The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t the only ones who hired a former head coach this offseason; the Cleveland Browns did, too. Pittsburgh hired Arthur Smith as its new offensive coordinator while Mike Vrabel comes to Cleveland to serve as a consultant. The move has current Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski pretty fired up about it.
“We had him up there last week, did a great job. He’s a resource”, Stefanski said at the annual league meeting, via Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal. “He’s a resource for me. He’s a resource for (general manager) Andrew (Berry), and I’m very, very excited to have him”.
Vrabel spent the past six years serving as head coach of the Tennessee Titans, but they fired him in January. After missing out in the latest hiring cycle, he agreed to join the Browns staff as consultant earlier this month.
“When he didn’t have a head coaching job this last cycle, I made sure that he knew that we would love to get him up there in some capacity”, Stefanski said, regarding the process they brought Vrabel to Cleveland. “So that was really the beginning of that conversation”.
The Browns posted an 11-6 record last season despite missing their starting quarterback for 11 games. The late addition of Joe Flacco helped push them back into the playoff mix, and they went 4-1 in his five starts. They failed to make good on that postseason bid, however, unceremoniously ousted in the first round by the Houston Texans.
When the Titans hired Vrabel, they hadn’t had a season better than 9-7 since 2008. They went eight straight seasons without a postseason appearance yet made playoffs and won a game in 2017. In spite of that progress, they fired Mike Mularkey anyway and hired Vrabel, who went 9-7 in his first two seasons. That was enough to make the playoffs in 2019, advancing to the conference finals as a wild-card team.
The following two seasons, he posted a combined 23-10 record, earning a bye in the 2021 playoffs, only to lose in the divisional round to the Cincinnati Bengals, the eventual AFC representatives in the Super Bowl that year. But the Titans fell off under Vrabel after that, going 13-23 over the past two seasons.
The Titans’ decision to fire Vrabel left many surprised, believing he deserved the opportunity to turn things around. They drafted QB Will Levis in the second round in 2023, and though he posted a 3-6 record showed potential. Now he’ll work with the Browns this year, hoping to find another head coaching opportunity in the next cycle.
“From my perspective, we’re very excited to get Vrabes up there”, Stefanski said. “I can tell you, just having him and throwing a Browns sweatshirt on him was a big deal for me. Get the kid back up into Northeast Ohio”. Vrabel is a native of Akron, Ohio, and subsequently played collegiately at Ohio State. He also spent three years coaching at Ohio State at the end of his NFL playing career before pivoting to the professional level.
