NFL insider explains why Patriots likely won’t fire Jerod Mayo or Eliot Wolf after 1 season
"It's too hard to judge a guy on one draft or one free agent period, and I think you have to give him more time than that."
With the Patriots currently mired at the bottom of the AFC East with a 3-10 record, both Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf are feeling the heat.
The Patriots weren’t expected to be anywhere close to contenders in 2024, but New England has regressed in several areas this season — including the defensive side of the ball, discipline, and late-game execution.
Mayo, who is in the midst of his first year as an NFL head coach, deflected a question posed Monday about whether Robert Kraft has told him he’ll be back for a second season.
“My main focus has just been really getting this team getting ready to play this week … “I’m not going to get into all of that stuff. … “Here I go again dancing a little bit, but my focus is on the guys in this room, the coaches on this staff, and winning this game that we have coming up.”
While Mayo has taken plenty of criticism over the last few months, New England’s de-facto GM in Wolf is also responsible for the Patriots’ personnel.
Even with New England entering last offseason with heaps of cap space, the Patriots whiffed on several free agents like Calvin Ridley, while signings like K.J. Osborn and Chukwuma Okorafor have been massive failures.
Add in lackluster returns from several 2024 draft picks like Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker, and New England still has a ways to go in its rebuild — even if Drake Maye looks like the real deal at quarterback.
But even with concerns regarding Mayo’s growing pains and Wolf’s offseason miscues, count Albert Breer of the MMQB among those who doesn’t expect Kraft to move on from either after the 2024 season concludes.
“I don’t think general managers are judged in one-year snapshots,” Breer said of Wolf during his latest appearance on NBC Sports Boston’s Sports Sunday, adding: “I just think there are too many ebbs and flows to personnel acquisition. Like, drafts, you have a good year, you have a bad year — that’s everybody in the NFL. It’s too hard to judge a guy on one draft or one free agent period, and I think you have to give him more time than that.”
Beyond the need for more patience when it comes to New England’s rebuild, Breer admitted that New England clearing house with its coaching staff and front office would also reflect poorly on Kraft.
For Breer, it’s a similar situation to what played out with the Cowboys after owner Jerry Jones tabbed Jason Garrett as the heir apparent to lead Dallas in a head-coaching capacity.
“I also think there’s this element of it, and I think this applies to Jerod Mayo too: Sometimes it’s hard for owners to admit they were wrong,” Breer said. “The owners here invested a lot in Jerod Mayo. They invested in him as a player, they invested in him as an assistant coach, they basically kicked the greatest coach of all time out the door to hand the job to Jerod Mayo.
“I saw this in Dallas with Jerry Jones: One one of the reasons he was so reluctant to let go of Jason Garrett is because he viewed Jason Garrett as his creation. I think a similar dynamic exists here. I don’t think Kraft wants to be wrong about Jerod Mayo. For that matter, I don’t think they want to be wrong about Eliot Wolf, either.”
The optics would be poor on Kraft if he did fire Mayo after one season — especially after tabbing the former linebacker as Bill Belichick’s successor “five years ago”.
Still, the Patriots will need to grapple with what stands as the best path forward in 2025 and beyond as the team tries to build off some of the promise that Maye has showcased this fall.
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