Have the New England Patriots chosen a new head coach?
The team is now in negotiations with former Tennessee Titans head coach and longtime Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel. according to Fox Sports NFL Insider Jordan Schultz. The Boston Globe's Nicole Yang also reported on the Patriots' negotiations with Vrabel.
The Patriots (4-13) recently fired first-year head coach Jerod Mayo, who had come under fire after replacing New England legend Bill Belichick before the season.
Vrabel is a year removed from his own firing in Nashville after going 54-45 in six seasons.
New England spokespeople did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for confirmation.
The Patriots recently interviewed Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson on Friday, while Vrabel spoke with the Chicago Bears and rival New York Jets about their respective head coaching positions.
The 49-year-old led Tennessee to three playoff appearances from 2018 to 2023. The 2019 team advanced to the AFC championship game, losing to Patrick Mahomes and the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Tennessee combined to go 23-10 the next two seasons while capturing back-to-back AFC South championships, only to finish 7-10 in 2022 and 6-11 in 2023.
Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel holds a call during a game against Jacksonville
The Patriots (4-13) previously fired first-year head coach Jerod Mayo (pictured), who had come under fire after replacing New England legend Bill Belichick before the season.
Vrabel was a tough linebacker who played on three Super Bowl championship teams during a 14-year career with Pittsburgh, New England and Kansas City from 1997 to 2010. He was All-Pro with the Patriots in 2007.
He also worked as a tight end in goal-line situations, catching 10 touchdown passes over the course of his impressive career.
Team owner Robert Kraft said this week that he is looking for a coach who meets a broad set of needs.
“You need someone that players can relate to and respond to, but they need to have a team around them that has product knowledge, in-game adjustments, knowing what their system is, just a lot of things that come together,” he said.
Vrabel, a fan favorite during eight seasons in Foxborough, was considered the preferred candidate due to his long association with the franchise and his coaching success during his six seasons in Tennessee.
In retrospect, Kraft now believes Mayo wasn't quite ready to be an NFL head coach.
The Patriots team owner said Monday that his abrupt firing of Mayo just minutes after completing his first season on the job is an effort to right that wrong.
'This whole situation depends on me. I feel terrible for Jerod. Because I put him in an untenable situation,” Kraft said a day after relieving Mayo, 38, of the coaching reins following a 4-13 finish. “I know he has all the tools as a head coach to be successful. in this league. He just needed more time before accepting the job.
Kraft said the team's win over Buffalo on Sunday, which cost the Patriots the No. 1 overall pick in April's NFL draft, had no bearing on the firing.
Instead, he said Mayo went from its 'high point' of winning the Patriots' season opener in Cincinnati to regressing midway through the schedule. Then he didn't show enough signs of improvement the rest of the way.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft answers a question during a media availability
And after watching back-to-back dismal seasons for a franchise that has won six Lombardi trophies over the past two decades, the 83-year-old owner who referred to himself as “a fan of this team first” vowed to do what can see him return to a championship level.
'I don't want to go through this next year. And we're going to do whatever it takes to fix it,” Kraft said.
That will begin with a quick move to interview candidates for a position that is one of the most attractive in the league for several reasons: New England's futility this season still earned it the fourth pick in the draft, rookie Drake Maye established himself as a potential franchise quarterback, and the Patriots enter the offseason with more than $130 million in cap space, the most in the league.
What this course correction won't include, at least for now, are major front office changes, with Kraft confirming that executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith will return next season .
Wolf and Highsmith will also be involved in the coaching search, along with Kraft's son and Patriots team president Jonathan Kraft.