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

[Vindicate]

But my concern would be that this would turn his coaches on him too. "Why does Mayo dump all the film work on us while he goes and plays cards and screws around? Why should I have to do his work for him?" Especially considering he didn't really "earn" his job in the first place, he should have been busting his butt, not dumping his work on others.

If there is one thing you learn in leadership, it's that - regardless of you wanting to admit it or not - you are segmented out into classes, so-to-speak. When you are a coach, the closest allies you have are other coaches. Only the other coaches understand the experience of being a coach. You use this to build strength and unity within your class. You trust that your players will respond, you don't feel the need to buddy up with them over your own class, the coaches. Let Maye be that leader. Let Maye play cards. That's his realm. Trust him. Work with your ****ing coaches.

At that point, you are in a no-man's-land. You are not a player anymore, so you're simply not going to ever be... fully a player. You do not share the same experience as them any more. But if you're avoiding coaching, you're going to be dismissed by your own class of workers.

The only reason the Belichick-Brady meld worked is because they both understood this point more than potentially any HC+QB pairing in NFL history. Emblematic of this is when Brady demanded that Belichick be just as hard on him as he was other players, because Brady, wanting to be a leader of players, needed to show that he, too, shared the exact same experience as those he was leading on any given Sunday. Or Saturday. Or Monday. Or whatever day you're playing football, whatever.

 

[Tunescribe]

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

 

[signbabybrady]

But from day one, Mayo ran into issues. It started while trying to build out his coaching staff. Mayo’s entire eight-year professional playing career was with one team and one coach. So Mayo’s Rolodex was tiny. He interviewed more than a dozen candidates for the offensive coordinator job before Alex Van Pelt finally accepted the role.

With the defensive coordinator role, the other most important spot on his staff, Mayo was surprisingly decisive. 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. Mayo offered Steve a lesser role, but the younger Belichick declined and left to become the defensive coordinator at the University of Washington.

This season, the Patriots’ drop-off on defense was the biggest reason for their struggles. They ranked 8th in the league in defensive EPA per play in 2023. They ranked 30th in that category this season.

I thought it was weird Stephen chose College while Brian stayed. This indicated something else occurred other than loyalty to their father. Leaving because you got overlooked for Covington makes sense.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

Who is this thread about?

 

[Lavictoire]

The Athletic is actually really easy. If your device has a "reader mode" in the browser, just use that. It dumps the paywall and makes the article easy to read at the same time.

i was surprised my reader mode worked on this NYT article.

 

[Lavictoire]

Going back and watching that bye week interview with Curran is now peak comedy after his firing.

I didn't watch it at the time expecting it to be a softball interview.

 

[Boogs]

Correct. Don't feel bad for Mayo - he will make more sitting on his couch next year than most make in a career... Anyone with functional eyes could see that he was completely unprepared for the role of HC for the NEP... time to turn the page.

I agree, but Mayo was way worse than "unprepared."

 

[Water Boy]

I was not aware that was how the BB Jr. departure went down.

I remember Mayo saying Stephen would have a role in the org if he wanted it, but did not know he was never offered DC.

Wonder if he would have stayed if he was offered it.

If true that just blows my mind, especially if Steve was willing to stay on as DC.

That by far would be the most egregious lack of judgment Mayo could have shown. One would have thought Wolf or Kraft would have at least tried to intervene on that one.

 

[Water Boy]

But my concern would be that this would turn his coaches on him too. "Why does Mayo dump all the film work on us while he goes and plays cards and screws around? Why should I have to do his work for him?" Especially considering he didn't really "earn" his job in the first place, he should have been busting his butt, not dumping his work on others.

Mayo was known for being a film junkie when he was a player. It was an unknown what his actual defensive X and O accumen was when he was an assistant.

I for one was thoroughly amazed at how lacking he was in that regard once the Bellichecks were gone.

 

[Steve102]

From the article: "But in describing how and why things went wrong for Mayo and the Patriots, team sources pointed to a few things. Mayo, they felt, tried too hard to be 180 degrees different from Belichick, then struggled to apply and uphold discipline after positioning himself as a players’ coach."

