a successful defense,” McClain said. “Crennel swears by him, too.

“I don’t know anybody who’s worked with Vrabel who doesn’t really respect Mike and believe he’s headed for great things in the NFL.”

The Lions interviewed two in-house head coaching candidates on Tuesday in offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin. They’re expected to sit down with Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and Packers linebacker coach Winston Moss on Thursday and Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia over the weekend.

Mike Vrabel’s Name Keeps Popping Up as a Candidate for a Head Coach Opening. Here’s Why

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• The former Patriots linebacker spent just one year as a coordinator with the Texans, and his unit didn’t perform particularly well. Still, he’s a prime candidate for a 2018 head coaching job. It’s his commanding presence, the Belichick connection—and the sense that if you want him, you’d better get him now

By Peter King
January 2, 2018

If you ask me what has surprised me the most over the past five days, since I’ve been asking team people and some coaches with jobs about the various coaching searches around the NFL,
I would say it comes down to this name: Houston defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel.

I have heard four people from four different teams bring up Vrabel as a possible 2018 head coach, and certainly as someone whom teams will be interested in interviewing. Detroit GM Bob Quinn will interview him for the Lions’ vacancy on Wednesday, and The MMQB’s Albert Breer says Indianapolis and Arizona could also be interested in talking to Vrabel about their openings.

The 42-year-old Vrabel, coming off his first season as a coordinator, will have some difficult questions to answer, including this one: You coached the worst scoring defense in the league in your only year as coordinator—why should we hire you as our head coach?

That will be a big one to get over. The Texans allowed seven points more per game in 2017 than in ’16, and Vrabel’s unit struggled to get over the early losses of Whitney Mercilus and J.J. Watt. So it’s a legitimate question, and one that coaches who have waited for an opportunity will pounce on if Vrabel gets his shot so soon.

“Of all the guys in this pool, the one I’d say who has the chance to be the best head coach is Vrabel,” one current NFL head coach with no ties to Vrabel told me on Monday. “It’s his presence, and the people he’s been around and learned from.”

Overall, the enthusiasm about Vrabel stems from these facts: He played on winning teams and know what it takes to win; he carries a lot of Bill Belichick with him from eight years as a Patriot; he has a commanding presence in front of players; and he’s seen as a unifier who can help build a winner. Fair or unfair, that’s his rep in NFL circles at the start of this hiring process. Don’t underestimate the Belichick connection.

Vrabel’s brief bio:

• Defensive end, Ohio State, 1993-96
• Steelers linebacker/special-teamer under Bill Cowher, 1997-2000
• Patriots Swiss army knife player (pass-rusher/tight end, special-teamer) under Belichick, 2001-08
• Chiefs linebacker, 2009-10
• Ohio State assistant, 2011-13
• Texans linebackers coach, 2014-16
• Texans defensive coordinator, 2017

Vrabel is of the unique players of the Belichick era in New England. He once had three sacks and a touchdown catch in a Patriots game, and he caught TD passes from Tom Brady in two of Vrabel’s three Super Bowls with the team.

Those who know him, or have seen him coach, or have been teammates with him over his 14-year playing career say Vrabel has it. He has a strong presence in front of players, and players respond to him. He was never afraid to spar with Belichick, or to reinforce Belichick’s locker-room message. When Vrabel left Kansas City after the 2010 season, I’m told he was the most respected man in the locker room. After retiring in 2011 and beginning his coaching career at Ohio State, he had a major impact on recruiting.

Now, starting in Detroit on Wednesday, he’ll have to convince general managers and perhaps owners, if he climbs that high in the process, that he’s experienced enough to be a head coach now—and will have a plan for the offensive side of the ball. Who his offensive coordinator would be if he gets a shot is unknown.

For those who’d say it’s a year or two too early for Vrabel, I’d say this: Sean McVay got his job with the Rams at age 30 in 2017. Mike Tomlin got his job with the Steelers at 36 in 2007. The mantra around the league when those guys were hired was, basically, it’s too soon. And sometimes it is too soon for young coaches who make the leap early. But I’m reminded of what the late Dan Rooney, Steelers boss, told me when I asked him whether Tomlin might have been hired a year or two before he was ready for the big step. Paraphrasing, Rooney said: We wouldn’t be looking for a coach in a year or two. We’re looking for one now. And he wouldn’t be available the next time we’d be looking for a coach.

In coaching hires, when you like a guy, and he might be greener than you’d prefer, you’d better get him now. Vrabel might be that guy this hiring cycle.