The Patriots wasted no time reaching the “pointing fingers” stage of their offseason.
New England made swift changes following a disastrous season-ending win over the Buffalo Bills, moving on from now-former head coach Jerod Mayo. Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi spoke to people in and around the building regarding the change, and one major theme to come out of it was that the coaching staff felt set up to fail.
It’s probably what we should have expected considering how poorly things went in 2024, but it’s still kind of surprising to see what certain people had to say.
“What’s the line? Chicken salad out of chicken (expletive)? Yeah. That was us,” one coach told Giardi.
The Patriots might think they made chicken salad, but if they did it’s among the worst of all time. It’s undoubtedly true that the roster was terrible, though, so you can understand that someone who just lost their job wanted to get that point across.
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“Offensive line. Wide receiver. Defensive line. Bottom of the league here, there, and everywhere,” another coach told Giardi. “Can’t rush the passer. Can’t stop the run. Getting blown out of gaps. Do you think they were coached to do that? We were asking players to do the most basic things, but in many cases, it was asking them to play beyond their capabilities. Hard to be consistently competitive.”
New England will now move forward without many on the staff and roster that produced such harsh criticism. Patriots executive vice president of personnel Eliot Wolf is still in charge of helping put things together, though, so it’s still a question as to whether things will improve.
Featured image via Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images
