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Peter King article on Mike Vrabel


TitanLegend

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I didn't see this posted anywhere but maybe it was, and it's a bit old now I guess, but still a really interesting read. Goes in to how Doug Pederson shaped the way Vrabel coaches. The first two paragraphs are about Vrabel, then he has an entire section of the article dedicated to him. Entire article is worth the read but the interesting part for me:
 

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Fourth-and-two at the Philadelphia 32. Tennessee kept the field-goal unit on the field during a Titans timeout. “But I knew we were going for it,” Vrabel told me over the phone. A couple of players urged him to go for it, and Vrabel said, “Relax, the offense is going back out.”

So how did he reach this decision? A few things. A 50-yard field goal attempt for Ryan Succop wasn’t a gimme. Vrabel knew his players wanted to go for it. And strategic conscience, assistant to the head coach John “Stretch” Streicher, had given him good advice from his perch in the coaches’ booth upstairs. “If you’re going to go for it,” Streicher said through the headphones, “make sure you leave enough time so you can run enough plays to score.” Vrabel met Striecher when he was an Ohio State assistant, and Streicher got some football experience as director of football ops at James Madison and Texas State before Vrabel called him to come to Nashville last winter.

“Stretch has been valuable for me and our staff,” Vrabel said. “He advises me on replay, timeouts, the clock. In this case, even when the field-goal team was on the field for us, I thought we should go for the win. The odds of making a 50-yard field goal are probably slightly better than making a fourth-and-two at that point in the game against that defense. But I just thought of our players—they love going for it. I thought how tough Marcus was, and how much confidence I had in him. Plus, I guess ties help you, but I don’t know. We didn’t want a tie, even against a great team like this one.”

“The risk, though,” I said. “How do you weigh the risk?”

“I think people are more conscious of making [risky] decisions like this than ever before,” Vrabel said. “I studied Philadelphia a lot this offseason. Doug is the gold standard when it comes to making bold moves like this. We talked at the owners’ meetings and I’ve called him a few times about things. I’m lucky he’s been approachable about some of the things he does. So I’ve done a few things. We threw a pass on a punt to a gunner [for a touchdown] against Houston.”

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/10/01/fmia-week-4-quarter-pole-nfl-peter-king/

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i remember when we started seeing stuff about how teams like philly and LA had time management assistants in the box who would advise the HC on things like that. very glad we got on that train, and through the first 4 weeks it shows.

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