Mike Vrabel made a triumphant return to New England as head coach of the Patriots on Monday.

A former linebacker and Super Bowl champion under Bill Belichick, Vrabel said he felt the move back to Foxborough was right “in his soul.” Vrabel previously coached the Tennessee Titans and spent last season as a consultant for the Cleveland Browns.

“I’m humbled, I’m grateful,” Vrabel said Monday, recalling being inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2023. “Excited to get to work. Excited to meet the people in this building who have made this place special.”

The Patriots last reached the playoffs at the end of the 2021 season, losing 47-17 to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round. Since that loss, New England is 16-35 and moving to a third head coach in three seasons.

Vrabel credited previous coaches and mentors from Belichick to Bill O’Brien, who made him a linebackers coach with the Houston Texans, for getting him back “to the place where I wanted to be.”

“When I started my coaching career, I think it was important to go somewhere else to start another coaching journey,” Vrabel said Monday. “I felt like it was important to forge my own path somewhere else and if all those experiences led me back here and the right opportunity, then that was the place to be.”

Vrabel, 49, takes over for former teammate Jerod Mayo, who was fired after one season as Belichick’s replacement as hand-selected by Robert Kraft. The Patriots’ owner said Mayo was placed in an untenable situation and took fault for New England finishing 4-13 for the second consecutive season.

Vrabel spent four seasons in the NFL with the Steelers before signing with the Patriots in 2001 and winning three Super Bowls in eight seasons. Kraft took a stroll down memory lane Monday, reflecting on Vrabel’s growth and what brought them to the reunion.

“Those personal characteristics also made him a very high-performing coach,” Kraft said of Vrabel’s six years running the Titans. “In 2019, he beat us right here in the playoffs in Tommy’s (Tom Brady) last game as a Patriot. In 2021, he finished as the best record in the AFC at 12-5.

“In the interview process, Mike showed us that he had a very deep understanding of our current team. Most importantly, he had a clear and focused strategy of how to get us back to a championship way that is so important to all of us, but also something I think our fan base deserves and expects.”

Vrabel said he wants to focus on as many points of contact — personnel, coaches and himself — as possible to make all employees feel the same amount of care that they invest in the team.

“This connection piece,” Vrabel said. “I’m going to have a relationship with every single one of them. … That’s what I want to build.”

–Field Level Media