Less than 24 hours after New England Patriots the season ended and the subsequent firing of first-year head coach Jerod Mayoowner Robert Kraft met with the media to talk about his decision to take his club in a different direction. In doing so, Kraft took full responsibility for failing to put Mayo, his hand-picked successor to Bill Belichick, in the right position to succeed.
“This whole situation is on me,” Kraft said in his opening remarks. “I feel bad for Jerod because I put him in an untenable situation. I know he has all the tools as a head coach to succeed in this league. He just needed more time before “At the end of the day, I’m a fan of this team and now I have to find a coach who can get us back to the playoffs and hopefully championships.”
When asked what led him to leave Mayo after just one season on the job, Kraft acknowledged that the team’s regression over the past month proved to be a catalyst in that decision.
“I guess the main thing for me was that I felt like we had regressed,” Kraft said. “The culmination of it all was winning the game against Cincinnati (in the first week), and halfway through the season I think we started to regress.”
He then added: “I don’t like losing. I don’t like the way we lost. Things weren’t going the way we wanted them to and it was time to move on.”
Kraft has emphasized in the past that he identified Mayo as Belichick’s heir apparent five years ago and that he made Mayo’s ascension to head coach a deeply personal transaction. With that in mind, the decision to leave him so quickly, as he described it on Monday, was difficult to say the least.
“He was a man,” Kraft said when asked how Mayo took the news. “Listen, it was one of the hardest things I had to do in my life because I had so much affection for him and I believe in him and I really believe that he will continue as ‘he will gain more experience, he will succeed. It was not easy.
One of the questions that arises in the wake of Mayo’s firing is the status of the front office, particularly vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf. At the press conference, Kraft not only illustrated that Wolf’s work is safe, but also noted that he, along with the personnel manager Alonzo Highsmithwill help lead the team in its head coaching search.
“They will stay,” Kraft said of the reception.
As the head coaching search begins in earnest, Mike Vrabel — who is one of the top coaching candidates this cycle — has been largely linked to the Patriots given his ties to the organization as a player, which includes enshrinement in the team’s Hall of Fame. Asked about the possibility of bringing in Vrabel, Kraft had no comment, saying he looked forward to hearing about all eligible candidates.