PATRIOTS NEWS Jerod Mayo FIRED per Schefter

[ViperGTS]

So the Giants aren't firing Daboll. Didn't see that one coming.

 

[ViperGTS]

Kraft let Mayo burn him one last time. He trusted him again, letting Mayo know the decision before the game. He was sure that Mayo was a man of character and would go out like a class act, doing what was right for the organization. Sadly, Mayo proved to be the selfish man-child many of us had him pegged as, and scammed Bob one last time with a burst of vindictive destructiveness, typical of a jilted cult leader. He knew Bob couldn't fire him during the game for trying to win. The call came to sit Maye (somehow), so Mayo called on Milton and said, "Now's your chance to shine and launch your career." Mayo's retribution is why the axe fell so swiftly -- basically as quickly as it could and even then it raised eyebrows.

Jerod Mayo is a terrible person and I will be shocked if he ever does anything in the NFL again, even inflating footballs. The whole league saw what he's made of on Sunday.

I tend to agree with that. It's week 18. Nobody in the league would have batted an eye if the Pats had punted every single down and lost 24-0. Nobody. In fact it would almost be expected.

Instead the play calling assured they would be in the game against very vanilla defenses and maybe even win. Gross negligence.

 

[RobertWeathers]

You hit on something that's a core Mayo issue that people don't know about unless they've dug really deep into him. He's said he has "impostor syndrome" and that he constantly puts himself in uncomfortable situations on purpose to prove that he belongs. The problem is that he only tends to prove the opposite. He finally put himself in a position that directly affects enough people (not just the team but a whole fanbase) and with enough exposure that he could not fake it.

Happy they fired Mayo but still concerned that Kraft is leading the interview process. He hired Mayo and trust as opposed to digging into what/how/why he would handle things.

 

[JayNM]

Congratulations, Bob, you've morphed into Jimmy Haslam.

I'm sorry, this is frankly ridiculous. Mayo wasn't the problem. Wolf isn't the problem either. The problem is that the roster suffered from years of systemic neglect. We were trying to kick the can down the road to squeeze one last year of competition and kept robbing Peter to pay Paul in order to do so. You can do that for awhile, but when things collapse, it tends to fall apart all at once. That's what happened to the Patriots, and it was inevitable.

7+ years of absolute neglect can't be fixed in a single offseason. This is not a problem where you can just slap a bandaid on it, switch a few personnel around and suddenly the roster is talented again. We're going to have to take a page from Bill's book and DO THE HARD WORK if we want a return to glory.

ANY rebuild needs to be at least a 3 year plan. This was year 1. Pulling the starter chain on the chainsaw NOW is unbelievably foolish. Good luck getting any respectable, professional people to come to work in New England if this becomes a habit for the Kraft family.

This is the way great franchises become joke franchises. Owner interference, unrealistic expectations and an itchy trigger fighre are not how organizations succeed, it's how they fester and fail.

While I generally I agree with the thought line, plain and simple there was nothing redimable about Mayo's year here. Nothing.

Schematically horrible, growing an entitled not accountable structure, insane decision making (timeouts galora), rampant indiscipline on and off-the-field, not a single player developed.

It's hard to be against this. I do however agree on this 100%: Kraft is the biggest culprit of the state of this team, and even if he hires the next BB, personally I can say that would be only the second time a broken clock has got it right

 

[Steve102]

@Pape @RobertWeathers

What if...

The timeline was that Kraft didn't want to lose Mayo so he penned that ridiculous contract, naming Mayo Bill's successor, and then Bill the GM failed Bill the Coach sooner than expected, so Mayo was promoted early. Meanwhile, Vrabel becomes available, and Kraft essentially goes "oh ****" and is that distracted guy meme, calls Mike. He tells RKK he wants to take the year off. Mayo is named, but the commitment is meh at best. Rumblings about misgivings early on last summer/early fall, spent very little money in free agency, couldn't fill out a staff with great guys because, essentially, no one wanted to hitch their wagon to a rookie coach with no experience and no network of associates. Kraft watched for signs of growth, and then when he didn't see it after the Chargers game and the Tavai mess (which was supposed to be Mayo's strong suit, the relationship thing), they pulled the ripcord because the guy they wanted is there flirting with the Jets. Remember, they wanted to hire Bill before Pete Carroll and didn't because the timing was wrong with the Parcells mess. So Vrabel does this visit thing just to communicate via the back channels or the media or whatever, basically sending the "don't eff this up" message.

