The Patriots could be in the market for a new head coach after this season, and Titans coach Mike Vrabel is in the Patriots Hall of Fame after spending eight of his 14 NFL seasons with them. Naturally, social media has connected those facts.
That, combined with questions about the fit between Vrabel and General Manager Ran Carthon, have led to speculation about whether Sunday will be Vrabel’s final game with the Titans.
Vrabel, though, made clear Wednesday his intent to stay with the team in 2024.
“Of course I want to be here,” Vrabel said, via Teresa Walker of the Associated Press. “Be here as long as we can win, as long as we can do this thing, and it’s been great. But it also has been just this year. And nobody wants to be where we’re at.”
Vrabel won NFL coach of the year honors in 2021, but the Titans were 7-10 last season and are 5-11 this season. He is 55-48 since the Titans hired him before the 2018 season, and the team signed him to a contract extension after the 2021 season.
Vrabel said he has not addressed chatter about his future with his team.
“If we believed everything that was on social media, it’d be Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and there’s no tooth fairy, you know that,” Vrabel said. “So I really have never responded to any of those, and we’re not going to start now.
“I know where we’re at as an organization, and I’m excited to build this thing and fix this thing and get it to where we want it to be, to win championships with Ran and [assistant G.M.] Chad [Brinker] and the coaching staff and everybody. That’s what our goal is. But, no, the social media and where that is, I can’t focus on that.”
The Titans will have a top-eight draft pick in April and are projected to have the second-most cap space in the offseason.