It was surprising when the Titans fired Mike Vrabel in January after the club finished 6-11 in 2023.
But it might have been more surprising when Vrabel accepted a job as a consultant for the Browns, working with the club’s coaching staff and personnel staff.
Speaking to the media in a Tuesday press conference, however, Vrabel said he didn’t necessarily see his departure from Tennessee in the same way.
“Nothing surprised me. This is my 25th NFL training camp, so I would say that nothing surprises me in the National Football League,” Vrabel said. “That’s part of the job. I think it’s disappointing. I think you’re disappointed that you couldn’t do the job the way that they wanted it, or they envisioned it.
“But again, this is the opportunity that I think is best for me right now to be able to go through draft meetings, personnel meetings with [G.M.] Andrew [Berry] and his staff and see how that all got navigated and how they may do things. There’s 32 flavors in this league, and everybody does it a little differently. So, it’s been fun to be a part of this and try to help where I can and most especially learn.”
Vrabel did interview for some head coaching jobs in the offseason and said that he “certainly wanted to take every opportunity and talk to everybody that called.” But once those teams elected not to hire him, he met with Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski at the scouting combine and agreed to come to Cleveland.
Though Vrabel has been largely working with tight ends with the Browns, he said he’s not slated to have a gameday role with the club. He will attend games to support the team, but will have already moved on to looking at the next opponent.
But it’s no surprise that Vrabel would like to be a head coach again — when the time is right.
“[T]here’s a time and place for that. It’s not going to be anytime soon,” Vrabel said. “So, I think that things that I’ll ultimately learn here may help me the next time that, you know, I get an opportunity to have one of those interviews. This is what I’m focused on, focused on doing that and learning here and helping. And then, you know, if those opportunities present themselves after the season, then I’ll absolutely try to do that.”