I guess we will wait and see what happens. Seems plausible to me.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Congratulations, Bob, you've morphed into Jimmy Haslam.

I'm sorry, this is frankly ridiculous. Mayo wasn't the problem. Wolf isn't the problem either. The problem is that the roster suffered from years of systemic neglect. We were trying to kick the can down the road to squeeze one last year of competition and kept robbing Peter to pay Paul in order to do so. You can do that for awhile, but when things collapse, it tends to fall apart all at once. That's what happened to the Patriots, and it was inevitable.

7+ years of absolute neglect can't be fixed in a single offseason. This is not a problem where you can just slap a bandaid on it, switch a few personnel around and suddenly the roster is talented again. We're going to have to take a page from Bill's book and DO THE HARD WORK if we want a return to glory.

ANY rebuild needs to be at least a 3 year plan. This was year 1. Pulling the starter chain on the chainsaw NOW is unbelievably foolish. Good luck getting any respectable, professional people to come to work in New England if this becomes a habit for the Kraft family.

This is the way great franchises become joke franchises. Owner interference, unrealistic expectations and an itchy trigger fighre are not how organizations succeed, it's how they fester and fail.

Yes but the problem is Year 1 was so bad it did not imbue confidence in Year 2.

We all know the roster is brutal - except for QB, CB and handful of position players and STers. Need a coach with a plan and discipline to make it work.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I did find this, albeit it's from 2021:
Deep Dive: Evaluating Success Rate for First-Year Head Coaches

I am surprised by the conclusion TBH, but I guess that's why fans ***** about retread coaches, and why owners of teams are so willing to try the newest thing. There's analytics that support such a stance.

Interesting. Certainly a way of measuring success is making the playoffs/having a winning season but showing progress is also important.

For instance Dan Campbell had a rough 1st year but clearly had a plan. I would count his rookie year a success.

 

[maust]

You're not going to get an argument or debate from me about whether LA is a better market than St Louis. I will debate and argue whether or not you're saying that they never needed a new stadium and was only leveraging it to move out of town. I don't think that's true at all. They clearly wanted a new stadium and they also clearly wanted to leave. Both can be true.

The point is is that Gillette is antiquated and is in the middle of the pack and the idea of not getting a new stadium simply because the current stadium is only 22 years old isn't a reasonabe excuse anymore

If it isn't true the stadium situation was nothing but a leverage tool then why would a slick operator like Stan Kroenke have paid half a billion dollars to the city and his 'league partners' have been forced to cough up another almost $300M for acting in bad faith? The city actually came up with a plan to address every (cough) 'concern' Kroenke brought forward and he ignored it. It would seem you are not as familiar with what went on there as you may think you are. Kroenke was a thorough snake in his dealings with the city and the league throughout that entire mess. More than 3/4's of a billion in settlement money paid to St Louis by an owner and league who don't usually open the vault to outsiders without a hella fight should tell anyone all they need to know about what went on there.

Continuous improvements have been made at Gillette, unlike Everbank in Jacksonville which was not an NFL calber stadium when it opened and not upgraded much over the past 30 years. Gillete is not a world class facility, neither is it antiquated. It is also located in Foxborugh, not exactly a world class city with a population of millions looking for something to do on the reg. Outside of the traffic on Rte 1 as a STH (although I admit our sons have been using them the last couple of years) I've got no real ***** with Gillette as a physical stadium and with the completion of the new training facility neither will any of the players. When Gillette is replaced hopefully the new facility will be in or adjacent to Boston where a megastadium might be financially viable.

