Breer: How Krafts view Jerod Mayo and Pats coaches in 2024 battle originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Jerod Mayo’s first calendar year as head coach of the New England Patriots was rocky, to say the least.
Since replacing the legendary Bill Belichick in January, Mayo has endured turbulence both on and off the field. His team enters Sunday with a 3-9 record — fourth-worst in the NFL — and he’s already had to deal with his starting safety, his offensive tackle leaving the team after Week 2 and public criticism after calling his team. soft” after a loss in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars, among others.
All that criticism has led some to wonder whether Mayo and his new-look coaching staff will keep their jobs in 2025 and beyond. However, according to Albert Breer of The MMQB, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his son, team president Jonathan Kraft, understand that Mayo’s growing pains come with context.
“Just from talking to (the Krafts) and talking to people around them, I get the sense that they know where they are and it’s going to take a few offseasons to get through this,” Breer said. Patriots Pregame Live before Patriots-Colts, as seen in the video player above. “Nobody was blind to the fact that the roster wasn’t in a good place in 2023, and it’s not like they had a bunch of young talent to build on.
“So I think ‘resign’ is probably the right word — that this would take a while, that they had to evaluate things right away, that there would be some bumps for Jerod Mayo as a first-year head coach.”
But what if things go even further south this season? If the losses continue to pile up over the last five games, will the Krafts change their view of Mayo? Breer suggested that changes to the coaching staff around Mayo are entirely possible, but that Mayo is very likely to return next season.
“There are many aspects of the organization that I think will be evaluated over the next six weeks,” Breer said. “Having said that, I think (the Krafts) respect the spot that Jerod Mayo was in coming into this season. And all the talk and the pressure to win and everything else – I actually think they that he handled it fairly well given his lack of experience in this role, given the circumstances.
“I still think Jerod Mayo is on solid ground going into 2025. The question is, how different will things look around him? And I think there are fair questions to be asked when it comes to that.”
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Kraft admitted earlier this year that he named Mayo as Belichick’s successor back in 2019, and our Tom E. Curran has reported that Mayo was thrust into his a year earlier than the Krafts originally planned. So it makes sense why ownership would remain with Mayo in 2025, despite the team’s numerous problems.
But it appears the rest of the coaches — and perhaps the front office — don’t have the same security and will have to prove themselves over the last six weeks to stay with the organization.
