Albert Breer provides insight into the Patriots’ decision to fire Jerod Mayo
The New England Patriots' disastrous 2024 NFL season came to a close Sunday with a 23-16 win over the Buffalo Bills that cost them the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
After a 4-13 finish, the Patriots wasted no time in announcing they had fired head coach Jerod Mayo. Mayo lasted just one season in New England after replacing Bill Belichick in January of last year.
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The timing was a bit of a surprise -- most teams announce coach firings the Monday after the season ends. So, what happened here? The MMQB's Albert Breer joined NBC Sports Boston's Sports Sunday and provided some interesting information on the dynamic between different levels of the Patriots organization.
"I think if you want to look back, there's been signs of this happening all week," Breer said, as seen in the video player above. "I think if you've talked to enough people in the organization -- I hate to put it this way, but I think there was starting to be some dissension, and some people pointing fingers in different directions. I don't think coaching and scouting were quite on the same page. I think there were factions on the coaching staff. There's a lot of this stuff that you saw in 2023.
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"I think it was pretty clear people there knew something was going to happen. Whether it was a single pound of flesh or the whole operation being blown up, someone was going to have to pay for what happened this year. I think you see what you see inside a lot of bad organizations as the season circles the drain, which is people kinda retreating to their corners and trying to figure out if there are ways to save their jobs."
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Mayo didn't do a great job as coach, but he wasn't the only problem. The roster built for him was terrible, and the consistent misses in the draft over the last few years are really taking their toll. Breer suggested ownership is to blame, as well.
"I don't think this reflects particularly well on the Krafts," Breer added. "But I think if they do what they did last year, which, it feels like looking back at it now -- they looked at last year as a single-person problem, Bill Belichick was the issue -- then they're going to be right back here in a couple of years. That's the bottom line. I don't care if you bring Vince Lombardi in to coach.
"They don't have the infrastructure right now -- I'm not even talking about players, the roster is bad -- they do not have the infrastructure to be successful in the NFL in 2025. It is more than one person. Jerod Mayo wasn't good in 2024, but there's a huge number of coaches who couldn't have done a whole lot more with what they had."
With Mayo gone, it's fair to wonder what other changes the Patriots might make in the coming weeks. Will offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington return? Will executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf or anyone else in the front office lose their job after building one of the league's worst rosters?
The Patriots have now won four or fewer games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1967-70. It would be hard to fault the Krafts if they decide to clean house and install a bunch of new coaches and front office people. Something has to change. The product on the field since Tom Brady left in 2020 has been subpar, and that's probably putting it mildly.
