WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Yes, Mike Vrabel was just like so many other Cleveland Browns fans when he was growing up in Akron.
"Absolutely ate the dog bones, you know what I mean?," Vrabel, now a coaching and front-office consultant for the Browns, said Tuesday at The Greenbrier. "I don't think you were a Browns fan in middle school in Northeast Ohio if you didn't try to get down a couple of those, because they were necklaces, right? They make the dog bones and the necklaces and then you'd just kind of go down and grab one every once in a while."
Vrabel, 48, hasn't been asked to chew on any Milk Bones over the last few months. That's been about the only thing the Walsh Jesuit High School and Ohio State University product hasn't done for the Browns in his current role, which allows him to both work with general manager Andrew Berry and the personnel staff as well as head coach Kevin Stefanski and the coaching staff.
The pairing of Vrabel and the Browns, which won't involve actual gameday responsibilities, was almost by happenstance. The former found himself stunningly out of work after the Tennessee Titans fired him in January after seven seasons as a head coach, something he called "disappointing. I think you're disappointed that you couldn't do the job the way that they wanted it or they envisioned it."
Vrabel spoke with three NFL teams about being their next head coach: the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Panthers and the Los Angeles Chargers. When that didn't materialize, the call came in from Berry and Stefanski about taking on a new role with his hometown organization.
"(I) was able to hear from Andrew and Kevin and keep those conversations going, met at the combine and visited and talked and got to know their staff," Vrabel said. "I mean, there's a lot of great people here. They've hired great people and they empower them to do their job. They give them ownership from a personnel perspective, from an analytics perspective, from a player development perspective and then ultimately a coaching perspective."
Trepidation was the best way to describe how Berry and Stefanski approached the idea of asking Vrabel. There was certainly a pathway for him to turn it down in order to take some time off to spend with his wife Jennifer and sons Tyler and Carter, especially after having basically spent his entire adult life either playing or coaching football.
That trepidation turned into a triumph when the two finally got a chance to speak with Vrabel.
“It was pretty exciting, because I remember when Kevin and I were talking about it, we were like, ‘Do you think he’d do this?,’" Berry recalled Monday. "'Do you think he’d do this? Or he’s gonna maybe want to take the year off with his family?' And so we kind of came in softly, tactfully, and it was, from the very beginning, ‘Oh, yeah, I’d love to do this. Yeah, that’d be great.'"
The new opportunity has reinvigorated Vrabel, as anyone who has watched him run around the field during a Browns practice this summer can attest. He's looked half his age while jumping into drills to make a point or to even line up at linebacker while giving the offense a look.
getting back to the roots of what coaching is pic.twitter.com/QwMvWpFWcY
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) July 30, 2024
For someone who hasn't been a true position coach since 2016, it was like getting transported back in time to a different stage in his coaching life.
"Well, I think you always, that's the essence of coaching is trying to make a connection with players, to teach 'em and develop 'em, make 'em better than what they are when you begin working with them," Vrabel said. "I always love that, always something that I always try to do, but then sometimes as you work your way towards a head coach, some of those opportunities may diminish, but it's been good for me, it’s been what I love to do. I love trying to help players and help people improve. And also trying to learn myself along the way."
Vrabel's especially found a home on the field with the tight ends, which seems out of place considering his playing and coaching career was spent on the defensive side of the ball. The only offensive background he's had since leaving Walsh Jesuit was catching 10 passes — all touchdowns — as a short-yardage fullback/tight end for both the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs.
Working alongside tight ends coach Tommy Rees and offensive assistant Nemo Washington, Vrabel has found a connection in the Browns' Pro Bowl tight end David Njoku. Njoku was asked Monday what he had learned in those interactions.
"Awesomeness," Njoku joked before saying, "No, he's a very hands-on guy, very old-school guy. So he finds ways to get, not necessarily under my skin, but he tries to get in my head and then I get mad and then we start going at it. And he's a great old-fashioned coach."
bringing a little friendly competition into practice pic.twitter.com/P7IimIghBP
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) July 30, 2024
Vrabel admits "old-fashioned" can sometimes just become "old" at times. Never more than during his now-famous in-practice races with quarterback Jameis Winston.
When Winston and the rest of the quarterbacks are finished with a series of routes on air at one end of the field, they'll start running to the other end. Inevitably, the inner competitor will come out in Vrabel, who finds himself trying to beat the veteran Winston to the next spot.
"We do the routes on air and after the last ball's thrown, they started taking off in offseason, and I thought, well, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get these old bones moving," Vrabel said. "So now we just try to have a little bit of fun with it. Certainly those guys are trying to get their work in and focus on the timing with the receivers, but then also they're not wasting a rep and they're taking advantage of getting their conditioning in and also getting back down to the other side to where we can get going again."
So, who wins?
"Ha, I don’t know," Stefanski said Tuesday. "As long as Vrabes stays upright. I don't think we're putting them on the clock, though."
The Browns, though, certainly could be on the clock with regards to Vrabel. While he didn't land one of the vacant head coaching jobs last cycle, one would expect him to be high on a lot of lists next January.
Vrabel's head-coaching resume is stellar: 54-45 in the regular season with three playoff appearances, four winning seasons and two AFC South championships. Does he want to eventually add to that resume?
"Sure, I mean, at the right time, I think there's a time and place for that," Vrabel said. "It's not going to be anytime soon, so I think that things that I'll ultimately learn here may help me the next time that I get an opportunity to have one of those interviews. This is where I'm focused on and focused on doing that and learning here and helping. And then if those opportunities present themselves after the season, then I'll absolutely try to do that."
