Patriots Can’t Afford Quick Coaching Search, Must Exhaust Options

The Patriots are in decent shape as it pertains to the outcome of their coaching search, but things haven’t exactly been perfect.

New England looks primed to land one of the two most coveted options on the market: former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel or Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Vrabel makes all the sense in the world given his ties to the organization and experience as a head coach. Johnson is built from the same cloth as recent success stories Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan and Kevin O’Connell — while also having ties to some decent names that could come in and join his staff.

It’s almost a win-win situation. Patriots owner Robert Kraft just needs to show patience and avoid screwing the whole thing up.

New England wouldn’t be wrong for identifying a candidate and looking to hire them as soon as possible, though underlying elements to this process would suggest that’s the wrong way to go about things.

Kraft hasn’t undergone a legitimate coaching search in a quarter-century, with Bill Belichick’s historic tenure bleeding into the hasty elevation of Jerod Mayo. Vrabel walking in and earning the job after just one interview would essentially be the same thing, as the early optics of their search don’t look great. Robert Kraft, team president Jonathan Kraft, executive vice of player personnel Eliot Wolf and senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith interviewed two external minority candidates (Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich) who have been out of football for multiple years. While it might sound cynical, they did it because that was the fastest way they could satisfy the Rooney Rule.

The Patriots have also notoriously been behind the eight ball when it comes to organizational structure, as Belichick’s ability to fill multiple roles allowed them to avoid implementing new departments and support staff for over two decades. Vrabel and Johnson — as well as Hamilton and Leftwich — could very well inform them of the new-age way of doing things, but wouldn’t it be helpful to add more names to the list and at the very least gather more information?

New England hasn’t requested to speak with anyone outside that quartet.

Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is respected around the league, so why haven’t they talked to him? Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores literally touted his interest in the job, but there hasn’t been an interview scheduled. Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen, Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, etc. aren’t of interest?

Glenn and Flores both previously spent time as scouts and could bring a different viewpoint to the relationship between a front office and coaching staff. You don’t have to hire either one of them, but you could at least learn something by taking the time to speak with them!

The Los Angeles Chargers provided a perfect example of how these hiring cycles should be approached last offseason, as pointed out by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. LA always had its eye on Jim Harbaugh but still interviewed double-digit candidates for its head-coaching job (including Vrabel and Johnson), and front-office opening. Can you accurately argue that going through the process wasn’t helpful? No, and why would you?

The NFL is split between teams that do things the right way and teams that do things the wrong way — and we all know how things have been being done down at One Patriot Place. Kraft has an opportunity to change that, and it starts by taking a step back and exhausting all of his options.

It’s tough to see the forest through the trees sometimes, or whatever the opposite of that idiom is, but opening this thing up to a true search is the right thing to do.