Bill Belichick and his unmatched legacy may have exited Gillette Stadium for the final time as the football boss in Foxborough, but his shadow will forever haunt those that come after him in the New England coaching ranks.
Yet, that doesn’t even seem to be the biggest challenge facing now reported Patriots new head coach Jerod Mayo.
Yes, by all accounts Mayo seems to be in line to be ascend to the head coach role in New England a year after Robert Kraft essentially both privately and publicly anointed the former All-Pro linebacker the heir to Belichick’s throne.
But that was before the debacle of 2023, a year in which the Bill O’Brien-led offense was historically bad in a four-win season that not only expedited the succession timeline but tarnished a bit the Belichick way of doing football business.
It was also long before Mike Vrabel made huggy-kissy with Kraft on the field at his Patriots Hall of Fame ceremony, reportedly ticking off his Tennessee boss to the point that that former Coach of the Year and All-Pro linebacker was fired this week, unexpectedly entering the pool of free agent coaches.
Conditions on the ground very much changed since the once-logical plan was put in place.
The 37-year-old Mayo certainly did his best in recent weeks to distance himself from simply being thought of as a Belichick disciple and mentee despite the entirety of his NFL career – eight years as a first-round pick player and five years as an assistant coach – coming on the GOAT coach’s team and staff. He talked about modern players needing a modern coach to explain the “why” of what they’re asked to do and declared a need for diversity of thought within the culture he someday hoped to build as a head coach of a football team.
Now, that day is here and that team is the Patriots.
But despite or maybe because of his career-long ties to New England, Mayo doesn’t seem to be welcomed with open arms and celebration in Patriot Nation.
An unscientific but telling poll this week on X (here is where we’re apparently obligated to note that X was formerly known as Twitter despite the fact that literally everyone knows that) revealed that just under 63 percent of respondents preferred Vrabel to be the next Patriots head coach as compared to just under 15-percent support for Mayo, who also finished behind “Other” in the voting.
Anecdotal Twitter and talk-radio caller evidence says a large portion of New England fans wanted the team to go a very non-Belichick direction with his replacement. Rip the Band-Aid off and start afresh or blow it all up, as it might described.
So not only does Mayo have to replace Belichick and fill those gargantuan shoes while many, including former Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins have expectations of a quick turnaround and even a playoff berth in 2024, he does so with limited support from a still-stunned, post-dynasty fan base.
The harsh reality is that Mayo faces a massive uphill battle in his first year on the job, trying to not only turn around a four-win team with no proven starting QB and limited overall roster talent, but he does so with fans in this reactionary, social media world likely ready to pounce and revolt given their apparent distaste for the hire before Mayo’s even had his introductory press conference.
Good luck, Jerod.
Give Kraft credit, he stuck to his guns and his plan. Maybe part of that was that he “immediately regretted” not going with his gut and hiring Belichick back when Bill Parcells blew up the New England organization after the Super Bowl season in 1996.
Kraft decided at some point some time ago that the youthful, inexperienced Mayo was the right man to replace Belichick. And despite a terrible season under Belichick’s command, despite a league trending toward offensive head coaches, despite Vrabel becoming available and despite a fan base that seemingly is less than excited about the Mayo era, Kraft stayed the course. Public sentiment be damned, Kraft did what he believes is in the best interests of his football team, damn it.
Now it’s up to Mayo to prove his faithful boss right and the nonplused masses wrong. It won’t be easy, but Kraft, for one, believes Mayo is just the man for the very difficult job in very difficult situation.
Whether he's ready or not -- whether you like it or not -- we’re all about to find out.
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