Jerod Mayo's Struggles as Patriots HC Before Firing Detailed by Insiders in Report

The Jerod Mayo era with the New England Patriots was much shorter than anyone anticipated when he was hired last year as head coach, but people within the organization aren't surprised he lasted only one season on the job.

In a story detailing Mayo's rapid downfall by The Athletic's Chad Graff, the most common point that came up was he felt in over his head with the job.

Graff explained that Mayo seemed to be working so hard to differentiate himself and his style of coaching from Bill Belichick that it backfired on him.

"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."

One story relayed to Graff by a source with the Patriots involved Mayo taking the unusual step of leaving the area on the team plane where coaches sit to join the players for a game of cards after their Week 15 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

"Look, there are a lot of ways to do the job," the team source who was on the plane said. "It's not that Jerod's was definitely wrong. But I can't say I've seen that before."

A Patriots player did point out to Graff that Mayo's decision to play cards with the players would have been spun as a positive if they were winning games.

Another problem that was highlighted by Graff is that Mayo had no experience in the NFL outside of working with the Patriots, both as a player and coach, so he struggled to fill out his coaching staff because he didn't have many connections around the league:

"Mayo's lack of connections meant he had to lean on Wolf and others in the front office to fill out his staff. When it was completed, the Patriots had a first-time front-office leader (Wolf), a first-time head coach (Mayo), a first-time defensive coordinator (Covington), a first-time offensive play caller (Van Pelt), a first-time special teams coordinator (Jeremy Springer), a first-time offensive line coach (Scott Peters), a first-time wide receivers coach (Tyler Hughes) and a first-time linebackers coach (Dont'a Hightower). It's not that any one of them was a bad hire individually but that all of them together led to too many people figuring out their jobs on the fly."

There was also a lack of consistency in terms of player discipline and how it was enforced. After Rhamondre Stevenson lost a fumble in the fourth quarter that led to a Buffalo Bills touchdown in the Patriots' 24-21 loss in Week 16, Mayo said leading up to the next game against the Los Angeles Chargers that the veteran running back would play but not start.

Stevenson wound up getting the start against the Chargers, but he got two carries and played 24 out of 53 possible offensive snaps.

"I still don't know what happened with that," a Patriots source told Graff about the Stevenson situation. "Honestly, Jerod is a good guy. I just don't think he was ready for all the big decisions and discipline and focus the job takes."

Graff also reported Mayo did not offer former Patriots defensive assistant Steve Belichick "the chance to continue calling plays" and instead presented him with an opportunity to continue as a member of his staff in a "lesser role." Belichick ultimately departed for the University of Washington.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft did try to take some of the heat off Mayo after he fired him, telling reporters on Monday that he put him in an "untenable situation" and "needed more time" before becoming an NFL head coach.

The Patriots wound up finishing this season with a 4-13 record. It's the same mark they had in Belichick's final season in 2023, but there were indications throughout this year that Mayo didn't seem fully prepared for all that being a head coach entails.

That isn't to suggest it's all Mayo's fault. Expectations were low for the Patriots coming into this season because the roster still lacks elite talent at key positions on both sides of the ball.

Mayo had only five seasons of coaching experience in the NFL prior to being hired by the Patriots and never worked as a coordinator. He was the inside linebackers coach on Belichick's staff from 2019 to '23.

Things were set up for Mayo to have a rough debut season as Patriots head coach. He just didn't help matters by not filling out his staff with proven coaches, nor was there any indication over the course of the season that he was getting better at managing all of the things a head coach has to handle.

The end result is the Patriots are searching for a head coach for the second straight offseason after having Belichick running the ship for 24 seasons.