The Taboo Elephant in the Room [Mayo was a bad coach]

[UGAPatsfan]

I have avoided this topic because it’s water under the bridge AND oddly politically charged BUT:

Entering week 7 I feel we now have enough objective AND subjective data to put a nail in the “it wasn’t Mayo’s fault, he got screwed” narrative.

He was possibly WORSE than we thought.

Vrabel has already matched the win total of Mayo’s career 6 games in.

And more damningly, it’s the WAY they’ve done it.

But for one player getting the yips vs Pitt (Mondre), the team on the field is light years ahead of last year, coaching is night and day, hope is restored.

Kraft made one of the absolute worst hiring decisions in NFL history…but has followed it up with a very good one.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

Was this ever a thing?

1) Mayo got put in a really tough situation with the roster.

2) Mayo's own inadequacies/inexperience contributed to some of the roster problems because it made it hard to recruit players and recruit coaches that could in turn recruit players.

3) Independent of the roster problems, Mayo was just a flat our unqualified NFL head coach.

All 3 statements are plain as daylight. Can't imagine anyone arguing against any one of them.

 

[maust]

All 3 statements are plain as daylight. Can't imagine anyone arguing against any one of them.

Well... other than Mrs Mayo ofc.

 

[borg]

I have avoided this topic because it’s water under the bridge AND oddly politically charged BUT:

Entering week 7 I feel we now have enough objective AND subjective data to put a nail in the “it wasn’t Mayo’s fault, he got screwed” narrative.

He was possibly WORSE than we thought.

How easily some ignore how much money was spent on the roster this offseason.

Diggs concurs

 

[Brotherblues]

I have avoided this topic because it’s water under the bridge AND oddly politically charged BUT:

Entering week 7 I feel we now have enough objective AND subjective data to put a nail in the “it wasn’t Mayo’s fault, he got screwed” narrative.

He was possibly WORSE than we thought.

Vrabel has already matched the win total of Mayo’s career 6 games in.

And more damningly, it’s the WAY they’ve done it.

But for one player getting the yips vs Pitt (Mondre), the team on the field is light years ahead of last year, coaching is night and day, hope is restored.

Kraft made one of the absolute worst hiring decisions in NFL history…but has followed it up with a very good one.

Vrabel has a much better roster. Half the starting positions on both sides got an upgrade.

Which, of course, he made happen.

He reshaped the entire building, got free agents to buy in, and fought for every signature.

 

[NovaScotiaPatsFan]

I don't blame Mayo for what happened. He was put in a terrible situation. The only critique I had of Mayo was that he didn't learn from his mistakes, he kept repeating them.

If you look at where the Patriots were last year most people acted like we were in year 5 of a rebuild, but in actuality we were really in year 1 of the second rebuild. We had Maye as a rookie but we didn't have an O-Line to protect him like we do now. I don't care if you're Jerod Mayo or Curly Lambeau you're not gonna succeed with that.

 

[DarrylS]

Compounding Mayo's position he was not linked or did not know quality coaches and when he reached out there was not much reciprocation, so he had to "settle' with what was left..
I agree he was put in an impossible situation bad roster, culture of losing and a whole bunch of ****ty coaches..

 

[Pape]

How easily some ignore how much money was spent on the roster this offseason.

Diggs concurs

what was stopping Mayo? Wasn't he the one to declare that they were going to "burn some cash"?

Yes Vrable spent money, yet that has absolutely nothing to do with Mayo and how he ran his team. It was his job to push ownership to upgrade the roster. They did try, but they failed, then gave up. Instead, they decided to double down and wasted money on re-signing the guys already here.

 

[upstater1]

I have avoided this topic because it’s water under the bridge AND oddly politically charged BUT:

Entering week 7 I feel we now have enough objective AND subjective data to put a nail in the “it wasn’t Mayo’s fault, he got screwed” narrative.

He was possibly WORSE than we thought.

Vrabel has already matched the win total of Mayo’s career 6 games in.

And more damningly, it’s the WAY they’ve done it.

But for one player getting the yips vs Pitt (Mondre), the team on the field is light years ahead of last year, coaching is night and day, hope is restored.

Kraft made one of the absolute worst hiring decisions in NFL history…but has followed it up with a very good one.

I dont see how this is political and it should be talked about.

2 things can be true. The front office can make bad decisions in the specific hire and they can completely fail in giving that coach support.

They failed on both.

Mayo had no chance, but even if he was given support, he wasn't up to it.

And then you look at that draft. Thank god we had a high draft pick, but the selections of Polk, Wallace and Robinson will reverberate for a long time.

 

[ErniesPinkStripes]

The only way Mayo got "screwed" is by putting him in a position he wasn't capable of handling and didn't earn in the first place.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

Mayo was not ready to be an NFL head coach.

