In his end-of-season video conference, Bill Belichick said he wasn’t surprised to see other teams interested in his New England Patriots assistant coaches and personnel staffers.
The question now is whether any of those candidates will land more prominent jobs elsewhere this offseason.
As of Wednesday morning, two members of the Patriots’ personnel department had interviewed for general manager roles, one assistant had interviewed for multiple head-coaching gigs and another assistant — the most prominent on New England’s staff — had been heavily linked to one particular coaching vacancy.
Here is the latest on each of those four as NFL hiring season rolls on:
Eliot Wolf, scouting consultant
Wolf interviewed for the GM vacancies in Minnesota and met twice with the Chicago Bears, but both of those have since been filled. With just one GM job still open (Las Vegas Raiders), Wolf likely is staying put unless he pursues a different opportunity elsewhere. The 39-year-old former Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns executive had a key role in the Patriots’ retooled draft scouting process, which yielded Mac Jones, Christian Barmore and Rhamondre Stevenson last spring.
Dave Ziegler, director of player personnel
That lone remaining GM opening? Ziegler was the first candidate the Raiders requested to interview it, with news of their invitation breaking before they’d even officially fired now-former GM Mike Mayock. He’s been with the Patriots since 2013 as just completed his first season as New England’s top personnel man beneath Belichick, stepping into Nick Caserio’s old role. If Ziegler lands the Las Vegas job, the odds of a Patriots assistant moving there, too, would increase exponentially.
Other reported Raiders GM candidates include Ed Dodds (Indianapolis Colts), Trey Brown (Cincinnati Bengals), Champ Kelly (Bears), Ruston Webster (Atlanta Falcons) and Brandon Hunt (Pittsburgh Steelers).
Jerod Mayo, inside linebackers coach
A hot name in this head coach hiring cycle, Mayo interviewed with the Denver Broncos last week and the Raiders on Tuesday. He reportedly failed to crack the list of finalists in Denver but remains in the mix with Las Vegas, which still is searching for its permanent Jon Gruden replacement. Reports also indicated Mayo would be “a leading candidate” for the Houston Texans job, though he has yet to receive a publicly reported interview request. The Texans’ football operation is led by a pair of Patriots alums in Caserio and Jack Easterby.
Though he has just three years of coaching experience at any level, the 35-year-old Mayo has been renowned for his leadership since his days as a Patriots linebacker and team captain. Those qualities reportedly have shone through in his head-coaching interviews, including the one he had with the Philadelphia Eagles last year.
Mayo is one of the Patriots’ top defensive assistants, sharing defensive coordinator duties with Belichick and outside linebackers coach Steve Belichick. (The Patriots have not had an official DC since Matt Patricia left in 2018.) Becoming an NFL head coach, he said, “always has been” a goal of his.
There currently are nine teams without head coaches, so Mayo could receive additional interest in the coming days or weeks.
Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator
Quarterback Mac Jones’ promising rookie season seemed to reinvigorate McDaniels’ head-coaching candidacy, but more than two weeks removed from Black Monday, he has yet to receive a publicly reported interview request.
That’s likely been partially influenced by his own preferences, as McDaniels “has relayed to interested teams that aligning with someone he knows well on the personnel side is a top priority,” according to a report from ESPN’s Mike Reiss. In other words: If he doesn’t know, like, respect and philosophically align with your GM, don’t bother calling.
This could change, however, if Ziegler is hired in Las Vegas. Multiple recent reports have indicated the Raiders could be targeting Ziegler and McDaniels — longtime colleagues and former college teammates at John Carroll University — as a package deal of sorts. The Raiders are the only team with a head-coaching vacancy that made the playoffs this season, making them one of the more appealing destinations.
(UPDATE: McDaniels and Ziegler had been viewed as front-runners in Vegas, with the former even beginning to formulate his potential coaching staff, before “something happened” between Tuesday and Wednesday that removed them from the list of favorites, according to a report from The Athletic’s Vic Tafur.)
McDaniels has a similar connection with Caserio, but he has not been linked to the Texans’ opening.
Replacing McDaniels would be challenging, as the Patriots do not have an obvious internal successor on staff. The 45-year-old has led New England’s offense since 2013. Bill O’Brien, a former Patriots OC, is one potential external replacement if McDaniels departs.
