Jerod Mayo has taken plenty of heat amid the New England Patriots' 3-10 start. But you could argue de facto general manager Eliot Wolf deserves a fair share of blame as well.
After all, Wolf and the front office are responsible for a roster that lacks talent at crucial positions like wide receiver and offensive line. Free-agent acquisitions K.J. Osborn (seven receptions in seven games played) and Chukwuma Okorafor (left the team after Week 2) have been massive failures, while 2024 draft picks like wide receivers Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker have given the team very little production (12 receptions for 87 yards combined).
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So, even if Mayo keeps his head coach job heading into 2025, could Wolf be on the hot seat? The MMQB's Albert Breer joined NBC Sports Boston's Sports Sunday to explain why Wolf likely isn't going anywhere next year.
"I don't think general managers are judged in one-year snapshots," Breer said, as seen in the video player above. "... I just think there are too many ebbs and flows to personnel acquisition. Like, drafts, you have a good year, you have a bad year -- that's everybody in the NFL. It's too hard to judge a guy on one draft or one free agent period, and I think you have to give him more time than that."
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Beyond giving Wolf and his front office more runway, Breer believes there's also a pride factor for Patriots owner Robert Kraft that will dissuade him from parting with either Wolf or Mayo just one year after giving them such prominent roles in the organization following Bill Belichick's exit.
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"I also think there's this element of it, and I think this applies to Jerod Mayo too: Sometimes it's hard for owners to admit they were wrong," Breer said. "The owners here invested a lot in Jerod Mayo. They invested in him as a player, they invested in him as an assistant coach, they basically kicked the greatest coach of all time out the door to hand the job to Jerod Mayo.
"I saw this in Dallas with Jerry Jones: One one of the reasons he was so reluctant to let go of Jason Garrett is because he viewed Jason Garrett as his creation. I think a similar dynamic exists here. I don't think Kraft wants to be wrong about Jerod Mayo. For that matter, I don't think they want to be wrong about Eliot Wolf, either."
To Breer's point, Garrett had a .500 record with just one playoff berth over his first five seasons as Cowboys head coach. That may have been grounds for firing in a market like Dallas, but because Garrett -- who spent seven seasons as the Cowboys' backup quarterback in the 1990s, winning three Super Bowls -- was handpicked by Jones, he kept the head coach job for four additional seasons.
Kraft seems similarly bullish on Mayo's potential and recently boasted that he knew Mayo would succeed Belichick as early as 2019. So, pulling the plug on the Mayo-Wolf regime after just one season would be a very bad look for Kraft himself.
Check out the video below for the full Sports Sunday discussion about the Patriots' coaching staff.
