Patriots
“I think it was unfair to Coach Jerod Mayo.”
The Patriots didn’t wait all that to move on from Jerod Mayo — firing the first-year head coach just over an hour after the team’s 2024 regular season came to an end.
While the writing was seemingly on the wall that the Patriots were prepared for a drastic change after a disastrous 2024 season, Mayo’s short shelf life in Foxborough — coupled with flaws in the organization outside of the coaching staff’s control — has prompted reactions from former and current Patriots players, as well as other figures across the sports world.
Here’s a summary of some of the top reactions following Mayo’s ousting after just one year on the job.
This post will be updated regularly.
Bill Belichick
Amid all of the dysfunction emanating out of Foxborough these days, Bill Belichick had several opportunities to take a victory lap on Monday during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
But rather than twist the knife over Robert Kraft’s decision to tab Mayo as Belichick’s successor while the former was still under contract, Belichick took the high road when asked about New England’s call to move on from Mayo.
“The Patriot situation — I mean, honestly, I don’t have too much of a comment on that,” Belichick said. “You know — Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft, Robyn Glaser, they’re the decision-makers there, who exactly does what, and so forth. Mayo was hand-picked by Robert.
“But in the end, the decision-making is something that they’d have to comment on and identify. They’re the ones that are really making the calls there. So they’re the ones that should comment on that, I really don’t know, from the outside looking. They haven’t called me and asked, so I don’t know.”
Rob Gronkowski
The former Patriots tight end was more pointed in his criticism of the Patriots, noting on Fox’s NFL coverage that Mayo didn’t have much time to prove his value as an NFL head coach.
“I was shocked by that, and to happen that soon was a shocker to a lot of people especially here at the desk,” Gronkowski said during NFL on FOX. “We were all surprised by that. I think it was unfair to Coach Jerod Mayo. He never had the chance to develop as a head coach. He was just a rookie himself in that department, and if you judge a coach by their first year that’s really not appropriate.”
Gronkowski also speculated that the Patriots’ new coaching staff could feature several familiar faces in Foxborough.
“Obviously Mr. Kraft has a plan as well going forward,” Gronkowski said. “Probably hoping to get Mike Vrabel. There’s some rumbling out there that Josh McDaniels may come back as well as offensive coordinator.”
Ben Watson
Watson, who won a Super Bowl with the Patriots over his seven seasons in New England, took to social media to call out the franchise for putting Mayo in a lose-lose situation in 2024.
“Jerod Mayo was set up,” Watson posted on X. “Bill [Belichick] goes 4-13 in his last season with a roster void of top tier talent. What miracle were we expecting Jerod to perform in 17 games? If he wasn’t going to get an adequate chance to build a roster then why hire him?”
Rodney Harrison
Much like Watson, former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison stressed that New England’s poor roster construction under Eliot Wolf made it difficult for any coach to succeed in 2024 — let alone a first-year coach like Mayo.
“I don’t like it,” Harrison said during NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast. “I thought it was disingenuous by the ownership. They should have never hired the guy and give him one year. You don’t give somebody a one-year opportunity to turn the Patriots around.”
“They don’t have anybody. They don’t have any offensive line,” he added. “They don’t have any great weapons. They’ve got a young quarterback that has potential but, you’ve got to give him an opportunity.”
Robert Kraft
Before fielding questions from the media on Monday, Patriots owner Robert Kraft took the blame for the decision to elevate Jerod Mayo as head coach entering the 2024 season.
“I’m going to be very brief here and say this whole situation is on me,” Kraft said in his opening statement to the media. “I feel terrible for Jerod because I put him in an untenable situation. 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. Now, I have to go out and find a coach who can get us back to the playoffs and hopefully championships.”
Devin McCourty
After acknowledging last week that Mayo and several coaches were feeling the heat, McCourty noted on NBC Sunday that Mayo’s firing felt like it was in the works for weeks amid a poor end to the 2024 season.
“You could tell the last few weeks, just a lot of things—whether it was players talking about fans, whether it was media things happening,” McCourty said on NBC, as transcribed by Mike Kadlick. “I think the Krafts said, you know what? We have an opportunity to take advantage of another candidate out there. And they made that decision.
“Tough call for Mayo, you only get one year at this dream job. Really hard situation.”
Rob Ninkovich
Former Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich admitted on WEEI Monday that he didn’t expect to see New England move on from Mayo after just one season.
“I didn’t think that was going to happen. [There were] rumblings throughout the season, there were moments, and I know the fanbase, they were pretty upset. It just didn’t feel like it would be a one and done type deal,” Ninkovich said on “The Greg Hill Show.”
While Ninkovich believes that Vrabel is the “most glaring option” for New England moving forward, he did question whether Kraft and Co. will give their next head coach full control over their staff.
“[Mayo] didn’t really have that opportunity to bring in all his own people. There’s a lot of holdovers from Bill and when he was here,” Ninkovich noted.
“Now the question is, will the new head coach have [that] ability? And I think that’s the biggest question: Can they bring in all their own people? Because if you look at every other head coach that was hired somewhere else, they brought their whole package with them. Is that going to be the case now? I would assume that whoever is going to be the new head coach, that would be something that they would have to demand.”
David Andrews
Christian Gonzalez
Deatrich Wise
Boston.com Today
Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning.
Boston