Titans' Ran Carthon opens up about relationship with Mike Vrabel

After it was confirmed Tuesday that Mike Vrabel would not return as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans for another season, Titans general manager Ran Carthon spoke with reporters and denied there was a rift between the two. 

"I know there's been a lot of speculation over the last two, three months, or whatever it's been, about the nature of Mike and I's relationship. I will say that Mike and I have never had any issue regarding whether it's personal or professional," Carthon explained, as shared by Nubyjas Wilborn of Fan Nation's All Titans. "We worked well together and had a good relationship. We were in lockstep, so I want to finally come out and dispel that, and I wish Vrabes nothing but the best. I consider him a friend and I feel that we'll be that way moving forward." 

While it was reported in December that the Titans planned "to retain Vrabel as their coach" in part because of his supposed positive working relationship with Carthon, NFL insider Jason La Canfora of The Washington Post later insisted that "the friction between" Vrabel and Carthon was "very real."

Carthon accepted the Tennessee job in January 2023. Meanwhile, Vrabel went 54-45 across six regular seasons with the Titans but produced back-to-back losing campaigns before Tuesday's developments. 

"(Mike and I) worked well together," Carthon added on Tuesday. "We got along. I feel like our collaboration was fine. In that given time when I said I wanted to serve Mike and serve his coaching staff, that’s going to be the philosophy moving forward. No matter who our next head coach is and who our coaching staff is, our job in personnel is to serve them and to provide them with players that they want to coach, and that fit their scheme. I think that’s the nature of the position."

It's widely believed Vrabel is interested in replacing New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick assuming Patriots owner Robert Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft move on from Belichick as soon as this week. Vrabel earned three Super Bowl rings playing for New England from 2001-08 and was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame this past fall.