FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – When Robert Kraft hired Jerod Mayo a year ago, he felt he’d identified the right person to follow the championship legacy left by Bill Belichick.
In hindsight, Kraft now believes Mayo wasn’t quite ready to be an NFL head coach.
The Patriots team owner said Monday that his abrupt firing of Mayo just minutes after he completed his first season in the job is an effort to correct that mistake.
“This whole situation is on me. I feel terrible for Jerod. Because I put him in an untenable situation,” Kraft said a day after relieving the 38-year-old Mayo of the coaching reins following a 4-13 finish. “I know he has all the tools as a head coach to be successful in this league. He just needed more time before taking the job.”
Kraft said that the team’s win over Buffalo on Sunday which cost the Patriots the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL draft didn’t play into the dismissal.
Instead, he said Mayo went from his “high point” winning Patriots’ season opener at Cincinnati to regressing midway through the schedule. He then didn’t show enough signs of improvement the rest of the way.
And after watching back-to-back dismals seasons for a franchise that won six Lombardi trophies over the past two-plus decades, the 83-year-old owner who referred to himself as “a fan of this team first” vowed to do what he can to see it return to a championship level.
“I don’t want to go through this next year. And we’re going to do what we’ve got to do to fix it,” Kraft said.
That will begin with moving quickly to interview candidates for a job that is one of the most attractive in the league for several reasons: New England’s futility this season still earned it the No. 4 pick in the draft, rookie Drake Maye established himself as a potential franchise quarterback, and the Patriots enter the offseason with more than $130 million in salary cap space — the most in the league.
What this course correction won’t include — for now at least — are major changes in the front office, with Kraft confirming that executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith both are returning next season.
Wolf and Highsmith will also both be involved in the coaching search, along with Kraft’s son and Patriots team president Jonathan Kraft.
One of the names that almost immediately circulated as a possible coaching candidate following Mayo’s exit was former Patriots player and Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel.
A fan favorite during his eight seasons as a player in New England, Vrabel was a member of each of the Patriots’ first three Super Bowl-winning teams.
Following retirement, he went on to lead the Titans to three playoff appearances before being fired following the 2023 season.
But Kraft wouldn’t say whether Vrabel was at or near the top of his list of candidates.
“I don’t know all the people involved. There are some wonderful people we’ve heard about, Kraft said. “I’d rather respond to that after I’ve seen everyone.”
As they cleaned out their lockers Monday before departing for the offseason, multiple current Patriots players expressed surprise at Mayo’s firing.
“Everybody is upset about his departure,” defensive tackle Deatrich Wise said. “We all respected Jerod Mayo. Held him in high regard. He did a lot for us this year. He was a great leader. Fantastic person and a coach. So, we’re all sad to see him go. Wish we all could have had a chance to say goodbye. Didn’t really see him. It happened so fast.”
Fellow defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said it’s a reality of the NFL. But he said it will take more than just a new coach to turn the team around.
“I feel like everybody being accountable. Everybody. Players. Coaches — everybody,” Godchaux said. “If we can do that, things will start moving forward. Until then, we’ve got a long journey.”
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