This is all so entirely unsurprising. It was obvious in that first press conference that he had no vision for the team. He just spoke in generic corporate language and of being nice to each other - as if that alone makes a team. It then became obvious when he kept talking about being a CEO that he had no intention of grinding and doing what was necessary to build a successful franchise. He stepped back, pushed work onto his staff and then blamed them when it went wrong. And it was obvious by training camp that his so called culture reset just meant allowing players to do whatever they wanted, and discipline went out the window. The Judon episode was the prime example.
There really were so many red flags when you go back and think about it. Even if you ignore the maneuvering when Bill was still here and start from when Mayo became official, it really was bad from the start.
The press conference with Kraft with the corporate gibberish and the ridiculous "Thunder" nonsense.
The dozen or so OC candidates interviewed before being able to land AVP.
The "cash to burn" frenzy.
Seemingly not on the same page with the front office/AVP starting as early as the summer with the back and forth on Brissett starting or Maye.
Letting Judon wander around training camp practice as a malcontent and then getting into an "animated discussion" with him with the media present.
Early finger-pointing about the state of the roster and his "You tell me. I'm not going there" comment when asked. Basically blaming Bill while indirectly crapping on the players he had.
Calling the team soft, then backtracking, then pretending like that he was some brilliant motivator after they won that week.
Continually letting the receiver room talk (and apparently show up late or not at all) with zero repercussions. Boutte said some borderline stupid things, Polk continually said stupid things, Osborn basically endorsed a post about how he hated being here, and Bourne seemed to be a half-ass pick as the "leader" of that room.
The "You said it. I didn't" comment when asked why they didn't have Drake run on 3rd and 4th and 1st.
Telling reporters before the game Stevenson would be benched to start the game only for him to be the starter 20 minutes later.
These are all things that had nothing to do with actual games. Mayo mismanaged the clock, timeouts, game plans, etc. All things that you'd expect from a first-year coach, especially with as little experience as Mayo had, but everything above was self-inflicted. The repeated lack of accountability, his comments that came off as finger pointing. The complete lack of media savvy to the point where it was basically expected that he would provide a soundbite, he would have to walk back the next day. The inexplicably poor communication amongst the front office, coaching staff, and players. And finally, a complete inability to instill any sort of discipline for on-field mistakes and players’ stupid comments to the media.
The red flags were there from the start, and I think the Krafts realized there were problems pretty early. The leak about them calling around to see what the best way to develop Maye was was a damning indictment pretty early on. The fact that Mayo had this many missteps in public the last year leads one to wonder how bad it actually was behind closed doors.
