BEREA — Mike Vrabel squatted in a two-point stance and repeatedly acted like a defender, giving Browns tight ends a chance to polish blocking techniques against him during Monday's training camp practice at team headquarters.
Vrabel , who was born in Akron and grew up in Springfield Township and Stow, is filling a role no one could have predicted at the beginning of this year.
A few months after the Tennessee Titans fired Vrabel as their head coach on Jan. 9, the Browns hired the Walsh Jesuit High School graduate as a coaching and player personnel consultant .
What former Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel is doing with the Cleveland Browns during 2024 training camp
But what are Vrabel's on-field responsibilities this summer?
He's helping coordinator and former New England Patriots teammate Bubba Ventrone with special teams, occasionally lining up as a defender in drills and racing backup quarterback Jameis Winston for fun.
Most notably, though, Vrabel is serving as a de facto tight ends coach. He's vocal and hands-on during drills and witty and demanding in meetings.
“Absolutely love his energy he brings to the room,” Browns tight end Jordan Akins told the Beacon Journal. “He challenges us, and then you can tell he's very advanced. He's just not any position coach. He can break down defense. He can break down the offense. He can break down special teams.
“He makes fun of guys, man. He's talking smack. We definitely laugh, but we definitely get serious in the room, and his personality is just tremendous.”
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Akins played for the Houston Texans from 2018-22. Vrabel is familiar with the franchise, too. He was Houston's linebackers coach from 2014-16 and defensive coordinator in 2017, the year before the Titans hired him. Akins often heard Texans players rave about Vrabel's football IQ and leadership, so Akins said he considered it “a shocker” when Vrabel wound up unemployed this offseason.
The Browns were able to benefit by enlisting Vrabel, a rabid Cleveland fan as a youngster.
“It's fantastic having him with us, and it's great having him in the offensive room,” new Browns offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey said. “[Having] a defensive coach who really takes the time to learn your offense and learn your system and now can provide you insight into defenses within what you do systematically is awesome.
“Having him around has been great for us early on and the different insight that he provides, and he's not afraid to speak up, which is also great. So love having him around. I think that's a huge resource for us, not only as an offensive staff, but as an organization.”
How Mike Vrabel's background as a player translates to the Akron-born coach tutoring tight ends
Before Vrabel coached the Titans for six seasons to a record of 56-48, including 2-3 in the playoffs, the Ohio State product played 14 NFL seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1997-2000), Patriots (2001-08) and Kansas City Chiefs (2009-10).
Vrabel, who will turn 49 on Aug. 14, is best known as a former Pro Bowl and All-Pro outside linebacker, though he also played tight end in goal-line situations. In the regular season and playoffs combined, all 12 of his career catches were for touchdowns (10 with the Patriots and two with the Chiefs). Long before he won three Super Bowls with the Patriots, Vrabel played defensive end, linebacker and tight end at Walsh Jesuit.
Because of his playing background, Vrabel can tell tight ends exactly which moves they should expect from edge defenders in different scenarios, Akins explained.
“Usually working with tight end coaches, they work on the basics, the hand placements, the blocking, the footwork, the routes, tops of routes,” Akins said. “With Vrabel, he works on the things you don't really work on. It's just natural reactions, placements of the hands once you lose track or get overpowered and certain ways to run routes that I don't really think about.”
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Last week, Pro Bowl tight end David Njoku called Vrabel “a great old-fashioned coach” who “tries to get in my head, and then I get mad and then we start going at it.”
Akins said the exchanges between Vrabel and Njoku in meetings are energetic.
“They love each other,” Akins added. “They cut up every day. It's good to see because I'd never really seen that side of Dave. Last year, it was my first time being in Cleveland in the room, so it was kind of different. Dave kind of just ran the room.
“But now it's like we all put it in together, we put our knowledge together and we all just overcome any negativity in the room. Any player feeling down, any player feeling like they had a bad day, we all just pull together and pull them up, including the coaches.”
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Elevating coaches is in Vrabel's wheelhouse. New Browns tight ends coach Tommy Rees had never exclusively coached the position until this year.
“Vrabes lets him coach now. Tommy runs the room,” Akins said. “He does a great job. He's very, very smart. He definitely listens to us as well. I like how he asks us what routes we like. He uses our strengths, and he definitely uses us to get mismatches.”
Vrabel explained last week Browns coach Kevin Stefanski asked him to tutor the tight ends.
“I've tried to absolutely embrace that,” Vrabel said, “and get to know those players on a personal level and a professional level and help Tommy [Rees] and [Bill Willis diversity coaching fellow] Nemo [Washington] where I can.”
The help has already been noted.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Browns training camp: Mike Vrabel a 'huge resource' for tight ends and coaches
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