When it comes to a decision made by a billionaire, we in the business typically seem to come around to the self-serving point where we can uncover its genius. When it comes to the New England Patriots’ firing of Jerod Mayo, a coach whom Robert Kraft identified as special through various anecdotal observations during Mayo’s Patriots playing career and time on Bill Belichick’s coaching staff, set up with the worst roster in the NFL, positioned to replace one of the greatest head coaches in NFL history and fired after one season, it hinges solely on Kraft’s ability to land Mike Vrabel.
For Kraft, the only advantage in making this move now is that he did not succumb to the sunken cost fallacy and maybe that is where he stakes his position. Mayo had two major public gaffes during his time as head coach, first calling the players soft (an ironic maneuver after an offseason spent rebranding himself as the anti-hardass post-Belichick) and second by hurtling offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt under the bus, despite the fact that Van Pelt had the most injury-ravaged offensive line in the NFL (Van Pelt was also fired). While any head coach is going to make tactical errors during his first season, especially at the podium in a challenging media market, Mayo fell off the balance beam one too many times. It was unlikely to get better as the pressure mounted to develop Drake Maye after a stellar rookie season from the No. 3 pick in the draft.
