Patriots pick a side between Jerod Mayo and the front office that gives the future some kind of stability
The New England Patriots finished the 2024 season on a high note, but it wasn't enough to keep Jerod Mayo employed as head coach.Less than two hours after the Patriots notched their fourth win of the year, Mayo was let go. There was a lot of speculation surrounding the first-year head coach's future in New […]
The New England Patriots finished the 2024 season on a high note, but it wasn't enough to keep Jerod Mayo employed as head coach.
Less than two hours after the Patriots notched their fourth win of the year, Mayo was let go. There was a lot of speculation surrounding the first-year head coach's future in New England, but no one was really sure what would happen when the regular season ended.
Lo and behold, everyone got their answer and they got it quick.
However, the firing doesn't extend to the front office. At least for now. Per The Athletic's Chad Graff, the move only affects the coaching staff and nowhere else.
All of a sudden, the Patriots have gone from the model of stability and consistency to that of dysfunction and rudderless. The next head coach will be the team's third in as many years. Keeping Wolf makes sense, however, to a certain degree. Sure, he played a major role in compiling one of the NFL's worst rosters, but at the same time, a lot of said roster issues preceded his time and there's only so much one can do in a single year.
But, where it makes sense is this franchise needs some kind of direction heading into the offseason. Drake Maye is definitely the team's QB for the next few years, but he can't do it by himself. The Patriots have to find a way to re-stabilize their infrastructure and keeping Wolf on board helps them do that, to an extent.
It's clear Mayo was in over his head in a variety of ways and none of them are Wolf's fault. Some things go beyond just wins and losses and, outside of Maye, the product that was on the field rarely showed any growth. There was a near-total lack of vision with Mayo at the helm and that extended to the field. Wolf can't control any of that.
So now, it sounds as if he'll get a chance to choose "his guy" since Robert Kraft chose Mayo, himself. We'll see how it goes, but one thing's for certain and that's the fact that the Patriots better hope Wolf works out and their new head coach does, too.
Because the franchise is entering very dangerous territory where the next failure will keep the dysfunction up and running, but they could ruin a very promising prospect in their young QB.
