Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
ESPN lists Patriots 4th in new ranking of potential head coach vacancies
The Patriots are unlikely to fire Mayo, per reports, but if they did the opening would be one of the most desirable in the NFL.
According to multiple reports, the Patriots are not likely to fire Jerod Mayo this year.
But, with New England’s record at 3-12 and a few weeks left in the season, rumors of a potential firing have been swirling anyway.
So, if the Krafts were to make the unlikely move and fire Mayo, where would the job opening stack up against other NFL vacancies in terms of desirability?
ESPN ranks the Patriots fourth in the NFL in that department. Only the Bears, Dolphins, and Jaguars rank higher.
Why would the Patriots be so desirable? Because they have a promising young quarterback in Drake Maye, and plenty of cap space to work with, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell wrote.
Advertisement:
There’s just one downside, he said, but it is a big one. The Patriots do not have enough talent surrounding Maye to be competitive.
“If Jerod Mayo ultimately becomes the Patriots’ one-and-done buffer between a franchise legend and his long-term replacement, the new regime will have its work cut out for it,” Barnwell said. “As exciting as rookie Drake Maye has been in moments this season, this might be the league’s worst roster in terms of talent surrounding the quarterback.”
“The Patriots are projected to lead the NFL in cap space heading into 2025, but they might need to sign half a roster’s worth of players to sufficiently surround Maye with solutions on both sides of the ball.”
Advertisement:
Quarterback play factored in pretty heavily in Barwell’s rankings, with all four of the top teams having their QBs listed in the ‘pros’ column instead of the ‘cons’ column.
But, as Patriots fans know all too well, there are concerns about who Maye will be throwing to next season along with who will be blocking for him. New England’s offense is scoring slightly more with Maye than it did last year under Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe, but collectively the offense is still the third-worst in the league at 17.3 points per game.
The defense hasn’t been great either, which was relatively surprising considering how well that unit played under Bill Belichick last season along with the fact that Mayo has played and coached on the defensive side of the ball his entire career.
“The Patriots rank 30th in EPA (expected points added) per play and 24th in points allowed per possession,” Barnwell wrote. “Trading (Matthew) Judon made sense for a rebuilding team, but New England hasn’t been able to form a pass rush without him, as two players have five sacks and nobody else has more than 2.5. The Pats have been too susceptible to mental mistakes in the back end, something that seemed to never happen with Belichick in charge.”
Advertisement:
Another reason for optimism is that the Patriots have been in a lot of close games. They’ve lost six of the eight they’ve been in, which isn’t ideal, but some of the mistakes that led to those are correctable. Situational awareness, red-zone execution, and limiting mental mistakes are all areas that coaches can help with if the roster improves.
“They’ll be better in the red zone on offense next season, and the roster will improve with a top-three pick and the likely coming spending spree in free agency,” Barnwell said. “Maye might be the most appealing quarterback available from the teams on this list. But there’s just a lot of work to be done here.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com