Titans coach Mike Vrabel: ‘of course I want to be here’ next season

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel started off Wednesday by apologizing for using an expletive a day earlier while describing the feeling of losing 18 of 23 games.

Vrabel concluded by making very clear he’s not going anywhere once this season ends.

“Of course I want to be here,” Vrabel said. “Be here as long as we can win, as long as we can do this thing, and it’s been great. But it also has been just this year. And nobody wants to be where we’re at.”

The 2021 AP NFL Coach of the Year still has a 55-48 overall record even with consecutive losing seasons, and that’s why Vrabel’s future has been a topic of speculation in other markets wanting a new coach despite his contract extension after the 2021 season.

Vrabel is the NFL’s ninth-longest tenured coach with his current team, and nobody won more games through his first five seasons with this franchise. He is the only coach of six hired in 2018 still with his team.

He has taken the Titans to three playoff berths, including an AFC championship game, a No. 1 seed and two AFC South titles. They missed two other postseasons losing the 2018 and 2022 season finales with his starting quarterback missing those games with injuries.

Tennessee was eliminated from the playoffs Dec. 17, and the Titans (5-11) have lost three straight going into Sunday’s season finale.

Snapping that and trying to spoil division rival Jacksonville’s attempt to win back-to-back AFC South titles are all that’s on the line in this game.

Vrabel was asked if he addresses all the chatter about his future, and he said no.

“If we believed everything that was on social media, it’d be Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and there’s no tooth fairy, you know that,” Vrabel said. “So I really have never responded to any of those. And we’re not going to start now.”

Vrabel said he knows exactly where the Titans are as an organization. Controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk fired general manager Jon Robinson on Dec. 6, 2022, and hired Ran Carthon as the franchise’s first Black general manager last January.

Carthon had to cut a handful of veterans to create salary cap space and try to start fixing draft misses and free agent mistakes of his predecessor during his first offseason. The Titans are projected to have the second-most cap space this upcoming offseason and a draft pick among the first eight spots in April.

Vrabel said he’s excited to build and fix the Titans to be where they want, and that’s winning championships with Carthon and assistant GMs Chad Brinker and Anthony Robinson and the rest of the franchise. So no, Vrabel is not focusing on social media speculation on his future.

The coach noted his Titans keep playing hard. Their past three home games all have been lost by three points each with two of those in overtime. Seven of this season’s losses have been by one score.

“There’s no moral victories, and that’s not a moral victory,” Vrabel said. “But it’s just a lot of times in those situations, you can just pack it up and pack it in.”

Even in this final week, the Titans are trying to fix technique problems and other issues that have cost them chances to win.

“You talk to the team then about that and about eliminating some of the mistakes that ... come at critical times and that make it tough to overcome,” Vrabel said.

NOTES: Rookie QB Will Levis, who hurt his right foot in last week’s loss in Houston and didn’t return, was among five Titans not practicing Wednesday. Veteran Ryan Tannehill could wind up starting his final game under contract Sunday.

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