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The Tennessee Titans' decision to fire coach Mike Vrabel is now seen as a significant mistake, reflecting poorly on the organization's judgment. The move has sparked discussions about the team's recent poor personnel choices.
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Titans' firing of Mike Vrabel is going to hit differently now | Estes
This isnāt a savvy organization. If weāve learned nothing else about the Tennessee Titans during their steep slide of recent years, we've learned that. So many regrettable personnel decisions, and one that stands above others.
But even our lowly Titans, bless their hearts, were not foolish enough to fire an elite football coach for no reason other than their own foolishness.
The rest of the NFL, slowly, is beginning to figure that out.
The scandal raging in New England right now is a big problem for Mike Vrabel, and that makes it a big Patriots problem at a bad time ā during the NFL draft.
It dang sure isnāt a Titans problem, though.
If anything, for the first time since Vrabel started his second NFL head-coaching job, smirks in Tennesseeās direction are ceasing. Fewer people are asking what on earth the Titans couldāve been thinking when they fired Vrabel after the 2023 season. Because those people can see it.
Iām not just talking about the photos with NFL reporter Dianna Russini from the New York Post, which are becoming more numerous and more insistent about the possibility of a (long-standing) romantic relationship between her and Vrabel while each are married to other people.
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Iām talking mostly about how Vrabel continues to mishandle the fallout from those photos.
The Tennessee Titans fired Mike Vrabel due to a series of poor organizational decisions, despite his status as an elite football coach.
Mike Vrabel's firing is expected to have a negative impact on the Titans, highlighting the organization's ongoing struggles and poor decision-making.
The NFL community is beginning to recognize the firing of Mike Vrabel as a significant mistake, reflecting on the Titans' overall management issues.
The Tennessee Titans have experienced a steep decline in performance in recent years, leading to increased scrutiny of their personnel decisions.
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At first, Vrabel was defiantly misleading to the New York Post.
Then, he was vaguely contrite about "difficult conversations," owning up to nothing specific with a corporate word salad that dodged the accountability he demands of his teams.
Then, just before the first round of the draft, Vrabel held a press conference as puzzling as it was pointless. He still didn't say anything. He was just as evasive, doing little except spreading doubt about his own availability to the Patriots during the draft ā and in the coming weeks, in general ā while dealing with the familial consequences of that which shall not be discussed.
This has been a horrible look for Vrabel. He could have just come clean immediately, asked forgiveness, and the world would have accepted that and let it go in short order.
Instead, each time Vrabel speaks publicly, he makes matters worse, coming off arrogant and unapologetic and, worst of all, callous to Russini. Her career has been wrecked, perhaps permanently, by something Vrabel clearly participated in, yet canāt bring himself to acknowledge.
In Tennessee, weāve seen both parts of this movie. The good and the bad.
Vrabel is an outstanding coach, no question, who knows how to relate to players and get the best from them on Sundays. Same thing apparent with the Patriots in 2025 was for years with the Titans.
But this weekās Vrabel has been reminiscent of his doomed final season with the Titans, when things got weird and Vrabel didnāt want to talk about shortcomings or except blame other than the old āplay better, coach betterā standbys.
I continue to believe that if Vrabel had handled that final season more diplomatically and less stubbornly, heād still be the Titansā coach. When those defeats and negativity were mounting, though, internal rifts were growing, and communication had become strained between the coach, GM Ran Carthon and team owner Amy Adams Strunk.
The Titans' owner had reasons ā beyond losing ā to fire Vrabel when she did. Few people have ever understood Adams Strunk's motivations, and thatās on her for never offering her side publicly. She refuses to grant interviews to media, which forces everyone to draw their own conclusions about important decisions she isnāt willing to explain.
With Vrabel, most around the league have simplified her decision as a losing franchise making an all-time terrible coaching call. Competitively, it has been.
But that perception, peaking as it did with last seasonās Super Bowl, remains a source of frustration for Titans fans who remember the losses and other drawbacks that werenāt mentioned a few months back, when one needed sunglasses to stare directly at the sunshine in Vrabel headlines and stories.
Not so much anymore.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans' firing of Mike Vrabel hits a little different now