The Krafts Got Their Man as Mike Vrabel Takes Over as Patriot Head Coach

Geronimo, Geronimo. For God and country, Geronimo.

What a piece of news to come out of Sunday Mass to. The first choice of Mr. Kraft and Jonathan. The first choice of the vast majority of Patriots fans. For certain, my first choice. And perhaps most tellingly of all, as the early reports indicated, the Patriots were Mike Vrabel's first choice as well. Despite the fact he was THE most sought-after head coach candidate on the market.

Granted, Vrabel wasn't everybody's first choice. Over the past few days, a vocal Greek chorus emerged on X to sing the praises of Ben Johnson. Which I totally got. Johnson is the NFL's shiny new object. And with good reason. He's an innovator. On his watch, the Lions have played a successful, entertaining brand of offensive football, filled with gadget plays and complex motions that make even some of the most disciplined, well-coached defenses in the league look like they've never played the game before. And with the Patriots bottom-feeding on the NFL's sea floor in terms of points and yards Johnson's appeal is completely understandable. Especially when you factor Drake Maye's development into your equations. 

But I wanted Vrabel for several reasons. The first being the obvious one. That I simply have no stomach for giving another first time head coach a season of on-the-job training. These years of Maye's rookie contract are too valuable to squander another one watching the head guy have to adjust to a new life of addressing 10,000 issues every week he never had to deal with before. To go from maybe a half dozen press availabilities a season to three or four every day. To have it be his responsibility every time a player gets arrested, shows up late, can't hold onto the football or keeps blowing his assignments. Ben Johnson might become the best in the NFL when it comes to putting out those fires. 

Right now, walking into One Patriots Place for his first day on the job, Mike Vrabel already is. 

And that is the biggest issue for me. It would be great if all the problems plaguing this franchise over the last three years could all be bundled up into a tidy little package. That all they needed to fix everything was upgrade the offensive coaching. But if you believe that, you're living in a fantasy land. To think that way is to ignore the massive dropoff in defensive production from 2023 to 2024. Despite having substantially the same lineup, plus a full season of Second Team All Pro corner Christian Gonzalez, the Pats went from 8th in DVOA to 30th. From 7th in yards allowed to 22nd. From the allowing the fewest rushing yards per attempt to 14th.  

So to think Ben Johnson is a magic wand you can wave at the problem, utter a Harry Potter incantation, and set everything right again is to ignore a blatant problem that's been staring us in the face.

The culture of this team has been broken for a few years now. As much as I never bought into using the term "The Patriots Way," if it ever existed, it died a while ago. Perhaps as far back as 2019, when Tom Brady was still here. If anyone can be the solution to bringing it back from the dead, it's a guy who embodied it when he was here. And has not put up with any BS as a coach elsewhere. 

We've all watched Vrabel coach, and it's not a small sample size. Try and imagine for one hot second that he'd say, put up with Jack Jones getting suspended for insubordination in his rookie season, picking up gun charges at the airport, and then showing up late in his second season, as he did on Bill Belichick's watch. Try to picture Javon Baker (one catch in his rookie season) missing bed check on the London trip, as he did under Jerod Mayo. Or Rhamondre Stevenson leading the league in fumbles, only to go running out to the first huddle because everyone in the country seemingly heard he was benched for the opening series except for him. 

Forget it. You can't. Because it's impossible to fathom Vrabel won't get that nonsense buttoned up, starting on Day One. Just ask Tedy Bruschi:

But by no means is he some merciless taskmaster either. He's a Culture Guy in that he also understands his players and can relate to them like only a team Hall of Famer can:

In broad strokes, the Patriots need too much help in too many areas to afford to put a rookie head coach - even a brilliant one - at the controls.  It seems to me that the people banging their sneakers on the table for Johnson are a younger crowd who look at the current trends around the league and think that's all football is about; schemes and play designs and RPOs and so on. While that stuff matters, I'll remind all the Vrabel doubters that it's still all about managing human beings. And always will be. But also that on Vrabel's watch, the Titans went from 27th in the league in points (his first year) to 10th to 4th. With Ryan Tannehill under center, no less. That he took Tennessee to an AFC championship game and won the 2021 Coach of the Year. And as I recall, dabbled in offensive football as a player:

I'll end with this comparison that I made last week. This feels very much like the last time the Patriots hired an established veteran NFL head coach as they were coming off a season when they were among the worst teams in the league. That guy was also a former linebacker with a genius for being an insufferable wiseass who did not suffer fools gladly. And Bill Parcells pretty much worked out. He turned the franchise around and turned them into a Super Bowl contender in no time. And was one of the most entertaining guys to ever stand behind a podium, as is your newest head coach:

The Patriots are back. This offseason is off to the best possible start.