What is Mike Vrabel’s Net Worth and Salary?
Mike Vrabel is an American football coach and former linebacker who has a net worth of $20 million. He has coached for Ohio State University, the Houston Texans, and the Tennessee Titans. As a player, he played for the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Kansas City Chiefs. He is a three-time Super Bowl champion as a player and was named the NFL Coach of the Year in 2021.
Contract & Salary
In 2021, Mike signed a 5-year $50 million contract with the Titans. After his signing bonus and other considerations, his average annual salary is $9.5 million.
Early Life
Mike Vrabel was born on August 14, 1975 in Akron, Ohio. He attended Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. While a student there, he was a standout player on the football team. He then accepted an athletic scholarship to attend Ohio State University from 1993 to 1996. There, he played defensive end. As a senior, he was recognized as a first-team All-American and was named the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year in both 1995 and 1996, becoming the first of two players ever to win the award twice. He was named to the Ohio State Football All-Century Team in 2000 and 2012; he was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame.
Career
Vrabel was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round of the 1997 NFL Draft. He spent the first four seasons of his career in Pittsburgh. During his rookie season, he strip-sacked Drew Bledsoe in the 1997-98 AFC Divisional Playoffs to clinch a win for the Steelers. This was the highlight of his career with the Steelers, though he did play well for the team during the rest of his time there.
Vrabel joined the New England Patriots as a free agent for the 2001 season. He played in every game on defense and started in 12 games. He would also occasionally play as an eligible receiver when he would play in the position of tight end. This ability came in handy during Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 when quarterback Tom Brady threw a short pass to Vrabel, who was able to score a touchdown, making him the first defensive player to score a Super Bowl touchdown on offense since 1986.
The following year, in 2005, Vrabel again caught a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl, making him one of 17 players to catch two or more touchdown passes in Super Bowls. Throughout his professional playing career, Vrabel developed a reputation for being very reliable for touchdown conversions. Though he was a defensive player, he managed ten career receptions in 14 targets. No other player in NFL history has a better record of converting receptions to touchdowns. With the Patriots, he won three Super Bowls.
In 2009, the Patriots traded Vrabel to the Kansas City Chiefs. He played one season with the Chiefs before retiring from football as a player officially on July 10, 2011. He then accepted a position as a linebackers coach at Ohio State. From 2012 to 2013, he worked as a defensive line coach for Ohio State.
(Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
In 2014, Vrabel was hired by the Houston Texans as a linebackers coach. During his three seasons there, the Texans ranked third in the NFL in yards allowed per game. In 2017, the Texans named Vrabel their defensive coordinator. Some of the players he coached during his time with the Texans include J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, Whitney Mercilus, and Benardrick McKinney.
On January 20, 2018, Vrabel was hired as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans on a five-year deal. He experienced his first career win as a head coach in September of that year in a game against n Houston, Texas. Under Vrabel, the Titans’ defense improved from the 13th-ranked defense in 2017 to the eighth-ranked defense in 2018. The Titans narrowly missed the playoffs by one game that year and finished the 2018 season with a 9-7 record.
The Titans continued improving over the next few years. They advanced to their first AFC Championship in seventeen seasons in 2019, though they were eliminated by the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. For his work in the 2021-2022 season, he was named the AP NFL Coach of the Year. He was dismissed from the Titans on January 9, 2024.
Personal Life
Vrabel is married to his wife, Jennifer. They have two sons together – Tyler and Carter. Tyler started on the offensive line for the Boston College Eagles football team for three years and declared himself for the 2022 NFL Draft. He was not drafted but was signed by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2022 preseason. His brother, Carter, played baseball at Wabash Valley College and then at Volunteer State Community College and Tennessee Tech. Vrabel attended many of his sons’ games and was very supportive of their athletic careers.
Vrabel founded the “Mike’s Second and Seven Foundation,” a literacy organization, with his former Ohio State teammates Ryan Miller and Luke Fickell. The organization works specifically in Ohio to promote literacy in the state.
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