Brady/Maye

[TomPatriot]

Perhaps Kraft is a bad owner.

After all, Kraft let Brady leave and claim that BB told him that Brady was cooked. He just sat on his booster seat and witnessed Brady win 12 games.

Your man Kraft claims other teams were calling him with HC vacancies forcing him to act.

Cant judge progress from the 2024 season to the 2025 season anymore.

Give Mayo the players to be good.

“Your man Kraft.” Now that’s funny.

 

[TomPatriot]

I .somewhat disagree. Mayo excelled as a leader of men. Think about it. For the most part (and all teams have a couple of clunkers every season) the team played VERY hard all season, and under some very adverse situations that have been well documented and we all know too well.

BTW getting players to play hard for you even through all the adversity of a long season is a bedrock must have to be a successful HC.

When you think about it, Mayo didn't really stand a chance. Inexperienced staff, most of whom hadn't worked together before, A bad roster he had little responsibility for assembling. A media that pounced on every perceived error or flaw they could find both real and imagined. Kraft did him NO favors by hiring him last Winter and he acknowledged this regretfully when he fired him.

Ok, so Mayo was dealt a bad hand he wasn’t prepared to play. Got it.

But answer me this then. As it stands today, strictly for football purposes, would you rather have Mayo or Vrabel as head coach of the New England Patriots?

 

[Brotherblues]

I .somewhat disagree. Mayo excelled as a leader of men. Think about it. For the most part (and all teams have a couple of clunkers every season) the team played VERY hard all season, and under some very adverse situations that have been well documented and we all know too well.

BTW getting players to play hard for you even through all the adversity of a long season is a bedrock must have to be a successful HC.

When you think about it, Mayo didn't really stand a chance. Inexperienced staff, most of whom hadn't worked together before, A bad roster he had little responsibility for assembling. A media that pounced on every perceived error or flaw they could find both real and imagined. Kraft did him NO favors by hiring him last Winter and he acknowledged this regretfully when he fired him.

They had 7 clunkers (40% of their games), not a couple.

How do we measure that the team played harder than other teams on a regular basis?

Edit: I agree 100% with your last paragraph, although the inexperienced staff was such largely because Mayo couldn't get anyone worthwhile to join him. The defacto GM had to scramble to fill the spots. The only positions Mayo filled were with his equally inexperienced friends (Cov and HT).

 

[SammyBlueCat]

Mayo was a bad hire. Not ready, not qualified. He never had an Associate HC or Coordinator position.

He was basically a position coach who was elevated way too early.

What did he do right? What did he excel at? Nothing, really.

He may eventually become a good HC. Who wants to take that chance? Who wants to wait when the evidence doesn’t reflect an ability to coach? Who wants to watch another year of bad coaching. Not me.

Maybe Mayo can restore his reputation by being a DC for a college team

 

[Brotherblues]

Maybe Mayo can restore his reputation by being a DC for a college team

Ok, ok, you're serious. Sorry Sammy. Anyway, whatever job he takes (if any are offered) will be as an assistant with some ambiguity to his duties, so he can hide behind the "I'm here learning" excuse. Being a DC anywhere offers him no such security blanket.

 

[UGAPatsfan]

Ok, ok, you're serious. Sorry Sammy. Anyway, whatever job he takes (if any are offered) will be as an assistant with some ambiguity to his duties, so he can hide behind the "I'm here learning" excuse. Being a DC anywhere offers him no such security blanket.

It actually wouldn’t shock me if Mayo never coaches again. Curran suggested it may be a possibility.

It was MUCH harder than he thought it would be, he is nowhere near ready and would basically have to start over as a position coach, and he already has more money than he needs.

Regarding the debate going on in this thread vis a vie Mayo being fired was just/unjust vs Kraft being incompetent.

Many things can be true at once:

1. Kraft horribly botched not just Mayo’s hiring, but many things going all the way back to letting Tom leave snd Bill having WAY too much power over personnel despite a very long dry spell hurting him as a coach.

2. Mayo was NOWHERE near qualified or ready for the job (not his fault), but also did himself no favors by repeating errors, having low game-management IQ, and simply couldn’t get players he did have to improve at all.

3. While Mayo can’t fully be blamed for his own hiring (though he did seemingly politic for a job for years while doing zero prep for if he got it), when you make a bad hire as an owner of ANYTHING you have to pull the trigger and correct your error. No owner of any business would willfully keep a bad fit leader on because “he’s a good guy and it’s not his fault he sucks”.

In no world would anyone in the NFL choose Mayo over Vrabel given the choice.

NO. ONE.

Was it a rough go for Mayo?

Yes.

Was it appropriate and even glaringly obvious that he had to go?

Also yes.

Does Kraft need to get his head out of his ass now and let Vrabel do the job without interference?

Yes.

 

[Triumph]

Ok, so Mayo was dealt a bad hand he wasn’t prepared to play. Got it.

