Last January, I sat down and wrote an article ranking all the head coaching hires of last offseason, 8 to 1. Here’s the list.

8 – Raheem Morris to ATL

7 – Dan Quinn to WSH

6 – Jerod Mayo to NE

5 – Mike Macdonald to SEA

4 – Brian Callahan to TEN

3 – Dave Canales to CAR

2 – Antonio Pierce to LV

1 – Jim Harbaugh to LAC

Hindsight is always 20/20. A lot of factors come into play when it dictates these coach’s success. Player health, front office, roster inherited, and the culture are just some ingredients to a successful season or a disaster. Two coaches have already been fired and two are in the playoffs. This article begins a series related to this list last year, re-ranking the coaches and evaluating how they did in their first season at the helm.

One of the coaches who was only given one year and ends up 8th on our list is Jerod Mayo for the New England Patriots.

Here is how we felt about Jerod Mayo last year, ranking 6th in our head coaching list.

Jerod Mayo’s best bet was culture fit. He knew the Patriot Way and if Robert Kraft wanted to keep the same vibes around the team, Mayo was the best culture fit candidate on the market, spending over a decade combined with Bill Belichick and the Patriots organization. However, that’s all Mayo had going for him.

Mayo was not ready to be one of the 32 head coaches in the NFL. Owner Robert Kraft even stated he set Jerod Mayo up to fail this season, but is that really a reason to fire a coach after one season? Didn’t Kraft believe in Mayo and want to give him time?

Mayo inherited a really bad roster. The team was drafting third overall for a reason after Belichick’s final season. The Patriots in the post-Brady era looks abysmal, led by Drake Maye you took with that first-round pick. Winning with a rookie quarterback is an anomaly, but it’s almost impossible if the roster or structure surrounding them is shaky at best.

Drake Maye averaged 175 passing yards a game, throwing 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, while being sacked 34 times in 13 games. The Patriots had no 1,000-yard rusher or 1,000-yard receiver. His two running backs, Rhomandre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson, totaled 8 touchdowns and 8 fumbles. New England’s 2nd-round pick Ja’Lynn Polk was drafted to be Maye’s best option, but finished the season with 12 catches and 87 yards, catching 0 passes on 3 targets in the final 4 games of the season.

Nothing to shine on offense with a defensive-minded first-year head coach meant the defense needed to show progress. Instead, it was regression.

The Patriots averaged 301.6 YPG and 21.6 PPG allowed in 2023, taking steps back with 343.4 YPG and 24.5 PPG in 2024. Once ranked in the top half of the league, the Patriots dipped to the bottom half of the league in both categories.

If you look beyond the statistics, who did the Patriots play in Mayo’s first year? They didn’t have that strong of a schedule. They played 3 non-division playoff teams with the Bills twice. A lot of these losses came to the Dolphins twice, Jaguars, Titans, and Colts.

The Patriots also didn’t have a quality win in 2024 under Mayo. The Bengals game was a shocker to open the year, but the Cincinnati team was struggling early. The Patriots did beat the rival Jets by 3, but that’s only after getting blown out by the Jets by 21 points in Week 3. The Patriots beat Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears 19-3 around the time the Bears had the collapse and Matt Eberflus gets fired. If it wasn’t for the Bills resting Josh Allen the final week, I’m not sure the Patriots win that game with third-string quarterback Joe Milton III.

A first-year head coach needs to have a sign of promise, whether it’s fight in the team, close matchups against good teams, or a significant win that gives you hope for the future. Whether it was the roster around him or the schedule ahead of the team, Jerod Mayo couldn’t deliver any of these.

I think the final straw was a report of Jerod Mayo on the flight home after a loss to the Cardinals, 30-17. The Cardinals had lost 3 straight and avoided 4 behind James Conner’s two touchdown runs. On the flight home at 3-11, Mayo left his assistant coaches studying film to play a card game with the players in the back of the plane. This wouldn’t be a huge deal if the Patriots weren’t on a 4-game losing streak themselves. In a winning organization, this might appear to be a team-bonding experience with your head coach. In this case, it comes across more like a former player stuck in his player ways.

Unfortunately, Jerod Mayo wasn’t ready to be a head coach in the NFL just yet. At 38 years old, Mayo is still young to learn and develop. But it took one full season for Robert Kraft to understand Mayo wasn’t ready, this roster wasn’t ready, and the organization needed to move on.

Therefore, I re-rank Jerod Mayo 8th on my list.

RE – RANKING:

8) Jerod Mayo

7) TBD

6) TBD

5) TBD

4) TBD

3) TBD

2) TBD

1) TBD

Stay tuned for the next installment of this series, re-ranking the first-year head coaches after a season under their belt.