How the Patriots are trying to turn things around with Vrabel hire

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Not even a full year ago — 362 days to be precise — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke of a new structure within the organization.

Instead of power running primarily through legendary coach Bill Belichick, it would be distributed more broadly, starting with head coach Jerod Mayo and the personnel staff led by Eliot Wolf.

“We’re looking for collaboration,” Kraft said that day.

Sunday’s hiring of Mike Vrabel as the franchise’s 16th head coach signals a shift away from that approach after Kraft, in a statement given following the firing of Mayo, said he wanted to “expedite our return to championship contention.”

Vrabel, in short, is coming to clean things up for an organization that has fallen off track, posting 4-13 records in each of the past two seasons.

Vrabel’s decisive presence and attention to detail — as evidenced from his largely successful six-year tenure as the Tennessee Titans head coach — should benefit a Patriots team in need of more talent, discipline and better play in clutch situations (2-6 in one-score games in 2024).

The Titans went 30-23 (.566) in one-score games under Vrabel, fourth best in the AFC behind the Pittsburgh Steelers (.667), Kansas City Chiefs (.643) and Miami Dolphins (.617). The Patriots went 11-18 in one-score games over the past three seasons, third worst in the AFC during that span ahead of only the Denver Broncos (.345) and Jacksonville Jaguars (.333).

Vrabel should have more power than Mayo did — as Kraft said earlier this week the new coach would have a significant say in picking players — and how that affects the front office is one of the top storylines in the aftermath of his hire.

Of all the instant analysis from the Patriots’ announcement Sunday that Vrabel is returning to the franchise with which he won three Super Bowls as a player, Tedy Bruschi’s critique stood out most because it signaled his belief that personal agendas in the front office contributed to torpedoing Mayo’s tenure.

Speaking on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown,” Bruschi said: “It has been bad for the last two years with the New England Patriots organization … Vrabel isn’t going to joke around. Vrabel is going to tighten the screws. In my opinion, there are some people in the front office that need to be told, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing and you need to take a step back.’

“There is going to be a change. I’m a little bit surprised that this happened because there are some people upstairs in the organization that want to be heard. And sometimes they’re going to have to take a bite of humble pie and understand your opinion doesn’t matter on this one because there are people in the building that know more.

“I hope that is what happens this time around because the collaboration project did not work. I’m glad it’s going to change a little bit to a coach that has more experience, and they know what they’re getting exactly with Mike Vrabel.”

Bruschi acknowledged that he is close friends with Vrabel, his former teammate. He’s friends with Mayo, also a former teammate.

Bruschi is one of the franchise’s all-time great players and ambassadors whom Belichick once referred to as the “perfect Patriot.” His words on the state of the franchise carry as much weight as anyone’s.

So when the Patriots introduce Vrabel on Monday at noon ET — they’ll do it in the location at Gillette Stadium in which he was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2023 — one of the top questions will be how he plans to align the organization.

Will he be working side-by-side with Wolf and senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith, who were part of the head coaching search? Will there be someone over them? What other changes are coming?

One of the signature moments when Vrabel played for the Patriots (2001-08) was before the shocking 20-17 win over the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, when players collectively decided to forgo individual introductions and be announced as a team.

Valuing the team over the individual was part of the Patriots’ championship DNA, and now, they turn to Vrabel in hopes of recapturing that magic once again — on and off the field.