How many wins were you expecting?

But answer me this then. As it stands today, strictly for football purposes, would you rather have Mayo or Vrabel as head coach of the New England Patriots?

Vrabel only because he has prior HC experience.

 

[TomPatriot]

How many wins were you expecting?

Vrabel only because he has prior HC experience.

I’d have to go back and look . . . 7 or 8?

So why retain Mayo if we can get a better coach in Vrabel?

 

[40yrpatsfan]

There aren't very many HC's with zero coordinator experience, or at least college HC. Very few.

And to pair him with a rookie DC and an OC with no play-calling experience was really asking for trouble. Then you fail to sign any good FA's, lose several key vets to injury, face a difficult schedule, blow a couple of early games, no bye till week 13, and you have a perfect storm.

 

[203Pat]

He played one less game than Otto Graham and was only 2 TDs behind him!

 

[NormZauchin]

How he a villian when Mayo was trying to learn to be a better HC. That takes more than 10 months.

The Pats problems are not over. Kraft is still in charge. The losing began when Kraft began to take more control.

I do not believe that Mayo was ever "trying to learn to be a better head coach." He played and coached under Belichick for more than a decade, yet seems to have absorbed very little. For example, Belichick made halftime adjustments; it didn't look like Mayo ever did. How could that happen? What did he need to learn when he had been exposed, year in and year out, to what a good coach does at halftime? To me, Mayo was playing the role of head coach of an NFL team, as he might do as an actor in a movie or a television series. Actually performing the tasks required of a real head coach was something he was not prepared to do.

 

[NormZauchin]

I .somewhat disagree. Mayo excelled as a leader of men. Think about it. For the most part (and all teams have a couple of clunkers every season) the team played VERY hard all season, and under some very adverse situations that have been well documented and we all know too well.

BTW getting players to play hard for you even through all the adversity of a long season is a bedrock must have to be a successful HC.

When you think about it, Mayo didn't really stand a chance. Inexperienced staff, most of whom hadn't worked together before, A bad roster he had little responsibility for assembling. A media that pounced on every perceived error or flaw they could find both real and imagined. Kraft did him NO favors by hiring him last Winter and he acknowledged this regretfully when he fired him.

I think Jacoby Brissett might take exception to your portrayal of Mayo excelling as a leader of men.

 

[ahmed]

Brady had the ability to lock in and win at the end of games. Something Maye failed at miserably this year.

Not much was said about it because he is a rookie on a bad team and so he is getting a pass this year but his decision making late in games when he needed to put together a game tying or winning drive left a lot to be desired.

 

[NFL Mystique]

Ask Packers fans whether they would rather have Favre or Brady in the clutch. Ask the same question to Patriots fans. Both fan bases saw the complete opposite of clutchnes. Physical talent went to Favre. That's about it.

Maye is more talented than Brady. But he isn't as clutch or as good as 24 year old Brady either. The Patriots weren't coming back against Oakland nor winning the SB with Bledsoe. That's for sure.

 

[NFL Mystique]

Brady had the ability to lock in and win at the end of games. Something Maye failed at miserably this year.

Not much was said about it because he is a rookie on a bad team and so he is getting a pass this year but his decision making late in games when he needed to put together a game tying or winning drive left a lot to be desired.

This.

How many fans were worried Brady would throw an inexplicable pick with the game on the line?

 

[NFL Mystique]

Brady wasnt asked to do a lot early in his career , just be a “game manager”

You mean like the Chargers game that would have ended their season with a loss in 01? Or the snow bowl. Or, last drive of SB 36?

Was Brady a game manager in SB 38 when his defense was getting abused consistently?

 

[NFL Mystique]

Didn't we do this with Mac Jones' rookie year compared to Brady's...

Mac Jones got figured out near the end of the season. I don't think any team really figured out how to stop Tom Brady. Even during his "game managing days."

 

[ahmed]

You mean like the Chargers game that would have ended their season with a loss in 01? Or the snow bowl. Or, last drive of SB 36?

Was Brady a game manager in SB 38 when his defense was getting abused consistently?

They are a bunch of idiots regurgitating clueless media lines.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Brady was fairly pedestrian in 2001, but Maye has a lot to work on. I see a lot of people on here getting very triggered defending this guy.

He played 6 teams below .500, but mustered only one win. He was 0-4 vs teams .500 and above. That’s not as disturbing as him giving you a couple throws and a scramble a game only to completely disappear the rest of the game. As an QB, that seems impossible to do in this era.

 

[p8ryts]

Brady had the ability to lock in and win at the end of games. Something Maye failed at miserably this year.

Not much was said about it because he is a rookie on a bad team and so he is getting a pass this year but his decision making late in games when he needed to put together a game tying or winning drive left a lot to be desired.

This is absolutely the main thing he has to address this year. The late game melt down.