As is typical across the NFL - once a coach gets fired, the feature stories start to trickle out across the various beats about everything that went wrong leading up to the ousting.
On Wednesday morning, The Athletic’s Chad Graff was among the first to dish on some of the details that led to a “disastrous” first-and-only season from now-fired head coach Jerod Mayo.
With Graff’s story being behind The New York Times’ paywall, I don’t want to completely hand over all his excellent reporting for free. If you love the Patriots (and all the local teams, for that matter), a subscription to The Athletic is well-worth your while. Yes, this is me stumping for the cause of journalism - I will not apologize! I’m sure there’s a promo code out there for you!
With that said, here are a few blurbs that stood out to me, that truly capture the essence of all that went wrong for the 38-year-old head coach in his lone season at the helm in New England:
Mayo played cards on team plane after loss to Cardinals instead of studying film with the rest of the coaching staff
“But in a move that surprised some at the front of the plane after such a lopsided loss, according to a team source, Mayo, the team’s first-year head coach who had been handpicked by owner Robert Kraft to succeed Bill Belichick, left his spot near the front and went back to where some players had gathered to play cards, choosing to hang out there while his assistants watched film.”
Mayo tried too hard to be the anti-Belichick
“But in describing how and why things went wrong for Mayo and the Patriots, team sources pointed to a few things. Mayo, they felt, tried too hard to be 180 degrees different from Belichick, then struggled to apply and uphold discipline after positioning himself as a players’ coach.”
In offering DeMarcus Covington the defensive coordinator job, he attempted to demote the team’s former defensive play caller in Steve Belichick
“With the defensive coordinator role, the other most important spot on his staff, Mayo was surprisingly decisive. Even though Steve Belichick, Bill’s son, had been the Patriots’ defensive play caller in recent years while they routinely boasted top-10 units, Mayo didn’t offer him the chance to continue calling plays, according to a team source, opting instead for young defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington. Mayo offered Steve a lesser role, but the younger Belichick declined and left to become the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington.”
A small Rolodex for Mayo led to a front office and coaching staff filled with inexperience
“Mayo’s lack of connections meant he had to lean on Wolf and others in the front office to fill out his staff. When it was completed, the Patriots had a first-time front-office leader (Eliot Wolf), a first-time head coach (Mayo), a first-time defensive coordinator (Covington), a first-time offensive play caller (Alex Van Pelt), a first-time special teams coordinator (Jeremy Springer), a first-time offensive line coach (Scott Peters), a first-time wide receivers coach (Tyler Hughes) and a first-time linebackers coach (Dont’a Hightower). It’s not that any one of them was a bad hire individually but that all of them together led to too many people figuring out their jobs on the fly.”
Mayo was incapable of handing out necessary discipline throughout the season
“Mayo, according to team sources with knowledge of the situation, struggled with discipline and how to enforce it. Before the Patriots’ Week 17 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, he told broadcast crews he was going to bench running back Rhamondre Stevenson because of his recent fumbles. But when it was time to do so, he had a change of heart and let the running back start.
“I still don’t know what happened with that,” a team source said. “Honestly, Jerod is a good guy. I just don’t think he was ready for all the big decisions and discipline and focus the job takes.””
In the coming days, more stories like this one will come out. Mayo’s tenure as head coach, while brief, was filled with dysfunction. An inexperienced first-time head coach with no veteran mentorship to lean on internally was more focused on being different from Bill Belichick than he was being a buttoned-up leader of a blue chip organization.
With Mayo now gone, the Krafts have already begun their search for their next head coach:
- According to the team, the Patriots interviewed former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and longtime NFL assistant Pep Hamilton on Tuesday
- According to multiple media reports, the Patriots are scheduled to interview assumed front-runner Mike Vrabel on Thursday
- According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the Patriots will interview Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson at some point between Thursday afternoon and Saturday. ESPN’s Mike Reiss noted on X.com that Johnson’s interview “must be virtual,” per league rules about interviewing an employed coach in the midst of a playoff run
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com for all the latest on the Patriots’ search for their next head coach.