Mike Vrabel wants to “activate” the Patriots franchise and revoke the team’s claim to the position of new head coach

The Patriots have the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Protecting Maye, who has been sacked 34 times in his 12 starts, will likely be a priority going forward. Vrabel indicated it will be a collaborative process with Eliot Wolf, the Patriots’ executive vice president of player personnel, to build a talented roster.

“I think the most important thing is that there is a shared organizational vision for what we want to do, how we want to work and how we want to acquire players,” Vrabel said. “We don’t always want to be on the same page. This is not the environment we want to create. But we want to have a common vision and there are different ways to get there. I advocate that everyone will have one.” I don’t want my employees to be like me. We will have different ideas and that is crucial.

In six seasons as head coach of the Tennessee Titans, Vrabel posted a 54-45 regular season record and a 2-3 playoff record in three postseason appearances. He also won the AP Coach of the Year award in 2021 as he led the Titans to the No. 1 seed in the conference. Vrabel’s most successful season in Tennessee was 2019, when the Titans reached the AFC Championship Game. During this playoff run, Vrabel’s Titans entered Gillette Stadium and knocked out the Patriots in the Wild Card round, which ultimately was Tom Brady’s final game against New England.

Vrabel’s tenure at Tennessee ended in an upset after the 2023 season after consecutive losing seasons. Vrabel is a native of Akron and a graduate of Ohio State University. He spent 2024 as a consultant in Cleveland.

The 49-year-old played eight of his 14 seasons in the NFL for the Patriots, winning three Super Bowls during that time. He finished his Patriots career with the fourth-most sacks (48) in franchise history and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in October 2023.

According to NFL Research, Vrabel is the fourth head coach (excluding interims) to become HC of a team with which they won a Super Bowl as a player. With Vrabel replacing Mayo, the Patriots join the Green Bay Packers as the only teams to have two of the team’s former players serve as head coaches in consecutive seasons, according to NFL Research. Forrest Gregg took over from Bart Starr in Green Bay after the 1983 season.

New England saw the beginning of its incredible success at the turn of the century when Vrabel’s No. 50 jersey roamed the sidelines. As a team leader, he was an integral part of the championship defense and even scored a handful of key touchdowns as a red zone threat during his playing days. That experience is partly why the Patriots jumped at the opportunity to bring Vrabel aboard, and evidence of those glory days will be a reference point in Foxborough when he takes over.

“The banners hanging in our stadium won’t help us win, but I think it’s a great reminder of what it takes to win and the type of people you need to have in the organization, the selflessness “The work and the sacrifice you have to make,” Vrabel said. “For me, these are great reminders of what it takes. Just because these banners are hanging won’t give us an advantage on the field, but it will give us a blueprint for how hard we have to work and what we have to do. “We have to do something to be successful.”