NFL Rumors: How Patriots Went Against Initial Jerod Mayo Plan

The end of the Patriots’ 2024 season marked the end of Jerod Mayo’s head coaching tenure in New England.

But if all went according to plan at One Patriot Place, that juncture would have signaled the start of the journey for the former linebacker.

The Athletic’s Chad Graff on Wednesday published a column that pulled back the curtain on Mayo’s messy run as Patriots head coach, including details on how the 38-year-old fell out of favor in Foxboro, Mass. Graff also included information on the beginning of the Mayo era, which arrived earlier than Robert Kraft originally anticipated.

“The plan seemed sound back in the early days of 2023,” Graff wrote. “Mayo had garnered outside interest for a couple of head-coaching vacancies, and Kraft, who thought Mayo was destined to be a successful head coach, didn’t want to see any more brain drain from (Bill) Belichick’s staff. So he put a succession plan in writing with Mayo and Belichick. Mayo would take over in 2025 after Belichick had two more years at the helm, giving the man in the hoodie ample time, they thought, to break Don Shula’s record for career wins. In turn, Belichick would mentor Mayo on various aspects of the head job to prepare him to take over.”

Of course, the Patriots’ 2023 season was hellacious enough for Kraft to call an audible and cut ties with Belichick a year early. The failed plan also prevented Mayo from going through the mentorship Kraft imagined, but according to Graff, “the hope was Mayo would learn quickly on the job.”

That obviously didn’t happen, and the Patriots will make a head coach change for the second time in as many years. One has to imagine — and New England fans better hope — that Kraft will leave no stone unturned this time around.