NFL Honors 2026: Mike Vrabel named Coach of the Year

New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel was named NFL Coach of the Year during Thursday’s 2026 NFL Honors at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Vrabel beat out Liam Coen (Jacksonville Jaguars), Ben Johnson (Chicago Bears), Mike Macdonald (Seattle Seahawks), and Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco 49ers) for the award.

Vrabel won out over a crowded group for the work he did in his first season as New England’s head coach. The Patriots went 4-13 in 2024; they went 14-3 in 2025, advancing to Super Bowl LX where they will play the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday. Vrabel has led one of the biggest turnarounds in recent memory, and it could end with another Lombardi Trophy headed to New England.

Mike Vrabel is Coach of the Year for a second time

For Vrabel, this is his second Coach of the Year award. He won it in 2021, then head coach of the Tennessee Titans. Vrabel had success in Tennessee, leading them to the AFC Championship Game in 2019. He was fired after the Titans finished 6-11 in 2023.

Vrabel spent the 2024 season as a consultant on Kevin Stefanski‘s staff for the Cleveland Browns. Patriots team owner Robert Kraft targeted Vrabel after firing Jerod Mayo after just one season at the helm. Kraft, clearly, made the right decision.

“To be good long term, you need a coach and a quarterback,” Kraft said of hiring Vrabel. “And when Mike Vrabel was available, I just thought knowing how he was as a player, and in talking to him, how he had evolved as a human being, how he won with us and saw the culture, how he went and had experience at another place, I felt a chemistry with him. I thought he had all the different factors.”