What your favorite NFL team can learn from Mike Vrabel’s Tennessee Titans:

The NFL is so volatile, not even Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers can count on winning this season.

The New York Giants and New York Jets tied for the league’s worst record over the previous five seasons, but both will take winning records into Thanksgiving, despite rough outings Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings, humbled 40-3 at home by Dallas, are nonetheless 8-2 and running away with the NFC North after some thought they should have blown up their roster to initiate a rebuild.

So volatile is the league that teams over the past couple seasons have gone all-in to acquire Matthew Stafford, Deshaun Watson, Tyreek Hill, Russell Wilson, Carson Wentz, A.J. Brown and others.

Through all this tumult, only two teams have winning records this season and in each of the previous four: the Kansas City Chiefs, who would have been your first guess, and the Tennessee Titans, who have outperformed oddsmakers’ preseason expectations every year under coach Mike Vrabel and crushed the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field to kick off Week 11.

The Pick Six column leads this week by revealing from league sources and research what other teams can learn from the 7-3 Vrabel-led Titans, who maximize their chances for winning through tactics available to everyone, but rarely discussed or even noticed.

“They are New England 2.0,” a rival coach said of the Titans.

The full Pick Six menu this week:

• What your team can learn from Titans
• Commanders’ defense transcends Sunday
• Bench Zach Wilson? He’s 41st out of 41
• Great day for Lions, now and in future
• Jerry, can the Cowboys handle success?
• Two-minute drill: Browns, Raiders, Broncos

1. The Titans own the NFL’s fifth-best record since Vrabel became head coach in 2018. That includes 29-19 (.604) outside the AFC South and 41-21 vs. teams that had winning records. Here’s how they keep proving skeptics wrong.

Some coaches call plays. Not Vrabel. He coaches the entire team and focuses on gaining competitive edges in critical moments.

Because of the Titans, the league closed a loophole that Vrabel exploited against New England in the 2019 playoffs when Tennessee, leading 14-13 with 6:39 remaining, incurred intentional penalties to drain the clock to 4:44 without running a play. Tennessee won other games after taking intentional penalties while seeking competitive advantages. The Titans also are known for being better than others at laying on offensive players during two-minute situations, and for incurring well-timed injuries to defensive players, which opponents see as buying time for defenders to regroup.

There is more than that beneath the surface.

“They are not known for analytics at all, but in terms of difference-making plays in crucial situations and coaching it better, they have won multiple games off stuff they have done situationally, tactically,” an exec from another team said on the condition of anonymity for competitive reasons.

When Vrabel gave his acceptance speech in February after winning Coach of the Year at the NFL Honors Show, he thanked the people coaches of the year typically thank — the team owner, his own family, players and assistant coaches. There was one conspicuous addition.

Before Vrabel acknowledged Titans players and coaches, he nodded toward a very important person in the audience and said, “I want to thank Stretch,” even though nobody outside a tight circle of NFL insiders had any idea who “Stretch” could have been.

John “Stretch” Streicher is the Titans’ football development coordinator. He is Vrabel’s answer to Ernie Adams, the retired Patriots researcher and strategist Bill Belichick said he “leaned heavily on” for decades. Adams’ role in New England became mystical as opponents suspected the Patriots of stretching or outright breaking rules to gain whatever edge they could gain.

Many teams employ staffers in Adams-type roles, but there’s evidence beyond Vrabel’s NFL Honors shout-out that Tennessee does a better job than anyone of implementing competitive advantages.

For example, the Titans under Vrabel lead the league in opponent false starts, according to TruMedia. They have drawn more of them overall, more of them on field goals and extra points, more of them on fourth-and-1, more of them when opponents were on the fringes of field-goal range, more of them inside their own 10-yard line — basically more of them when it matters most. Their defensive linemen are known among opponents for moving subtly or not so subtly — “stemming” is the parlance — to draw offensive movement in critical moments.

Nose tackle Teair Tart sometimes aligns in a stance with one knee on the ground. As the snap nears, he raises the knee off the ground, sometimes triggering movement from the offense. Fellow nose tackle Naquan Jones and other linemen sometimes shift abruptly, with similar results. The Titans have done this so well in critical situations, they lead the league in expected points added (EPA) on opponent…