Mike Vrabel tears open the wounds of Titans fans his first year back, but beneath the sting also gives them a glimmer of hope
The pain of regret reaches new heights for Titans fans.
On Championship Sunday 2026, Titans fans are thinking about who their second coach in two years might hire as his coordinators. Mike Vrabel is thinking about the gameplan he’s going to put together to try to win his fourth Super Bowl ring, this time as a head coach.
The juxtaposition of how the past two years have gone for Vrabel and the Titans couldn’t be summarized any more bluntly.
Yes, just 784 day after Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk decided to fire Mike Vrabel for a culmination of convoluted power struggle and performance impatience reasons, he and his new supernova QB are heading to the Super Bowl. It’s a nightmare for Titans fans. But buried deep beneath the pain of regret is a glimmer of hope.
Mike Vrabel reaches Super Bowl two years after Titans fired him
Many Titans fans and outside onlookers alike had serious questions about the decision to send Vrabel packing two Januarys ago. In just his first year back as an NFL head coach, he has swiftly proven people’s worst-case fears true. And for those who agreed with the decision (or simply came to terms with it over time), it rips open old wounds in the midst of ongoing organization instability.
Plenty of people in and around the team in Nashville are happy for Vrabel. I’m happy for Vrabel. His former players seem awfully happy for him… especially those who badly wanted to never see him go.
The cope from Titans fans is real on this one. It’s my job to have a finger on the pulse of this team and it’s fanbase every day. I have a finely tuned antenna (utterly worthless life skill) for the emotions the shifting narrative winds evoke. And my radar hasn’t flashed this many red warning lights in a very, very long time. It is borderline impossible to be a Titans fan and not feel a sting deep down in your heart over this. Plenty will lie about it, even to themselves, but it doesn’t make it any less true. It can no longer be denied.
Mike Vrabel has immediately gone further with his new team than he ever did with Tennessee. Now, I’m not here to ignore the divine providence he encountered along the way. The Patriots played a historically easy schedule this year. They faced Justin Herbert in his worst personal game in memory, and then the Texans in CJ Stroud’s worst personal game in history. The Patriots defense played a role no doubt, but those two having terribly off days is in part independent of them. Then finally, they faced the Broncos with a backup QB for a ticket to the big dance. And even then, it took Sean Payton stupidly forgoing a 10-0 lead with a FG and an inexcusable mental mistake turnover by the backup QB to win by three. But lucky beats good every day of the week, and twice on Sundays!
So where is the glimmer of hope in all of this? Well, Vrabel just demonstrated the blueprint for rapid ascension in a league designed for parity. He took over a team with eight combined wins the previous two seasons and got them to a Super Bowl.
Can the Titans do the same thing in 2025? It is, of course, extraordinarily implausible. But a significant improvement over three measly wins is perfectly possible without rising to the very top.
Here’s the blueprint: Step one, get a strong coach. In the case of the Patriots, I believe they landed one of the five-ish truly elite, game changing coaches in the world. But that’s a discussion for another time.
Step two, and this is extremely important, you have to have a QB who takes a big leap. Landing with Drake Maye primed to explode as a franchise QB was a total dream for Vrabel. Robert Saleh is hoping something similar happens with Cam Ward.
Step two and three are hitting big in an expensive free agency, then hitting on your first draft. The Patriots did both. The Titans have the player acquisition resources to do it too, but Mike Borgonzi has to get hot.
Do a version of all of these things, and you too can go from the NFL gutter to the penthouse overnight. No matter who you are. Keep that in mind while you’re painfully rooting for—or aggressively praying on the downfall of—the Super Bowl-bound Patriots this February.