From The Athletic - "Inside Mayo's Disastrous Season"

[Lavictoire]

If the Bills go on to win the Super Bowl Mayo will spin his resume to say he was one of only four coaches to beat the champs that season.

 

[Lavictoire]

Part of me thinks that was the role Mayo was made for. Just hanging out with the guys. Why did he even bother to get into coaching?

He should have went into politics he would go far. ( he would be lousy at governing but would advance with each failure)

 

[Tunescribe]

This came out fast. Bob needed to put this out there asap. Right on queue.

Happens everytime and people eat it up.

Whoa there, fellas. Suggesting Kraft somehow was behind this article is quite the leap. It's a natural angle for any in-depth/research-driven news outlet to pursue and The Athletic is known for just this kind of well-sourced reporting. The substance rings true.

BTW it's on "cue," not "queue."

 

[ahmed]

What about Brian though? None of Mayo's choices made any sense lol

Much farther down the food chain. Think about the noise about Steve if he were DC during the year. Nobody wants that hanging over their head.

 

[Tunescribe]

Much farther down the food chain. Think about the noise about Steve if he were DC during the year. Nobody wants that hanging over their head.

What do you mean by "the noise"? You seem to be suggesting Mayo forced SB out because he would have done a better job than Covington.

 

[Ross12]

What do you mean by "the noise"? You seem to be suggesting Mayo forced SB out because he would have done a better job than Covington.

In a sense.

There were always questions about who “really ran the defense”, SB or Mayo. If Steve was the DC then that would’ve remained ambiguous. Mayo dumped Steve so that all credit for the good defense would go to Mayo. Unfortunately for Mayo, the defense wasn’t good… which ended up answering the question in a negative way.

 

[RobertWeathers]

There was no chance Mayo wanted Steve around which is understandable. I would not want the son of the coach I replaced who won 6 rings. He offered him a demotion knowing full well he would turn it down.

He kept Brian Belichick but you are correct.

 

[1960Pats]

I have to admit my mistake with Mayo. I complained about all the extra Mayo nays in the beginning but they were all justified.

This season also taught me that my strict view on coaching could be exaggerated. Mayo surely made a negative difference this year.

 

[mike_usagisan]

I have to admit my mistake with Mayo. I complained about all the extra Mayo nays in the beginning but they were all justified.

This season also taught me that my strict view on coaching could be exaggerated. Mayo surely made a negative difference this year.

Mayo was definitely an outlier. Most coaches aren’t soooooo ill-prepared to be HC. It was just impossible to keep him.

 

[TomPatriot]

Playing cards with the players while the coaches worked. If true, what an *******.

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

Yeah I'm sure he sucks at cards.

Yep. He'd have to remember things and be both strategic and tactical. Lay traps for the future. He'd also have to work to get better. Not his wheelhouse.

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

Yup. The bottom line: Kraft MUST have known Mayo was not ready for the job. And Mayo should have known, too. Was the contract language really so ironclad the Patriots couldn't have gone with someone else? Either Kraft is more clueless about football than anyone imagined or his hand was forced. Mayo either was totally naive about what he was stepping into or arrogantly oversold on himself. Vrabel should have had this job.

Also, does anyone think Mayo could be trusted with even a DC job anywhere? Whether he's qualified and capable is open to question, IMO.

This has been studied. Stupid people consistently overestimate their capabilities and intelligence. Smart people tend to underestimate. It is impossible for stupid people to know what they don't know.

So, a stupid person like Jerod Mayo cannot be convinced he is incapable of the job. If he fails, it isn't him, it's everything and everyone else (and we saw that from him in 2024). He cannot reason about his own limitations. Of course, he was set up for this when he had a very successful athletic career doing one very specific job (being an ILB). His personality and commitment made him a successful leader in that narrow scope. His post-playing career consisted of people fawning over him and reinforcing his amazingness at every turn. And then Kraft made his bad extrapolation, concluding that Jerod Mayo would make a good HC, despite near zero evidence, and Mayo did not have the intelligence to say, maybe I'm not ready for that quite yet.

And all that is why I think Jerod Mayo will never again have a coaching job in the NFL. He's just not smart enough, but believes he is with all his heart, and therefore goes toxic when things go wrong. That's the wrong kind of guy to have on your team.

 

[PatsFan2]

They liked their plan entering that week’s game against the Arizona Cardinals. But they lost 30-17 in an uncompetitive snoozefest. The team looked incompetent, even with an extra week to prepare. That was the start of a terrible stretch that led to head coach Jerod Mayo’s swift firing Sunday night.

On the long plane ride back to TF Green International Airport in Providence, R.I., most of Mayo’s assistants grabbed their laptops and studied cut-ups from the loss, the customary move for NFL coaches during the return flight after games...

