Tennessee’s Nashville (AP) — After six seasons and 18 losses in the previous 24 games, controlling owner of the Tennessee Titans Amy Adams Strunk decided to remove coach Mike Vrabel on Tuesday morning in order to try something new in order to compete in the NFL.
It was a choice that Strunk described as “as difficult as any I’ve made” in a statement.
However, she stated that the winning teams, in her opinion, should be cohesive and work well together. The Titans initiated that change a year ago when they increased the size of their analytics team and appointed Ran Carthon as the team’s first Black general manager. It would take more adjustments to “fully achieve our vision.”
“After analyzing our team’s current situation, I came to the conclusion that a new coaching staff would bring new ideas and perspectives to the table,” Strunk stated.
The Titans had cleared away their lockers the day before, and Vrabel had refrained from dealing with media. For the first time in the team’s 27 seasons in Tennessee, the head coach avoided speaking with media when the team relocated from Texas.
A number of Titans expressed their desire to retain Vrabel as their coach, including defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and rookie quarterback Will Levis.
With the Titans using a league-high 83 players, Simmons, who ended the season on injured reserve, stated, “We all have to do better and do our job better.”
Carthon will speak at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon about the choice and his first coaching search in the NFL.
Vrabel, who was hired in January 2018, finished 56-48 overall, with a 2-3 mark in the postseason.
In 2019, he guided the Titans to three consecutive postseason berths, including the AFC championship game. Tennessee finished as the AFC’s top seed at the end of the 2021 season, but lost at home in a wild-card game following the 2020 season.
For his first five seasons, the Titans competed for a postseason berth in the season finale. However, they were eliminated from postseason contention this season in December. Due to injuries, Vrabel ended up coaching a club that had utilized the most players in the NFL in each of the previous three seasons.
Following a 2021 campaign in which he was named the AP NFL Coach of the Year, Vrabel agreed to a contract extension. While he said last week that “of course he wants to be here” in 2024, he made it obvious that losing stinks by using an expletives.
On December 6, 2022, Strunk sacked general manager Jon Robinson amid the team’s seven-game losing streak and loss of a third consecutive division championship. In January 2023, she employed Carthon, despite his limited resources to improve the roster.
After Levis went 3-6 as a rookie, the Titans enter this summer with the seventh overall draft pick, the second-most salary cap room in the NFL, and the belief that they have found their quarterback. After veteran Ryan Tannehill hurt his right ankle at the end of October, Kentucky’s 33rd overall selection took over.
According to Strunk, she will always have “unapologetically high expectations” for the team that her late father started in 1960. This offseason, according to her, is the most significant in the team’s history.
“We want to consistently compete for championships—not just win more games than lose,” Strunk stated. “That moment, we shall meet.”
In Vrabel’s first season under Carthon, the Titans concluded his sixth season with a 6-11 record. They defeated Jacksonville 28–20 on Sunday to prevent their oldest division opponent from winning the AFC South for a second time in a row.
This spring, Tennessee will begin construction on a new enclosed stadium that will cost an estimated $2.1 billion and open for play in 2027. That simply heightens the pressure to make the best choices possible going forward, from top to bottom.