With the talk obviously swirling about the situation with New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer believes that the issues facing the team extend beyond its head coach.
A fair amount of people have speculated about the possibility of former Patriot Mike Vrabel – who is said to be interested should the club part with Mayo – but Breer isn’t certain that he would succeed in their current set up.
In fact, he feels that this is a team that still has its work cut out for it if they hope to have any success at all moving forward.
“So I went from do it if Vrabel is available to now I’m like, all options are on the table because that was so bad,” said Breer during an appearance on Zolak and Bertrand on 98.5 the Sports Hub this week. “And that performance and to come out of it … to look that way. And I’m almost like… The weird thing is I’m almost now torn on the Vrabel thing because I think this organization has systemic issues that go beyond the head coach that need to be fixed. That if you just go and have another shame of a coaching search, another shame of a GM search, and you just bring in a guy that you know, there may be issues here that do not get fixed because you did that, because you did not put yourself through a full process again.”
“Here’s the thing is, they still are set up the way they were when Bill was the coach. They need more people. They need more departments. They need to modernize the entire operation. This is a place that was based around the way one person wanted to run it. That one person is not here anymore.”
“They need to spend and spend and spend to build out their operation, to get it up with what the Eagles are doing, with what the Ravens are doing, with what the most forward-thinking organization, the Rams, the Niners, what the best organizations in football are doing. And what I’ve heard so many times from these … The people who went into the Lions, right? So there’s a good example, right? The guys who came into the lines, Brad Holmes was coming from the Rams, and they felt like they had to build out so many things because they were way too small, and we need to have this and this and this and this. If we don’t have it, we’re going to be behind everybody else. Sports science, analytics, all these different things. This is not a one-person problem.”
Breer went on to say that it’s obviously been a rough first-year performance by Mayo, but ownership absolutely deserves its fair share of the blame for the club’s 3-13 performance. He cites the fact that the succession plan put in place wasn’t planned out the right way.
He also noted that one key issue was the fact the decision to eventually promote Mayo wasn’t endorsed by former coach Bill Belichick, which Breer feels didn’t exactly help set Mayo up for success.
“Jerod has not done a good job this year. First of all. Let me put that out there,” Breer continued. “The Krafts, don’t let them skate on this. They deserve a healthy piece of the blame. And I think it starts with the way that you set this up in the first place, because you do not put a succession plan in place without the blessing of your head coach. They put that in place, and it was without the full blessing and ownership of the head coach.”
“I’ve heard there was knowledge,” said Breer when asked if Belichick was aware of the plan to eventually hand Mayo the position. “But I don’t think it came with his blessing, and it wasn’t his idea.”
Breer also pointed out that unlike other situations where a “baton” had been passed where a coach was promoted from within, that’s not at all how things played out here and he puts that on the Krafts.
“This wasn’t a baton passing,” said Breer. “There was fractures on that coaching staff. There were issues internally. There were people who didn’t like each other. There were factions inside that group in 2023. And that was the runway that you were creating for an inexperienced head coach who’s not ready for the job.”
“But that is on ownership.”
‘Where are all the people?’
One other thing Breer talked about is the fact that the Patriots, despite bringing in a multitude of coaches this offseason as well as additional scouts, are still apparently nowhere near on par with other teams in terms of their football operations.
Breer said that the impression people get each time they walk into the building is that they’re stunned at how small things are compared to other clubs.
“The people who have come here from other organizations, I can tell you this 100%, their first reaction when they walk in that Building is where are all the people?” said Breer. “People here are seeing the way a lot of other teams live now. It’s like, after a year of this, you’re done with it. Okay, that’s fine. But what’s the answer?”
“I think it’s complex in that like, Vrabel is definitely the best option out there. But do you fix some of the systemic things that go beyond the head coach if Vrabel is coming in here? Or are you just plugging in one person and saying, a lot of the other stuff we’re doing was right all along?”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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Fair critique of ownership and the lack of a proper succession plan. However, let’s get off the never ending Vrabel kick. Not exactly a sterling record or team he left. Also, the Patriots were projected as the worst in the league with a 3 or 4 win season. Exactly where they are. So sick of the impatient, ignorant, irrational media and social media who all act like experts who know better. They do not!
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Should be obvious that the team has gone backwards WITH more talent. Drake Maye and Gonzalez weren’t around last year. And yet the defense and offense look much worse.
And yes, isn’t it amazing a first year head coach had growing pains, along with the rest of the staff. Who ever would have thought? What a shock!
REALLY unhappy Kraft is trying to hide the systemic issues and lay blame on a first year head coach. Mayo deserved another year to work through the bad hand he was dealt in concert with the Kraft’s working through the systemic issues and attempt to build a stronger organization. Not only were organizational issues a problem, but injuries also added to the available talent. Media and pundits should hold their negativity, fans and ownership should figure it out without negative influences. The result this year was expected when Mayo was hired, the first win over the Bengals gave a false… Read more »