Jerod Mayo should have been fired for playing to win

Patriots

By Chad Finn, The Boston Globe

January 6, 2025 | 11:02 AM

5 minutes to read

COMMENTARY

Welcome to the Unconventional Review, an instant reaction to standouts, stats, and story lines from the Patriots’ most recent game …

The way Jerod Mayo and his coaching staff handled the Patriots’ lose-by-winning season finale Sunday was the definition of a fireable offense.

Credit to Robert and Jonathan Kraft for having the sense to recognize as much, announcing the dismissal of Mayo after the Patriots’ 23-16 win over the Bills in a game they would have been so much better served by losing.

The Patriots’ owner and team president haven’t always seen the obvious lately, or acted in the best interests of anyone or anything but their own legacies.

I didn’t think they would do it. I didn’t think they possessed the boldness and modicum of humility necessary to so quickly acknowledge their mistake, but then, firing the hand-picked Mayo is no more embarrassing than a dozen other things that have happened this season.

Maybe this indicates they’re serious about being a competitive NFL franchise again. We’ll know for sure when the spending season comes. But this is the appropriate start.

It’s never a happy occasion when a good person gets fired, even if they deserve it. But it is The Right Thing To Do, and geez, the Krafts did have that statement announcing Mayo’s firing ready to go, didn’t they? Did Jonathan Kraft dictate it at halftime of this debacle?

The harsh truth is this: Mayo’s decision to coach to win — the last and most damaging of his string of often contradictory if not outright inexplicable decisions — showed a complete lack of awareness regarding what is best for the Patriots’ present and future.

Or maybe it wasn’t a lack of awareness. Maybe it was defiance. Either way, he got his fourth victory as Patriots coach.

Neat. It’s also his last. As it should be.

Because what happened on Mayo’s final watch … well, I’m not sure the Patriots invented the concept of the demoralizing victory, but they sure did master it Sunday.

The Patriots’ win caused them to fall from first to fourth in the 2025 NFL Draft pecking order, a staggeringly costly outcome.

They have a roster desperate for upgrades at essentially every position other than quarterback and Christian Gonzalez’s cornerback spot. Had they lost to the Bills — which could have been manipulated gracefully, with different play-calling and personnel decisions — and ended up at No. 1, they almost certainly could have traded down a few spots with a QB-needy team and accumulated much-needed draft capital.

By winning, the Patriots, at a minimum, probably cost themselves another first-round pick, and most likely more early-round picks beyond that. So, that’s two or three highly drafted young players they will not get because they won this meaningless game. The Patriots are slated to have four picks in the first three rounds. Imagine the potential talent influx if they had six or seven.

Please don’t say they can make up some of that lost draft capital by dealing quarterback Joe Milton III, who was often dazzling in his NFL debut. Not even de facto general manager Brick Johnson and the Jets are trading for a 24-year-old rookie quarterback based on one impressive game against a team that had nothing to play for.

Fine, it can’t hurt to call. Right after taking care of the business of hiring Mike Vrabel.

Some further thoughts, upon immediate review …

Three players who were worth watching

Players suggested in the Unconventional Preview: Kayshon Boutte, Keion White, Brenden Schooler.

Joe Milton III: We usually don’t cite the quarterbacks here, but we’ll make an exception for the season finale. Embrace the chaos, you know?

Milton, the sixth-round pick from Tennessee, flashed all of his eye-popping arm talent without revealing any of his documented flaws — namely, a lack of accuracy and touch — and general rawness in his NFL debut.

He was impressive in the unnecessary victory. After relieving Drake Maye following the first series, he completed all six of his passes on a 13-play, 55-yard jaunt, punctuating an exceptional first impression with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Milton completed his first 11 passes, his first incompletion coming late in the second quarter when he wisely threw the ball away after spinning out of a potential sack. He finished 22 of 29 for 241 yards, with a 48-yard touchdown pass to Kayshon Boutte and one turnover on a fumbled handoff to Antonio Gibson.

Even knowing that his fine performance against the Bills’ junior varsity defense is going to spark disingenuous Maye-or-Milton debates on sports radio all week, his performance should have been something to savor. Instead, in a weird way on a weird day, it got in the way of what the Patriots really needed.

Boutte: Kudos to the second-year receiver for being one of few young Patriots who showed real progress, not only during this season as a whole, but in the final few weeks in particular. Boutte caught seven passes for 117 yards and the aforementioned 48-yard touchdown, which put the Patriots up, 14-7, in the second quarter. The reception and yardage totals were both career highs, surpassing his five catches for 95 yards in the Week 15 loss to the Cardinals. Boutte looks like he could be a useful third or fourth receiver when the Patriots are a decent team again. Pretty good for a guy who came into the season with two career catches.

Miles Battle: No, Miles Battle is not a fictional player your buddy created on Madden 25, though Miles Battle would be a cool name for such a player. He’s a real-life 25-year-old cornerback who was elevated from the practice squad to the game-day roster this week to make his NFL debut … and he actually helped the Patriots win the game. In the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, Battle busted up a pair of passes on third down. He finished with three total passes defensed and a pair of tackles. So at least it’s a memorable game in all the right ways for him.

Grievance of the game

There has never been an easier grievance in the history of this column. The grievance is the win. The win is the grievance.

Three notes scribbled in the margins

Predicted final score: Bills 27, Patriots 13

Final score: Patriots 23, Bills 16

In the Patriots’ first series — and Maye’s final one of the season — the line (Layden Robinson) committed a false start, and then got Maye sacked for minus-9 yards on third down. Fitting, and a reminder that the line has to be the No. 1 priority among the many priorities that Sunday’s outcome makes harder to fill … To put an exclamation point on his 1-yard touchdown run for the game’s first points, Milton did a backflip in celebration. I believe he is the first Patriot quarterback to successfully execute a backflip on purpose since Joe Kapp in 1970. (Don’t hold me to that.) … This was the rare broadcast — perhaps the only broadcast, ever — where I was actually hoping CBS would show more shots of the Krafts in the owners’ box. I was very curious whether they were as outwardly annoyed with how the game was playing out as the fans were. Guess we got our answer.