If you traveled through the New England Patriots media landscape this week, chances are you came across this at some point: Mike Vrabel went a perfect 6-0 coming off a bye week during his time as head coach of the Tennessee Titans, and will have a chance to improve to 7-0 this Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
The truth, however, is more nuanced than that.
Let’s start with one undeniable fact. During his six seasons in Tennessee, Vrabel did not lose a regular season game with an extra week of preparation.
Starting in 2018 with a 28-14 win over the Cowboys, he and his team went on to beat their six post-bye opponents with an average score of 30-14 until he got fired after the 2023 season. That includes a 42-16 beatdown of the Sean McDermott-led Bills in 2020.
The key wording here is “regular season.” Vrabel’s Titans did in fact drop a game coming off a bye week back in 2021.
Having earned the top seed in the AFC thanks to a 12-5 record, Tennessee welcomed the fourth-seeded Cincinnati Bengals to Nashville in the divisional round of the playoffs. However, they were unable to defend their home turf despite the additional rest leading up to the game, and were bounced from the tournament with a final score of 19-16. That game was Vrabel’s last postseason appearance.
Obviously, 6-1 after a bye is still a very good record. One could also argue that including one loss is more a technicality than anything else.
At the end of the day, though, Vrabel’s post-bye record matters little heading into this week’s game against Buffalo. Only a handful of players and coaches made the move over to New England alongside him, and the circumstances are entirely different as well. This is a new opportunity for a new team.
Vrabel effectively said so himself when asked about his success after bye weeks.
“I think that these guys have played well and that’s the most important thing, focusing on what we can realistically try to improve and kind of enhance the stuff that we’ve been doing okay with,” he said earlier this week. “I know these guys got some rest, much needed rest, but we’ve got to crank this thing back up.”
