I spent time some looking at how people around that team view Vrable and I would say Pelisero is way, way off base to the point that its hard to believe. It's easy to find multiple examples of players praising him and multiple national media guys connected to the sport have reported the same thing. No clue what Tom is saying here.
As for Vrable not being interviewed.....I have no idea. Could be he doesn't view this as a great job. The pending sale is reason enough to push people away because it could be a one year stint until new ownership. Maybe John just doesn't click with him? Could be many, many things.
Positive culture: It's talked about in this forum that with Pete gone that is an element of this team that is gone by default and we will never get it back. It's been said dozens of times by multiple people. People mention that players love to play here, come back and love the team post caree etc. as if its a unicorn of sorts. It's great that Pete did cultivate that and I'm grateful for it but it's not something this organization can't have moving forward. Half the candidates being talked about are great in this area.
How players view Vrabel does not necessarily tell us about the culture he creates within a locker room or how he runs an organization. These are related but not entirely the same. You might be right, though. I don't know enough about Vrabel's time in Tennesee to say otherwise. Pelisero's comments just resonated with me.
Pete's culture will never be back. The foundation will remain, and "positivity" in the abstract certainly won't disappear. Some things can be ingrained in the institution. But whoever takes over, along with John, will establish something distinct and different from what Pete built.
The leader is essential for maintaining an organization's identity. I experienced this in my work life when Steve Ballmer (very much the Jim Harbaugh of business) left Microsoft. Satya completely changed the culture, partly out of necessity but also because he's not Steve. He wasn't ultra-competitive or emotionally charged. He was more reflective, thoughtful, and disciplined. And almost everything Steve built (positive and negative) was gone in 3 years.
There are certain people you can't replace. Pete is one of those guys. That doesn't mean there aren't others like him who utilize a similar style, but you can't just plug guys like Vrabel into the organization and expect the same results.
