Tennessee Titans HC Mike Vrabel won't coach in team's preseason opener

The Tennessee Titans will be trying something new on Saturday as they take on the Chicago Bears in their first preseason game. Instead of coaching himself, head coach Mike Vrabel is passing almost all of his duties off to his assistant head coach Terrell Williams.

Williams has been the Titans’ defensive line coach since 2018 but earned a promotion to assistant head coach this offseason. Vrabel explained the reasoning behind his slightly unusual decision on Tuesday.

“I just think him dealing and talking with the trainer and we’ll have a lot of conversations between now and Friday, but just handling things with the roster and discussing those things with the assistant coaches and how we want to play the game and let him make those decisions in the game,” Vrabel said, via The Tennessean. “We’ll go into the game with things we want to make sure get done and I’m sure he’ll try to do that. I’ll help him where need be. But I do think it’ll be a great opportunity. Well deserved.”

Most NFL head coaches want to control as much as they can. However, Vrabel is instead challenging his assistants to rise to the occasion. Williams’ experience now will only benefit the team more once the regular season hits.

“I wanted to be able to plan this out and give (Williams) ample time to prepare for those meetings and his message,” Vrabel said. “And the direction he wants to take it.”

Williams has been an NFL defensive line coach since 2012. He’s had jobs with the Raiders and Dolphins before coming to Tennessee. Before joining the NFL ranks, he coached at Texas A&M, Purdue, Akron, and other programs at various collegiate levels.

Titans list Malik Willis ahead of Will Levis on first depth chart

The Titans released the “unofficial” depth chart for this week’s preseason game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.

To no surprise, Ryan Tannehill is the starter, followed by Malik Willis, then Will Levis. Since Tannehill is 35 and in his 12th season in the NFL, he will likely not play much, if at all, during the preseason. So it’ll probably come down to Willis and Levis splitting reps.

Vrabel assessed his younger quarterbacks after a recent practice. The evaluation is ongoing.

“Just giving those guys opportunities,” Vrabel told reporters. “And they’ve done that. I think that we just have to continue to get both Malik (Willis) and Will (Levis) throws behind different lines and working with different backs and receivers and all that. So, I feel like there were some good things out there and there were some things that we’ll just have to get cleaned up. But I thought it was competitive and got some things done.”

On3’s Suzanne Halliburton contributed to this report.