This week, you will hear some people with the Titans organization say on the record that this Sunday’s game will not be about Mike Vrabel.
Don’t believe a word of it.
In a game that otherwise would mean little else for a 1-5 Titans team that is going nowhere, except, perhaps to the No. 1 overall pick again, Vrabel is coming back to town having resurrected the New England Patriots in a game that was a line in the sand for a lot of folks.
It certainly was for the Titans front office, as Brian Callahan didn’t make it to his appointed date with Vrabel. The Titans fired him before Vrabel could clobber his struggling team, instead allowing Mike McCoy to absorb that.
Getting kicked around by an inept Raiders team on the road is one thing, but getting thumped at home by a coach that Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk ran out of town two years ago would look way worse.
Also, Vrabel will get a nice warm reception even from the fans who won’t be wearing Patriots colors Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
A lot has changed for the Titans since they began their collapse under Vrabel at the end of the 2022 season. They’ve already cycled out general manager Ran Carthon and have a whole new hierarchy in place beyond Callahan. About the only familiar face Vrabel will know is Chad Brinker, who is now Amy Adams Strunk’s right-hand man on the football side of things in Tennessee and the one who sent out Monday’s statement announcing Callahan’s dismissal.
Much of the roster is different too now, as only 11 players from Vrabel’s 2023 team are still on Tennessee’s current 53-man roster. That group ranges from staples like Jeffery Simmons and Amani Hooker to role players like Julius Chestnut and Thomas Odukoya.
So, in that regard, many of the players probably won’t think it is more than just the next game on the schedule for a team struggling to stay afloat in a deep rebuild.
But the truth is, even though the end of his Tennessee tenure went sour, Titans fans starved for anything good to happen these days are more likely to fondly recall the first few years of Vrabel’s time here rather than his downfall over his final two seasons.
With all that is going on with the Titans chaos in the aftermath of dismissing Callahan, know this: Mike Vrabel is looking better all the time to Titans fans starved for anything to go right with their dysfunctional franchise.