The Patriots have reportedly begun contract talks with Mike Vrabel with the hopes of hiring him as their new head football coach. (AP photo)

The New England Patriots have gotten their man.

Multiple reports Sunday morning say that the team has hired Mike Vrabel as its new head coach.

The news comes after several reports, first by the Boston Globe, on Saturday that said the team had begun contract negotiations with Vrabel, whom it interviewed on Thursday at Boston’s Seaport District – not Foxborough.

A multi-year agreement has been reached, though no contract details been made immediately available. Early word was Vrabel was seeking $15 million per season and the Patriots had initially offered $10 million. Evidently that gap had been solved.

The Patriots also interviewed Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson via Zoom, as well as met in-person with former NFL assistants Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich. Johnson appeared to be their fallback choice if they couldn’t reach a deal with Vrabel.

Now Vrabel has been hired a week after the team fired another former Patriots linebacker, Jerod Mayo, after just one seasin in which the team went 4-13 and there were several reported issuses with decision making, etc. Vrabel,the team’s popular former linebacker who was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame in the fall of 2023 and was a key on three Super Bowl winning teams, was fired by the Tennessee Titans and the end of last season and worked the second half of this season as a consultant with the Cleveland Browns. He coached the Titans to an AFC Wild Card win over the Patriots in January of 2020 in Tom Brady’s last game with New England. The Titans reached the AFC Championship Game that season.

Vrabel had also interviewed recently with the Jets and the Bears for their head coaching vacancies after his consulting contract with Cleveland was up. Vrabel’s availability and potential competition for him is said to have possibly hastened the Patriots decision to fire Mayo just over an hour after the team’s final game of the season.

Now the team is moving ahead with Vrabel, a known disciplinarian who doesn’t hold back when it comes to expressing his opinion. It should be interesting.