The Krafts had strong convictions about Patriots Coach Jerod Mayo before hiring him, fending off interest around the league to interview him. Now, after one year, they are letting go and starting again.
Jerod Mayo was relieved of his head coaching duties after one year, shortly following the culmination of the Patriots’ 4-13 season. Robert Kraft was very emotional in delivering the news, few were surprised, some were quite happy. It may be reactionary after a disappointing season, it may be the correct decision in the long run. Mayo may not have been the spark that fired the Patriots back into contention, but even Kraft maintains there’s still upside for him as a coach.
One thing that’s difficult to understand in any sport, let alone the NFL, is the propensity to dump a head coach after their first season in the role. The NFL is a league where the top rookie quarterbacks often plan to sit their first year. Players in the box like linebackers, running backs, and tight-ends are often less effective until they are fully physically developed in their mid-20s. So what exactly is to be expected of a guy who has never been a head coach in the league?
In the case of the Patriots, they’re at the bottom of the league. It’s not as if an experienced NFL head coach jumped in the driver’s seat of Belichick’s Ferrari and crashed into Gillette Stadium’s new lighthouse. The winning formula has long been in decline since Belichick’s final years. The Patriots had a rookie coach in Jerod Mayo and a rookie Quarterback in Drake Maye. By most accounts a sub-par roster and staff under Mayo as well. The former Patriots linebacker was far from impressive in his first head coaching stint. One must wonder however if there is any sort of a projection curve on rookie coaches improving.
Sure, the Patriots finished worse than last year and contended for the number-one pick until beating Buffalo in the final game. Was the downward trend Belichick showed in his final years more bearable than the prospect of Mayo figuring things out? Apparently, it was. This wasn’t a playoff team in anyone’s imagination. A more experienced coach may have squeezed out a few more wins, but a rookie coach with this roster was doomed to fail. The Krafts had strong convictions about Jerod Mayo before hiring him, fending off interest around the league to interview him. Now, after one year, they are letting go and starting again.
The expectation leveraged on a rookie coach like Mayo is a bit ridiculous. Was he supposed to succeed above replacement, with a weak roster, all while figuring his own job out? If you’re going to have a rookie head coach and a rookie Quarterback, is there not a time consideration there? Is there no rationale in thinking it might be bad at first, but Mayo and Maye will figure it out? A few years of high picks, with a young coach and quarterback gaining experience together doesn’t sound so bad.
Head coach is a high-stakes spot. You don’t get to carry three of them on your roster, there is no backup there. Ownership believed in Mayo from day one, and Robert Kraft was quite apologetic about letting him go. It just makes it even harder to understand why this situation came to be in the first place. Mayo was primarily denied the tools to succeed and secondarily denied the time to succeed. If they believed he was the guy for the rebuild, they should have stuck with him. If he was merely keeping the seat warm to be replaced, Kraft’s eagerness to keep him from other teams makes no sense.
It’s unfair to judge a rookie head coach with a poor roster. Perhaps he showed so little promise that even another first-time head coach next year is worth re-rolling the dice on. It is just somewhat nonsensical to look at 4-13 in year one and say that’s all Jerod Mayo can be as a head coach. Coaches, like players, improve with experience. Some of them require elite talent to win, others can get a terrible roster to .500 but can’t handle big-time players. Patriots fans will never know what Mayo could have been as a head coach in New England, many of them are quite happy about it, however.
It’s just tough to understand why an owner of any professional team would hand the keys to a rookie coach and pull the plug after a year. If you want to win, hire someone who is proven. If you believe you have the next best head coach, then give him time to figure it out. Either Kraft was dead wrong about Mayo, or he hired him in a vacuum without considering the external factors that would hamper a rookie head coach. In either case, it seems it was a poor hire from the get-go given the surroundings and the expectations. The Krafts are now quickly running out of people to point the finger at for the Patriots post-Brady slump.
Read More NFL News From Stadium Rant Here: NFL News
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to our newsletter here. Check out Stadium Rant Original shows on our Youtube channel and subscribe! Give our socials Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok a follow for more great content!
