Titans’ Mike Vrabel on coaxing Dean Pees out of retirement: ‘It’s like getting a five-star recruit’

The whirlwind that has been Mike Vrabel’s first month as coach of the Tennessee Titans has seen him pull off one of the more impressive moves by anyone to hire a defensive coordinator.

Vrabel managed to land one of the best in the business by convincing Dean Pees to end the retirement he began only four weeks earlier as a member of the Baltimore Ravens’ staff.

‘You’re going to make a grown man beg’

“It’s like getting a five-star recruit that said he was going to sit out and go to the NFL,” Vrabel told Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan during a recent appearance on Movin’ The Chains. “I was just like, ‘Dean, I’m going to beg, I’m going to beg, I’m going to beg. You’re going to make a grown man beg.’

“But we’re happy to have him. Just the relationship that I had with him as a player was important. He always had us very well prepared, was able to manage a bunch of different personalities in that room. So I’m excited to have him work with our staff and with our players.”