Mike Vrabel's best head coach landing spot is a team that nobody is talking about, but might actually be a possibility
Perhaps Mike Vrabel stays in his home state of Ohio, but not coaching the team everybody thinks.
Mike Vrabel share the lead for the most coveted coaching candidate in the 2025 cycle, alongside Detroit's Ben Johnson. A half dozen fan bases will be clamoring for him to lead their team next season. He's been rumored to be strongly in the running for the Bears, Patriots, and Buckeyes jobs just to name a few. It's even been said that his next landing spot has already been determined behind the scenes.
But what if the best landing spot for both Vrabel and and the team hiring him is in his home state of Ohio, where he grew up, once coached, and is now currently coaching as an assistant for the Browns? What if he could join a team already outfitted with what it takes to compete immediately? And what if that team isn't Ohio State or Cleveland?
I'm talking about the Cincinnati Bengals. Now, before we go down this road, I have to say: I do not think the Bengals will ultimately fire their current head coach Zac Taylor this year. He's an offensive mind who is primarily responsible for Joe Burrow's side of the ball, which is very clearly not the problem for Cincinnati.
But he does have the fifth best odds to be the next head coach in the NFL to be fired, and games like we saw in Week 17 against the Broncos lend to the idea that he could be shown the door in a surprise move. In case you missed it, a brief review:
The Bengals had the ball on the DEN 7 yard line with 1:39 left to play, tied at 17 apiece. A fantastic spot to be in, one might say. Just take 3 knees, bleed the clock down to less than 15 seconds, kick a 25ish yard field goal and almost certainly go home a winner!
But the Bengals did not do this. They ran the ball with Chase Brown on that 1st down, and he would have scored if he hadn't chosen to go down voluntarily at the 1 yard line. Smart by him, but stupid of the coaches to run the play in the first play. And in a cruel twist of fate, Brown hurt his ankle in the process of sliding down. He didn't return to the game, which went on for a whole lot longer!
Why did it go on longer? Because even after an injury timeout to think and discuss, the Bengals brain-trust decided to render Brown's sacrifice meaningless by QB sneaking the ball into the endzone. They went up 7, left the Broncos enough time to tie right before end of the game, and eventually won by the skin of their teeth in overtime. They deserved to lose as punishment for Zac Taylor's time management sins.
Was this in and of itself a fireable offense? I don't subscribe to that brand of reactionary behavior. But it is the kind of thing that can get you fired by the people who actually make those decisions! This blurb from a Diana Russini post earlier this year about teams looking for head coaches who they can trust to be strong clock and game managers is particularly appropriate to revisit after what we saw from Taylor on Saturday:
Enter: Mike Vrabel.
If the Bengals were to pull the plug after this season, I'm not sure there would be a better mutually beneficial landing spot for Mike Vrabel to coach again in the NFL. The Ohio connection is obvious, and while it's over-mentioned in articles like these, it really is a big thing for him. He loves that state, man.
But beyond geography, the marriage would make a lot of sense. The offensive recipe of Burrow + Chase + Higgins, assuming the front office makes it work to keep them together (which they frankly must), feels like the kind of thing that's very very hard to mess up. A merely good offensive coordinator can make some magic with those ingredients.
And Vrabel's defensive roots could lend to Cincinnati rebuilding that side of the ball, an undertaking they desperately need to tackle. Vrabel is a culture guy, and he's faced down the big uglies in the AFC his fair share of time and won! When you think of vintage Vrabel coaching jobs, upsets over the Chiefs, Bills, and Ravens all come to mind. He's been there, done that. His ability to perform on the biggest stages with a team like Cincinnati who is expected to be there isn't something I question.
And perhaps most importantly in the context of what we saw from the Bengals on Saturday, he's a master game and clock manager. One of Vrabel's greatest strengths is his savvy as a sideline general. He rarely makes mistakes that leave those of us at home wondering what in the world he's thinking. And for NFL owners, that kind of thing matters. A lot.
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