But in a move that surprised some at the front of the plane after such a lopsided loss, according to a team source, Mayo, the team’s first-year head coach who had been handpicked by owner Robert Kraft to succeed Bill Belichick, left his spot near the front and went back to where some players had gathered to play cards, choosing to hang out there while his assistants watched film.

On a night when the frustration over a terrible performance had some wondering if their jobs were about to be in jeopardy, it was surprising to at least one person at the front of the plane to see the head coach mingling with players in such a casual way.

Inside Jerod Mayo’s disastrous season with the Patriots: ‘I just don’t think he was ready’

From a lack of talent on the roster to his inexperience and struggles with discipline, Mayo had little chance to succeed in New England.

www.nytimes.com

Well at least he got that $10 Mill Buyout clause: Mayo needs to go through the High school ranks and work his way up. How he was heralded before he got the job is beyond me, we never saw an inkling of that Head Coach. His First go around was reeked with incompetence.

 

[jmt57]

Mayo Apparently Passed Over a Key Patriots Coach in What Was a Costly Decision

Heading into Jerod Mayo's first season as head coach, it sounds like one of his decisions might have truly come back to haunt him, at least if what Chad Graff the Athletic reported on Wednesday is true.

www.patsfans.com

“Even though Steve Belichick, Bill’s son, had been the Patriots’ defensive play caller in recent years while they routinely boasted top-10 units, Mayo didn’t offer him the chance to continue calling plays, according to a team source, opting instead for young defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington,” wrote Graff. “Mayo offered Steve a lesser role, but the younger Belichick declined and left to become the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington.”​

​

In hindsight, that move might have been one of Mayo’s worst decisions. The Patriots suffered seven losses that weren’t even competitive this season, often due to their inability to match the adjustments made by their opponents.​

​

The numbers are even more staggering. After 2023 saw New England finish 7th in yards per game, 11th in passing yards per game, 4th in rushing yards per game, and 15th in points per game, 2024 definitely ended up going in a different direction.​

​

In 2024, the Patriots had a drop-off in nearly every category. They finished 22nd in yards per game, 10th in passing yards per game, 23rd in rushing yards per game, and 22nd in points per game.​

​

But unlike 2023, it never really felt like they were in the majority of those losses. In fact, most of the games this season followed the same trend. The club spent each week chasing their opponent throughout the contest before ultimately coming up short, and it felt like Covington didn’t see the game as well in real-time compared to Belichick, nor did he come up with many answers.​

​

Given the improvement on the offensive side of the ball, it’s possible some of those losses could have potentially gone the other way had Belichick stayed on. That might have changed the complexion of what was obviously a tough year.​

 

[signbabybrady]

​

In 2024, the Patriots had a drop-off in nearly every category. They finished 22nd in yards per game, 10th in passing yards per game, 23rd in rushing yards per game, and 22nd in points per game.​

​

​

In Part because Mayo and Covington give me no reason to believe it was due to them and in part because I just want to believe it to be the case I'm going to say going from 11 to 10 in passing yards per game was all because of Gonzo.

 

[Ross12]

Yep. He'd have to remember things and be both strategic and tactical. Lay traps for the future. He'd also have to work to get better. Not his wheelhouse.

He isn't good at it because he can't walk back what cards he chooses to play

 

[Ross12]

In Part because Mayo and Covington give me no reason to believe it was due to them and in part because I just want to believe it to be the case I'm going to say going from 11 to 10 in passing yards per game was all because of Gonzo.

The key thing on that stat is that Mike Pellegrino and Brian Belichick stayed on staff. And obviously they had Gonzo. If I am Vrabel I am seeing if I can keep one or both of those guys, preference to Pellegrino. Dude has developed a lot of good corners.

 

[mike_usagisan]

The key thing on that stat is that Mike Pellegrino and Brian Belichick stayed on staff. And obviously they had Gonzo. If I am Vrabel I am seeing if I can keep one or both of those guys, preference to Pellegrino. Dude has developed a lot of good corners.

This is a good point for all those wondering about why all the coaches weren't fired. It's to allow the new coach to decide if there are good coaches already here that he doesn't need to replace (and gives him some continuity from what happened before he became HC).

 

[captain stone]

The Only assistant coach worth keeping, on either side of the LOS, is Bob Bicknell. Maybe Jerry Springer the Special olympics Teams coach too, I suppose…

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

In Part because Mayo and Covington give me no reason to believe it was due to them and in part because I just want to believe it to be the case I'm going to say going from 11 to 10 in passing yards per game was all because of Gonzo.

They probably would have been 20th without Gonzo.