On the other hand I wish him well wherever he goes.

 

[Brotherblues]

I dont see how this is political and it should be talked about.

2 things can be true. The front office can make bad decisions in the specific hire and they can completely fail in giving that coach support.

They failed on both.

Mayo had no chance, but even if he was given support, he wasn't up to it.

And then you look at that draft. Thank god we had a high draft pick, but the selections of Polk, Wallace and Robinson will reverberate for a long time.

The biggest difference in that regard is that Vrabel built his own support system. He didn't sit back and wait for it to come together so he could then complain about lack of support, or needing more years.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Vrabel is clearly a better coach than Mayo. In fact, I'm surprised many here didn't see the massive red flag with Mayo the first pre-season game when the coaches were holding massive flash cards on the sidelines to show the players when they were on the field. The press conference was another red flag that the media swept under the rug and thought calling Bob "Thunder" was cute until it wasn't. With that said, this 2025 team was a lot better going into the season than many posters wanted to admit.

Bob wouldn't have had the successor clause for Mayo had Vrabel been fired prior to the 2023 season. I think he only did it out of panic knowing the BB tree was running dry.

But nobody should defend Mayo in saying "he got screwed". Mayo is a grown man and can make big boy decisions. BB was handed the Jets job in 2000, but stepped down because he felt it wasn't right for him. Josh McDaniels got cold feet and didn't take the Colts job because he didn't feel it was right for him. Adam Gase rejected the 49ers job because he didn't feel it was right for him. Mayo could've done the same thing, but he didn't because he would've forfeited his buyout clause which many here still don't realize.

 

[Ross12]

Well... other than Mrs Mayo ofc.

Still waiting on that "lawsuit"...

 

[upstater1]

The biggest difference in that regard is that Vrabel built his own support system. He didn't sit back and wait for it to come together so he could then complain about lack of support, or needing more years.

Yes, agree. But Vrabel had been a head coach. Mayo was nowhere near ready. I guess I need to detail my complaint a little more. The Krafts thought coaching was so easy that someone with Mayo's aura (team captain, smart, corporate) could transition after Belichick. But they did everything wrong you could possibly do. From creating a mutiny inside the team in 2023 by crowning Mayo the heir apparent DURING the season to not understanding that Mayo did not have a network inside NFL coaching. You look back on it and think, what were they thinking? I'd put it a little on the players in the sense that they had just experienced strife between the former coach and new coach, which is something that almost NEVER happens in the NFL, which created an inherent sense of distrust, and a total lack of buy-in.

Now, while that seems like I'm criticizing the players, I'm really saying it was 100% predictable that the whole situation would be interpreted by players as weird and unstable. Because it was.

 

[Thunderhead]

It wasn't just the W/L record with Mayo - it was literally everything else. He never felt capable of being a leader of men. Listening to him speak was uninspiring at best with the way he pointed fingers and constantly contradicted himself. Remember walk it back Mondays?

What a massive mistake by Kraft to hand Mayo the HC role, but thankfully he swiftly corrected the error by hiring one of the best coaches in the league (Vrabel) the following season. Easy for everyone to move on with how the team is playing now.

 

[maust]

Still waiting on that "lawsuit"...

I almost mentioned that stankin' hot take by adding something like 'and her lawyer.' Dakota's grilled cheese or whatever really beat everyone to that lol

 

[UGAPatsfan]

Lot of true and fair statements here but I’ll share my logic debunking the “but Mayo wasn’t given a good roster like Vrabel” myth.

1. Mayo/Wolf did spend $$…poorly. Wolf needs to be held accountable too.

2. Simplest way to look at it is asking this question: “If Mayo had this EXACT same roster, would the Patriots be 4-2 and on an ascending trajectory? And if Vrabel had last year’s roster would they have won a few more games”.

I believe the answers to both questions are clear as day.

The deeper uncomfortable question is how did Kraft botch the last 3-ish years SO badly?

But…ship seems to be back on course at least.

 

[TheRainMaker]

1. Mayo/Wolf did spend $$…poorly. Wolf needs to be held accountable too.

This is correct. I'm not sure why posters keep saying they didn't spend money when they spent a **** ton of money on Barmore, Dugger, Rham and Owenu. Then they caved and gave Godsmack more money. Thankfully, Barmore returned and isn't effected by his blood clots, so his contract is now looking like a bargain.

Dugger was by far the worst signing if you follow the timeline. It was very Sonny Weaver Jr. esque.

 

[maust]

But…ship seems to be back on course at least.

And really that's where our focus belongs. Well that and how miserable the thought of it makes other fan bases. NGL I'm enjoying that too