I am willing to bet that "Don't be like Bill" was #1 on his job description. That was his mandate. For whatever reason RKK and Jonathan were sick to death of Bill and wanted out from under his rule. The lack of vision that everyone in the media keeps harping on now is really because the vision was to have Bill be gone, and have everything else be status quo. They thought they'd struggle on X's and O's while Mayo learned, but the fact that Mayo was busy being "not Bill" would make up for it.

 

[turkeyneck]

Mayo was known for being a film junkie when he was a player. It was an unknown what his actual defensive X and O accumen was when he was an assistant.

I for one was thoroughly amazed at how lacking he was in that regard once the Bellichecks were gone.

His time in the film room under Belichick was of a piece with his traveling with RK. It was a facade he put up to ingratiate himself with his superiors.

 

[archstanton543]

I'd rather move on than pile on.

That said (see what I did here?) there is nothing surprising about any of this stuff and anything else that will come out. It is mindblowing but also unsurprising at the same time. All of it was evident from the very beginning.

I'd rather pile on than move on.

 

[upstater1]

Mayo got a hard lesson in the real world of meritocracy.
He started off by declaring that DEI factors are important to him, and he wanted a corporate work/life balance...
Well, guess what, when you mostly care about assistants & players liking you - your team quickly descends to the bottom.
Can't be stated enough how horrible of a decision that was by Kraft - and most of us KNEW IT the moment it was announced.

It's ironic the way people use the word meritocracy.

It was created to expand criteria when Jews were outperforming your typical child of privilege at private colleges. "Well, we can't judge them on tests and academic abilities anymore, we need a new set of criteria!" "Hey, let's start looking at their social circles, what they get to do out of school, like travel to Asia, fencing and squash tournaments, and let's take that into consideration. We'll stop calling it 'merit' and we'll call it 'meritocracy'!"

The funny thing is part of DEI is to emphasize grades/test scores over all this "extra" that really only helps legacies and well-heeled people. Study after study shows this. And this is why the DEI people at all the Ivies forced the schools to go back to test scores after Covid.

 

[FCB02062]

Who let Aaron Dobson on the plane?

 

[Tunescribe]

Who let Aaron Dobson on the plane?

Good eye.

 

[PaulThePat]

Effectively getting rid of Steve B to install Covington was a ridiculous decision. Mayo deserved fired for that alone.

 

[Vindicate]

I am willing to bet that "Don't be like Bill" was #1 on his job description. That was his mandate. For whatever reason RKK and Jonathan were sick to death of Bill and wanted out from under his rule. The lack of vision that everyone in the media keeps harping on now is really because the vision was to have Bill be gone, and have everything else be status quo. They thought they'd struggle on X's and O's while Mayo learned, but the fact that Mayo was busy being "not Bill" would make up for it.

I made this argument in RE: his press conferences, in pressure from Kraft as well. I think that's why he got caught so often, as there was a football-strategic decision behind Belichick's behavior. The same could not be said for Mayo. Unfortunately, "we need to be different from him" isn't a vision, it offers no developmental goal, it doesn't provide a vision for the team of where they're starting and where they should end up. It truly felt like this season's goal was "to not be Bill Belichick."

Also, simply saying "we want to win games" is not a vision, either.

 

[mgteich]

Apparently, Mayo refused to give Steve Belichick the DC job, offering him a lesser job. Of course, Steve would have called the plays and developed the defensive game plans.

Looking back (for some of you at the time), Mayo was done at this point. The Defense was in huge trouble.

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

Scott Zolak is saying that part of that story isn’t true, he said Mayo never sat at the front of the plane, he was always in the back, he was playing cards with the players which is odd after a bad loss.

Why would he watch film anyway? It's not like he'd understand it or be capable of making conclusions from it.

 

[PaulThePat]

That has and is being discussed in another thread From The Athletic - "Inside Mayo's Disastrous Season"