Debating Jerod Mayo's Short Tenure as Patriots Coach

SportsGrid

Watch Debating Jerod Mayo's Short Tenure as Patriots Coach - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00And we will start with this, did you think one year is a sufficient enough time for Gerard

00:06Mayo to be let go as the coach of the Patriots?

00:10I think you could fence ride that one.

00:11You could argue both sides.

00:12You know, Bill Belichick, who obviously was here for basically 25 years and doesn't even

00:17count his time as a coordinator and assistant and all that stuff, you know, he long said

00:22of just being a coach in general, you need more than one year to build a program.

00:27In fact, he would argue you need a handful of years.

00:30You know, he used to impress car press conferences, pardon me, scoff at the idea of guys who

00:34were one and done elsewhere.

00:36Not that I think he's too sad right now that his handpicked successor by Robert Kraft,

00:43the owner, is one and done.

00:44I think it's bigger than whether or not Mayo was going to develop into a good head coach

00:50and maybe he will somewhere else.

00:53But I think it was very clear for those of us that were paying close attention to this

00:57team on a weekly basis and probably a lot of people that were, you know, sort of doing

01:01that 10,000 foot national view as well, that this guy was just in over his head.

01:06And you know, saying nothing of Gerard Mayo, the man, I think he's a good guy.

01:09He's obviously a nice guy, affable guy, personable guy, well-liked by the media, all that stuff.

01:15Just simply not ready to be a head coach in the NFL.

01:18Robert Kraft, in meeting with the media earlier today, said as much.

01:21You know, he deeply regretted the position that he put Mayo in and said, you know, it

01:28is on him, the owner, for making this mistake and going with his gut and going the wrong

01:33way with it.

01:34I just think that it's very rare that a guy ascends from not even being a coordinator,

01:41be it offensive or defensive, entitled in responsibility to the role of head coach and

01:46has immediate success.

01:48There's very, I guess it's worth acknowledging, too, that he was put in a position kind of

01:53to fail.

01:54Not intentionally, but he was.

01:55You know, there's just so little talent on this Patriots team, both sides of the ball.

02:01They're incredibly talent deficient.

02:03They have drafted like crap for years, which obviously goes back to the Belichick regime.

02:08Hell, it goes back to when Tom Brady was still a Patriot, that drafts had been a problem

02:12in New England.

02:13So I just don't know realistically what kind of success people really thought Mayo was

02:17going to have.

02:18The larger issue was that he just always seemed like he was a mess.

02:22Meeting with the media, the press conferences were a disaster.

02:26It seemed like people were never really on the same page between he, the front office,

02:30his coordinators, his staff, the coaching staff.

02:33So it was time to cut bait, obviously write a big check for the duration of that contract,

02:38and bring in somebody who is either established, like Mike Vrabel, who's the popular name,

02:43and I know you brought him up, or someone even like a Ben Johnson, who, no, he hasn't

02:48been a head coach, but we know what he has achieved as a solidified offensive coordinator

02:53there in Detroit.

02:55I think, Adam, from the outside, and not everybody thinks this, and I'll say I do as well, I'm

03:01not sure he gets fired if Mike Vrabel's not available.

03:04I think that maybe he gets another crack at it if Mike Vrabel, and I'll also say this,

03:09I went and looked.

03:11They hired Mayo on January 13th last year.

03:15Vrabel was fired on January the 9th.

03:18I think that by January the 9th, the Crafts probably already knew that Mayo was going

03:22to be the successor to Bill Belichick.

03:24I think if they knew Vrabel was going to be available, I'm not so sure they don't hire

03:28him last year, and I think it was just too quick and too small of a window for them to

03:32make it happen.

03:33I think Vrabel, they love each other, you've seen them.

03:36The red jacket ceremony that night, the big hugs and kisses, I mean, a former patriot,

03:41all those things, experienced, has won in the league.

03:44I think Vrabel had a lot to do with this, and I think people from the outside, Adam,

03:47do.

03:48Do people in Boston feel that way?

03:50Well, what you left out, too, is that Mike Vrabel's Twitter avatar, ex-avatar, if we

03:55want to call it that, is him playing in a Patriots uniform.

03:59So look, the guy, his heart is certainly with New England and the championships and all

04:04of it, and I was in the building for that day that he was given the red jacket and honored

04:10as a Patriots Hall of Famer, and yeah, I think he would love the job.

04:14And there have been a lot of reports out there that he would love the job.

04:17I think, to your point, though, about, you know, was he available long enough?

04:21You know how this works in all these inner circles in the NFL.

04:24Like they had to have at least had a sense that he was going to spring available.

04:29I think the bigger issue that you hit on there is that Drodd Mayo had it written into his

04:34contract, basically, that he was going to succeed Bill Belichick, that he was the next

04:39guy.

04:40And they just, they did this to themselves, ownership to not, you know, present any sort

04:46of alternatives.

04:47I said, I was very vocal at the time saying that if you want to hire Drodd Mayo, and this

04:52was not my choice, but if you want to hire Drodd Mayo, fine.

04:56But how do you not at least go through a search?

05:00How do you not bring in Vrabel or, you know, five, six, ten other guys just to at least

05:07go through the process and have the interviews and get a freaking outside perspective that

05:12is different from what you have been doing for the last 25 years.

05:17And for whatever reason, they opted not to do that and just went with the in-house candidate

05:22who they really liked, who, you know, really won over Kraft in his years playing for the

05:26Patriots, his years as an assistant, that week-long trip to Israel that he's talked

05:30about so many times.

05:32And he just made his decision, you know, to the, you know, with the same conviction

05:36that he chose his wives, as Kraft has talked about a number of times.

05:40And it was just misguided and clearly blew up in everybody's faces there in Foxborough

05:45to where there was dissension internally, according to reports.

05:49And just, again, everyone was sort of out for themselves.

05:53And so they need a fresh start.

05:54They need the new head coach.

05:56They need to blow out the front office in terms of, you know, GM Elliott Wolfe and Alonzo

06:02Hightower.

06:03They need to get rid of these guys.

06:05The whole coaching staff needs to be turned over.

06:08You have really two talents.

06:10You have Drake May, incredibly important, obviously, the quarterback.

06:13It's a quarterback league.

06:14And you have Christian Gonzalez on the other side of the ball, a cornerback who is very

06:18good when he can stay on the field.

06:20It's these two guys.

06:22Everything else can go.

06:23And you've got tons and tons of cap space to go out there and spend.

06:27And you need to draft well.

06:28They already blew an opportunity, potentially set themselves back even a couple more years

06:32in terms of the rebuild by not losing yesterday to the Bills and securing that number one

06:38pick, which, of course, they wouldn't have used.

06:40You trade down a couple of spots, but you get more and more assets to bring in more

06:44and more talent that you so desperately need.

06:47And they just they can't get out of their own way down there in Foxborough.

06:52I don't know how much longer this is going to be going.

Category

Transcript

Recommended