Jerod Mayo’s firing is a sign of Robert Kraft’s ‘mismanagement’, Rodney Harrison says
"It's just wrong, man. It's just mismanagement."
Former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said the team’s decision to fire Jerod Mayo after one season is an indication of issues at the ownership level.
Coaches need time to develop their programs, Harrison said. They also need talent around them in order to succeed.
Mayo took over a 4-13 team and lost his job after he went 4-13.
“I don’t like it,” Harrison said during NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast. “I thought it was disingenuous by the ownership. They should have never hired the guy and give him one year. You don’t give somebody a one-year opportunity to turn the Patriots around.”
“They don’t have anybody. They don’t have any offensive line,” he added. “They don’t have any great weapons. They’ve got a young quarterback that has potential but, you’ve got to give him an opportunity, coach.”
Tony Dungy is the coach that Harrison was talking to. Dungy said he hated to see Patriots owner Robert Kraft abandon his plan so quickly.
“The ownership says we’ve got a plan, this is our guy, we’ve planned for this. Now, after one year, you’re telling me that this was a bad plan? No. Stick with it. Let’s see what what happens. My coach, that I played for in Pittsburgh, Chuck Noll, I think was the greatest coach ever. He was 1-13 his first year.
“Tom Landry won a bunch of Super Bowls in Dallas. He was 1-12-1 in his first year,” Dungy added. “My first year in Tampa, we were 1-8. We ended up winning some games at the end of the year. We were 0-5 and the owners took me to lunch and said, ‘Hey, this is a long-term process, we’re with you, don’t worry about it, just get this team better.”
Harrison argued that even a Super Bowl champion coach like Dungy wouldn’t have won much more than Mayo did with this Patriots roster. The roster is quite similar to the one six-time champion Bill Belichick went 4-13 with last season.
“It’s just unfair. It’s not right. You should have never hired him in the first place. And then what do I hear, ‘oh, they’re going to go get Mike Vrabel’. Well, you should have done that in the first place. Why did you promise Jerod Mayo something because you thought he was going to leave and go somewhere else? It’s just wrong, man. It’s just mismanagement.”
Harrison said the desire for instant gratification may have been a factor in the firing. After a two-decade long run of dominance, the Patriots have found themselves at the bottom of the league the last few seasons.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft explained the firing in a letter, saying that New England fans deserve better. He apologized for the substandard product his organization put on the field and said that he was looking to “expedite” the Patriots’ return championship contention.
“Everybody wants to win right now,” Harrison said. “They think that it’s a certain thing that you can do, snap your fingers, and it’s not like that. Even Mike Vrabel, if they hire him he’s going to have to come in and really change the culture and that’s going to be hard to do.”
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