Jeffrey Simmons isn’t hiding how he feels about Mike Vrabel’s trip to the Super Bowl with the Patriots.
The Titans defensive tackle spent his first five NFL seasons playing for Vrabel in Tennessee, and the result on that side of the relationship never included a Super Bowl run. So when Vrabel reached the Super Bowl last year in his first season in New England, Simmons had a very specific reaction: happy for his former coach, but also plenty annoyed.
On Terron Armstead’s podcast, Simmons said the bond with Vrabel is still strong. He said he was glad to see Vrabel succeed in Year One with the Patriots, even if it stung a little that the breakthrough came after he left Tennessee.
“Was I surprised?” Simmons said.
“I think we all would be surprised if this guy, first year in New England, they go straight to the Super Bowl. First off, I’m jealous as hell.
Like what? I was just with you four years, and you couldn’t get me to the Super Bowl?
But I could call Vrabel right now and he’d answer the phone. You build that relationship off the football field, and I think that’s the thing with Vrabel.
It’s the same with Saleh, when you can build that relationship with players off the football field, and not just on the football field, they’re going to play as hard as they can for you.”
Simmons also said seeing Vrabel and a lot of the assistant coaches who had been with him in Tennessee make the Super Bowl in their first year in New England gave him a boost of optimism for the Titans under new head coach Robert Saleh.
“I was surprised. He took the whole Tennessee Titans staff with him,” Simmons said.
“Coach Robert Saleh, first year? Why not?”
For Tennessee to make that kind of jump in Saleh’s first season, it would probably take a second-year surge from Cam Ward similar to what Drake Maye delivered last season. Simmons said he’s watching Ward’s work and believes the Titans have the right people in place to make a major turnaround in 2026.
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For Tennessee, Taylor is more than a name on a list. Mike Borgonzi moved quickly to remake the secondary, adding Taylor and CorDale Flott in free agency, and Taylors three-year, $58 million deal shows how much the team is banking on him to help stabilize the outside corner spot. The ranking may not have put him among the leagues elite yet, but it did reinforce why the Titans made him such a priority. [Read more 🡒]