Mike Vrabel declarative on future with Tennessee Titans: 'Of course I want to be here'
Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel couldn't have said it any more bluntly.
"Of course I want to be here," Vrabel said when asked if he wants to remain as the Titans' coach in 2024 and beyond. "I want to be here as long as we can win and as long as we can do this thing."
Rumors, speculation and anonymous reports have swirled on social media all season about his standing with the Titans, his relationship with first-year general manager Ran Carthon and his connections to other potential head coaching vacancies across the NFL, namely with the New England Patriots, the team he won three Super Bowls with as a player.
Vrabel said it's against his policy to comment on social media rumors, so he didn't directly dispel any rumors. But he did say: "If we believed everything on social media, there'd be Santa Claus and the Easter bunny."
He said he doesn't feel compelled to address any of those rumors with his players and doubled down on the idea that he wants to try to win with the Titans as constructed. That includes the front office team of Carthon and assistant general managers Chad Brinker and Anthony Robinson, despite the purported friction.
"I’m excited to build this thing and to fix this thing and get it to where we want it to be to win championships with Ran and Chad and A-Rob and a coaching staff and everybody," Vrabel said. "That’s what our goal is. But no, the social media and where that is, I can’t focus on that."
The Titans (5-11) have struggled in the past season and a half, losing 18 of their past 23 games. Former general manager Jon Robinson, who had been with the Titans since before Vrabel was hired in 2018, was dismissed near the beginning of the streak, leading the way for Carthon to be hired in January 2023.
Carthon made myriad moves in his first offseason as GM, ranging from releasing half a dozen Titans veterans to create salary-cap space, to signing free agents such as Andre Dillard, Arden Key and Azeez Al-Shaair, to trading up in the 2023 draft to select quarterback Will Levis.
But those moves haven't yielded immediate success. Now the Titans head into their Week 18 game Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars (9-7) at Nissan Stadium (noon, CBS) guaranteed a last-place finish in the AFC South and a top-eight pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Vrabel got passionate Tuesday talking about the importance of winning this game. He expanded on that point Wednesday.
"Nobody wants to be where we’re at," he said. "You feel for players. Having been in that situation, those guys are out there selling out. You feel for them when you look out there on the field and we’re not winning. It’s pretty obvious.
"But the one thing that allows me to at least sleep at night, when we had a clunker in Jacksonville or in Houston, it wasn’t about their fight."
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel: 'Of course I want to be here'
