Content available exclusively for subscribers
SNY’s Connor Hughes, a rising star who likely won’t be on the Jets beat much longer due to how many stories he breaks, had another blockbuster earlier this week:
“The name that is kind of here and the rest of the pack from my understanding it is Mike Vrabel. I know the Jets have already put out their feelers to gauge interest if Vrabel would be interested in the Jets, if there is anything there. Would he want the job? Would he take the job or anything like that. He is somebody from my understanding is atop the Jets’ wishlist.
“Multiple NFL sources believe [that Vrabel] is the coach the Jets covet the most.”
This is incredible reporting when you consider the Jets have just started their interview process. I’m not sure they have interviewed any head coaching candidates because most are currently employed in the NFL, and you can’t interview current NFL working assistants during the regular season. Vrabel is working for the Cleveland Browns right now.
But Hughes got it, and that is why he probably isn’t long for SNY, and will likely get a national job at some point.
This is big news, and should not come as a surprise.
Of course he he should be their top candidate. He’s a hell of a coach.
He should never have been fired by Tennessee, who overachieved with him at the helm. Do you think Ryan Tannehill is an elite QB? Perhaps not, but Vrabel went 7-3, 11-5 and 12-5 with him as the starter from 2019-21.
The big reason Vrabel is no longer the Titans coach, fired after last season, is the team’s owner, Amy Adams Strunk, chose GM Ran Carthon over him in a power struggle.
After Strunk fired long-time Titans GM John Robinson, she hired Carthon to be the GM, to team with Vrabel.
From what I hear, from a league source, is that when Carthon was at the Titans facility to interview for the GM job in early 2023, Vrabel said to somebody in the building, “Is he here for the assistant GM job?”
He wasn’t being sarcastic. He just thought with Carton’s limited high-level executive experience, he was probably an assistant GM candidate.
So to have this somewhat inexperienced GM picking his players in 2023, led to the two butting heads, including over QB Malik Willis, who Vrabel wasn’t as high on as Carthon.
It’s not that Vrabel needs all the power, but he needs a partner he has the same vision as, and not somebody forced on him by the owner, who might be over as over his skis.
That is why Robinson, his long-time partner in Tennessee, might make sense, or Thomas Dimitroff, who was New England Patriots front office when Vrabel was a player.
Vrabel would be a home-run hire for Jets owner Woody Johnson, and would get the fans off his butt. If you read the comments under Johnson’s tweets, many fans are calling for him to sell the team.
Hiring Vrabel would be a tour-de-force move, and the fans would love it.
I’m not a big fan of governing by public opinion polls, but this is a decision that would not only win over the public but also make sense from a football standpoint. So it’s a win-win.
The only concern by some could be Vrabel and the New York media – he can get nasty with the press. I don’t care about this, but some might.
He is just the disciplinarian and football chess player the Jets need as their head coach.
Now some would be quick to argue that Vrabel will be in demand and might choose another job, like Chicago or Jacksonville.
Perhaps, but it looks like neither GM is going anywhere in those cities, and who knows what he thinks of the prospect of working with Chicago’s Ryan Poles and Jacksonville’s Trent Baalke. With the Jets, he could come in as a tandem with somebody, that he might make clear behind the scenes, he’d like to work with.
Also, Vrabel might view the Jet QB situation, in the short-term, as much more favorable, than Chicago or Jacksonville. He knows a lot about Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence from facing him in the AFC South, and there has been a lot of inconsistency there. Chicago’s Caleb Williams is a major project. If he saw the Jets last couple of games, he’s probably thinking – “I can win with this Rodgers guy for a couple of years – I just have to fix the defense.”
Maybe New England or Las Vegas comes into play if they make coaching changes, we will see, but once again, who knows about their QB situations, Let’s not get ahead ourselves with New England rookie Drake Maye. There are a lot of red flags there.
So the Hughes blockbuster reporter makes sense – this should be the coaching candidate the Jets “covet the most.”
It’s a no-brainer.
December 18, 2024
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Thursday.
