The New York Jets interviewed former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel on Friday for their head coaching job.
Vrabel is the second known candidate the Jets have spoken with for the position. They also interviewed former Washington and Carolina head coach Ron Rivera on Thursday.
Vrabel is expected to be a popular candidate in this hiring cycle. The Jets had the opportunity to meet with him early, as New Orleans and Chicago also fired their coaches during the season and will likely be looking for replacements too.
Vrabel, 49, worked as a consultant with Cleveland this season, but his contract expired earlier this week, allowing him to interview with other teams.
Vrabel was an All-Pro linebacker who helped New England win three Super Bowls. He coached the Titans for six seasons, posting a 56-48 record, including a 2-3 playoff record. He was let go by Tennessee after a 6-11 finish last season.
The Jets fired coach Robert Saleh on Oct. 8 after the team started 2-3 and replaced him with defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich on an interim basis. Ulbrich’s record stands at 2-9 heading into the season finale against Miami on Sunday.
Ulbrich expressed interest in interviewing for the head coaching position, saying he looks forward to the opportunity but is focused on finishing the season strong for the players.
Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood, voted team MVP by his teammates, believes Ulbrich “most definitely” deserves a chance at the full-time head coaching role.
Sherwood explained that Ulbrich was put in a tough position after taking over midway through the season, but he feels Ulbrich has done well given the situation.
The Jets also fired general manager Joe Douglas six weeks after Saleh’s departure, and they are now searching for a new GM. The Jets have already interviewed several GM candidates, including Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, former Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff, former Titans GM Jon Robinson, and ESPN analyst Louis Riddick.
Riddick recently interviewed with the Jets for the GM position on Thursday. He joined ESPN in 2013 and serves as an NFL and college football analyst. He also interviewed with Detroit and Houston for their GM jobs in 2020.
Jets owner Woody Johnson hired The 33rd Team, a media, analytics, and consulting group founded by former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum, to help with both the GM and head coaching searches. Tannenbaum and former Dolphins and Vikings GM Rick Spielman are assisting in identifying candidates and coordinating interviews.
Vrabel played 14 seasons in the NFL, including time with Pittsburgh, New England (where he won three Super Bowls), and Kansas City. He had 57 career sacks, 11 interceptions, and 19 forced fumbles. He was named an All-Pro in 2007.
After retiring, Vrabel served as an assistant coach at Ohio State, then joined Bill O’Brien’s staff with the Houston Texans in 2014. Vrabel was the linebackers coach for three seasons before becoming defensive coordinator in 2017. He became the Titans’ head coach in 2018.
Vrabel led the Titans to the 2019 AFC Championship game, where they lost to Kansas City. The Titans made three consecutive playoff appearances under Vrabel, and he was named AP NFL Coach of the Year in 2021. However, Tennessee missed the playoffs in the next two years, finishing 13-21, leading to Vrabel’s firing after the 2023 season.
Rivera, who coached Washington from 2020 to 2023, had a 26-40-1 record. He led the team to the playoffs in 2020, his first season, but was fired after a 4-13 record in 2023.
Rivera is the only coach in NFL history to lead teams with losing records to the playoffs more than once, doing so with Carolina (7-8-1) in 2014 and Washington (7-9) in 2020. He also led the Panthers to the postseason four times during his tenure in Carolina, including a Super Bowl appearance in 2015, when the team went 15-1 before losing to Denver in the title game.
Rivera has a career record of 105-108-2, including 3-5 in the playoffs. He previously worked as an assistant coach for the Chargers and Bears before becoming head coach. Rivera played nine seasons as a linebacker for Chicago, part of the team that won the 1985 Super Bowl behind its strong “46” defense.