This team has a legion of problems to address, the stadium isn't one of them.

 

[dliverey44]

This is actually a bit scary, the Browns were one of a few teams with a worse offense than us and Vrabel would want the offensive coaches for the Browns to lead the offense in NE...just a couple of problems I could see with this.

I agree, I do not want Josh McD or Rees as the OC and if those are his selections I think we need to pass.

 

[archstanton543]

When Gillette is replaced hopefully the new facility will be in or adjacent to Boston where a megastadium might be financially viable.

That ain't gonna happen. The Krafts own all that land. There's no way Jonathan is going to pick up stakes and move the stadium closer to Boston. Hell, when they were planning on moving the team last time it was to CT not near Boston.

 

[RobertWeathers]

@Pape @RobertWeathers

What if...

The timeline was that Kraft didn't want to lose Mayo so he penned that ridiculous contract, naming Mayo Bill's successor, and then Bill the GM failed Bill the Coach sooner than expected, so Mayo was promoted early. Meanwhile, Vrabel becomes available, and Kraft essentially goes "oh ****" and is that distracted guy meme, calls Mike. He tells RKK he wants to take the year off. Mayo is named, but the commitment is meh at best. Rumblings about misgivings early on last summer/early fall, spent very little money in free agency, couldn't fill out a staff with great guys because, essentially, no one wanted to hitch their wagon to a rookie coach with no experience and no network of associates. Kraft watched for signs of growth, and then when he didn't see it after the Chargers game and the Tavai mess (which was supposed to be Mayo's strong suit, the relationship thing), they pulled the ripcord because the guy they wanted is there flirting with the Jets. Remember, they wanted to hire Bill before Pete Carroll and didn't because the timing was wrong with the Parcells mess. So Vrabel does this visit thing just to communicate via the back channels or the media or whatever, basically sending the "don't eff this up" message.

I guess we will wait and see what happens. Seems plausible to me.

Very possible.

 

[dliverey44]

If I was Mayo, knowing I’d be fired, I’d do the same thing. **** tanking for the organization that is firing him.

Same here, malicious compliance at its best.

 

[Ross12]

 

[Thelonious]

Yeah, these NFL teams at minimum probably have to give first class vacations to these minority coaches and their wives. Just to get them to come over and do an interview to satisfy the this rule. I wouldn't be shocked if they had to do more than this. The rule is just wasting everyone's time and money when teams know exactly which guy they want. It's just stupid. And this rule is probably illegal

I look forward to the day the Supreme Court outlaws all racial discrimination, including race-based DEI and the Rooney Rule. Few policies have done more to erode blacks' collective reputation and to exacerbate the erosion of race relations that these programs. Unlike those who advocate them, I actually do believe that blacks can compete on the basis of merit, so who's the racist?

 

[maust]

That ain't gonna happen. The Krafts own all that land. There's no way Jonathan is going to pick up stakes and move the stadium closer to Boston. Hell, when they were planning on moving the team last time it was to CT not near Boston.

My point was, 30-40 years from now a domed facility in/near the city might be the choice if it's decided a dome is the way to go. A dome is not paying for itself in Foxborough is the main crux of it. OFC the Krafts are going to milk out every dime they have invested in the current location first. Business is business

 

[Steve102]

So they wanted him out of the building as soon as he eff'd them out of the #1 pick.

 

[PatsFan2]

Hope we can say goodbye to you too Wise you have run your course.

 

[Thelonious]

Same here, malicious compliance at its best.

Both of you should be ashamed of themselves, but of course you are not.

 

[Ross12]

Hope we can say goodbye to you too Wise you have run your course.

Wise is a free agent now. That's why he sucked up to Mayo all year, he wanted a new deal.

 

[PatsFan2]

So they wanted him out of the building as soon as he eff'd them out of the #1 pick.

I beginning to think the Krafts wanted the #1 overall more than the Fans.