Earlier this month, the New England Patriots officially announced Mike Vrabel as their 16th head coach in the franchise’s history. However, how long was this decision in the making? While the Patriots considered other candidates for their head coaching vacancy, podcast hosts Dan O’Brien and Rob Ninkovich suggested that Vrabel might have been aware of his selection for the role before Jerod Mayo was even dismissed.
During Saturday’s episode of The Dan and Ninko Show, O’Brien expressed his belief that Vrabel had an inkling about his future as the Patriots’ head coach since early December. “They have the money to revamp this whole roster. I’m assuming Vrabel has a plan. This was all in the works. When do you think Vrabel was actually hired? The last four weeks of the season? (Josh) McDaniels mentioned that he picked Vrabel up from the airport to bring him to Foxborough for his interview. Clearly, McDaniels was hired when Vrabel knew he was hired. I think Vrabel knew he got the job in December. Like the beginning of December,” he said.
Ninkovich largely concurred with O’Brien, noting that the Patriots had to follow the hiring process to comply with the Rooney Rule. “Hey, they had to do the shuffling, interviewing people, wink wink DEI,” added Ninkovich. Additionally, O’Brien and Ninkovich are not the only voices in sports media who have shared similar thoughts. Numerous NFL insiders have indicated that the Patriots primarily interviewed Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton to fulfill the Rooney Rule requirement, which mandates that teams interview at least two minority candidates for head coaching vacancies.
Given that Ninkovich played for the Patriots for eight seasons, it’s plausible that he possesses some inside knowledge about how the team’s coaching search unfolded. It appears that the worst-kept secret of the NFL offseason is that Vrabel, who was officially hired on January 13th, was always the preferred candidate for the head coaching position, and the “interview process” was largely performative.
