Going back months, there has been no shortage of rumors and speculation about now-former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel becoming the next head coach of the New England Patriots.
And that only picked up steam in recent days after the Titans decided to fire Vrabel on Tuesday.
However, as it turns out, the Patriots will not be bringing their former linebacker home, as the team has instead decided to hire linebackers coach and de-facto defensive coordinator, Jerod Mayo, as the next head coach.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Mayo was always the choice for New England and even had it written in his contract that he would be the successor to Bill Belichick, who the Pats parted ways with on Thursday.
As we found out in a report from The Athletic’s Dianna Russini and Joe Rexrode, one issue owner Amy Adams Strunk had with Vrabel was his failure to address the aforementioned rumors about New England.
Clearly that was much ado about nothing.
The New England Patriots never reached out to a single person including the hot names like Jim Harbaugh, Mike Vrabel, or even Ben Johnson, per sources. They made their decision less than a day after firing Belichick with a plan in place.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) January 12, 2024
With the Pats hiring Mayo, there are now seven teams left with a head coach vacancy, and one of those teams is, of course, the Titans. Thus, Vrabel has six cracks at getting another NFL head coaching job in 2024.
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