What Jets were reportedly willing to offer Mike Vrabel and which other team was interested in him
Vrabel interviewed with the Jets, but there was another team also looming to pursue him.
The Patriots’ decision to act quickly in their head coaching search might have prevented Mike Vrabel from going to a division rival or the Cowboys.
Following Vrabel’s interview with the Jets, New York was willing to give New England’s new head coach complete roster control while Dallas also had interest in Vrabel before parting ways with Mike McCarthy, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini.
“Mike Vrabel came in – blew the doors off. Just blew (Jets owner) Woody [Johnson] away,” Russini said on her podcast, “Scoop City.” “Loved him. They were ready to hire him. They were going to do anything they needed to do, including giving him full roster control and essentially the power to just report to the owner. Everything you could possibly ask for.
“God only knows what they would’ve given him in terms of the financial part of it, I’m sure whatever Vrabel wanted.
The feelings between Vrabel and the Jets were apparently mutual as well.
“From what I understand, Vrabel was interested,” Russini added. “He liked Woody, he liked what he was hearing, he liked what they were about.”
Vrabel, who worked for the Browns as a consultant for the 2024 season, was let out of his contract early so he could interview with teams that had fired their head coaches before the regular season ended. On the Friday ahead of the regular-season finale, the Jets interviewed Vrabel.
Two days later, the Patriots fired head coach Jerod Mayo, making the move just over an hour after their final game of the season. They interviewed Vrabel just four days later and officially hired him just one week after firing Mayo, making the Patriots the first team to fill their head coach vacancy this offseason by over a week. New England only interviewed three other candidates (Byron Leftwich, Pep Hamilton, Ben Johnson) for its head coach vacancy.
The Patriots didn’t make Vrabel their general manager when they hired him, but he might have similar duties to what the Jets were willing to offer him. New England retained executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and Vrabel has stated on many occasions that the two plan to work together to build the roster.
However, Vrabel will be the Patriots’ final decision maker, NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran previously reported. The Patriots also hired Giants executive Ryan Cowden to reportedly serve as the “de facto No. 2” voice in the front office. Vrabel had previously vouched for Cowden to become the Titans’ general manager when he was in Tennessee.
A day after the Patriots announced that they hired Vrabel to be their next head coach, the Cowboys announced that they weren’t able to come to terms on a new deal with head coach Mike McCarthy. As it was unknown for over a week if Dallas would move on from McCarthy, Robert Kraft had a sense that the Cowboys wanted Vrabel.
“The Dallas Cowboys, too,” Russini added on which other teams wanted Vrabel. “A lot of people don’t know that. Guess who knew that? Robert Kraft knew that. Robert Kraft knew the Jones family had an interest [in Mike Vrabel].”
While Vrabel has never been a part of the Cowboys’ organization, he actually has a prior working relationship with executive vice president, CEO, and director of player personnel Stephen Jones, the son of Jerry. Additionally, the Cowboys initially sought to hire a defensive-minded head coach so they could keep Brian Schottenheimer as the offensive coordinator, NFL on FOX insider Jay Glazer reported Sunday.
The Cowboys wound up promoting Schottenheimer instead, naming him their next head coach on Friday. The Jets named Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn their head coach earlier in the week before tabbing Broncos assistant general manager Darren Mougey to run their front office on Saturday.
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