If the Patriots fire Jerod Mayo after the season, you will hear a lot of buzz about a certain coach as a potential backfill.
Mike Vrabel figures to be one of the most coveted coaches in this year’s hiring cycle. And one of those openings could be in New England, where Vrabel played eight seasons and won three Super Bowl titles. The 2021 Coach of the Year also is a pretty proven commodity, which the Patriots potentially could be in the market for after the Mayo experiment bombed in Year 1.
With all of those connections in mind, ESPN’s Dan Graziano picked Vrabel to New England as his “opening-to-candidate pairing that makes a lot of sense and could happen” in a column published Thursday.
“New England looks to have its quarterback of the future in Maye and needs to build up the culture and roster around him,” Graziano wrote.
“Again, I’m not saying Mayo can’t do that. It’s possible he can, and it’s possible Patriots ownership will decide to stick with the guy it believed in enough to make him coach-in-waiting while (Bill) Belichick was still there. All I’m saying is if the job comes open, Vrabel would have to be at the top of the list of predicted hires.”
The “if” Graziano noted there might be doing a lot of heavy lifting. In the same column, the NFL insider expressed doubt that the Patriots would fire Mayo after only one season in which his roster was one of the league’s worst.
Time will tell how Robert Kraft and company will handle the all-important role. But the Patriots can’t afford to drag their feet in this situation.
