New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 21, 2026. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
SAN FRANCISCO — New England Patriots head coach and former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Mike Vrabel was named the 2025 AP NFL Coach of the Year at NFL Honors on Thursday.
Vrabel led the Patriots to Super Bowl LX in his first season back with the team where he spent the bulk of his NFL playing career.
For the record, the Patriots are a 4.5 point underdog in the Big Game, according the NFL betting at FanDuel. However, the research team is pumping Vrabel’s Patriots with good bets to make it interesting.
Vrabel is the seventh individual to become the head coach for a franchise he once helped win a Super Bowl as a player, joining Jerod Mayo, Bart Starr, Forrest Gregg, Art Shell, Jeff Saturday and Jason Garrett. He could be the first to coach a team to a Super Bowl win after winning a Lombardi Trophy for the club as a player, if his Patriots can beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on Sunday.
Liam Coen of the Los Angeles Rams finished second in the voting, with 16 points to Vrabel’s 19. Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was third with eighth, followed by San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson.
An Akron, Ohio native, the Steelers drafted Vrabel in the third round of the 1997 NFL Draft. He played 51 games for the team, recording 56 tackles, four tackles for loss and seven sacks. Vrabel signed with the Patriots in 2001 after spending his first four seasons with the Steelers and won three Super Bowls in New England.
Vrabel was unexpectedly fired as the head coach of the Titans after the 2023 season, and was left out of the NFL coaching carousel last offseason. Vrabel spent the 2024 season with the Cleveland Browns in an advisory role on their coaching staff.
Mentioned In This Article: Mike Vrabel NFL Honors Pittsburgh Steelers Steelers Super Bowl LX