One year after anointing Jerod Mayo as the next leader of the Patriots, owner Robert Kraft finds himself in a place he hasn't occupied since the turn of the century.
He needs to find a new coach after Sunday's decision to fire Mayo, who had been Bill Belichick's heir apparent, after just one 4-13 season.
Kraft discussed what led to Mayo's firing during a Monday news conference, and judging by his comments to the assembled media, Kraft felt it wasn't an easy decision but a necessary one.
“This whole situation is on me. I feel terrible for Jerod because I put him in an untenable situation," Kraft said. "I know that he has all the tools as a head coach to be successful in this league. He just needed more time before taking the job. In the end, I’m a fan of this team first, and now, I have to go out and find a coach who can get us back to the playoffs and hopefully championships.”
Kraft felt strongly enough about Mayo's skills as a leader to sign him to a contract as a head coach in waiting prior to Belichick's departure, but Mayo proved unsteady as the face of the organization in his lone year as the team's coach.
His dealings with the media were as disjointed as the Patriots were on the field in 2024, and the defensive-minded coach oversaw a significant regression on that side of the ball, falling from a top-10 unit in 2023 to a 22nd-place finish in yards allowed per game in 2024.
As Kraft said Monday, the fashion in which his team lost games bothered him enough to consider making a change.
“In the important decisions in my life, I’ve always said I measure nine times and cut once. This was one of those situations," Kraft said. "I guess the main thing for me is I felt we regressed. The high point of everything for me was the (Week 1) Cincinnati game. In midseason, I just think we started to regress.”
Kraft emphasized the importance of his role as a "custodian" of the Patriots, which he described as an organization that carries an important place in the New England community. In order to properly look after the franchise he's guided to historic success in this century, he said he needed to make the difficult decision to part with his hand-picked coach.
“I’m the biggest fan, so I understand," Kraft said. "Since the day we bought this team, and I realized what a privilege it was and how lucky we were as a family, this is the only business we’re involved in where I see ourselves -- we don’t own this team, it’s owned by the fans of this region. We’re custodians of a very special asset of the community. That helps me try to make decisions that if it was just personal it would be different.”
Despite New England's struggles, there seemed to be a chance Kraft would keep Mayo. They had a documented history of working together, and after parting with a legend in Belichick, firing Mayo might appear shortsighted. The Patriots even finished their season by defeating a Bills team featuring a lineup filled with reserves, giving Mayo a much-needed win in a trying year.
That victory, though, did not prove enough to Kraft to keep Mayo. It sounded on Monday as if he'd already made up his mind, a decision he maintained was made in the best interest of the club.
“This whole situation evolved. But I’d say over the last month I went back and forth," Kraft explained. "I don’t know, in my life and my business I make certain decisions I know when it’s right, and it just happened. It was very hard because (of) the personal relationship. I feel for Jerod, and the human being he is. I felt guilty I put him in that position, but we’re moving on.”
To Mayo's credit, Kraft said the coach handled the news like "a gentleman." Now, though, Kraft knows he can't repeat his mistake with his next hire.
Former Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel -- a key member of the team's first Super Bowl-winning teams and a coaching veteran -- seems to be a leading candidate for New England's next head coach, but Kraft wouldn't comment on Vrabel's possible candidacy when asked about him Monday, preferring to wait until "after I've seen everyone."
After all, Kraft already turned to a past Patriot when he hired Mayo. The two are not the same, though. Vrabel is a former Coach of the Year with two division titles and three playoff appearances on his resume from his time with the Tennessee Titans.
The fit seems like a natural one. However, turning around the Patriots won't be as simple as replacing a coach. They lacked talent on both sides of the ball last season and need at least one offseason to restock their cupboard with quality players.
One might wonder why this fact wasn't considered when firing Mayo. Kraft had a simple explanation: The outlook wasn't positive enough to warrant keeping him.
“From my point of view, we had a rough year last year," Kraft said on Monday. "Not ’24, ’23. Going through two years like that, and then seeing where we were this year and especially the second half of the year. Just told me, made me feel we weren’t going in the right direction. I don’t want to go through this next year. We’re going to do what we got to do to fix it.”
To that effort, general manager Eliot Wolf and senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith will remain with the team, according to Kraft. But as Kraft described it, the front office will be expected to work in tandem with whoever they hire as coach.
“We’ll wait until we bring that coach in," Kraft said. "Obviously, he’s going to have big input on who the players are and who the coaches are, it’ll be his decisions.”
Whomever the Patriots hire will have a challenge ahead of him. New England needs an infusion of talent. On the bright side, though, the Patriots certainly have their quarterback of the future in Drake Maye, who impressed in his rookie season despite the situation surrounding him.
In order to get the most from their first-round pick, the Patriots need to nail this coaching hire. Kraft, Wolf, Highsmith and the rest of the organization will now set out to do just that in the next few weeks.