Jerod Mayo faced the tall task of replacing a legendary head coach, and it became clear to many within the Patriots that he was not ready for the job.
Robert Kraft took the blame for setting up Mayo, who he hand-picked to be the team’s next head coach in 2019, to fail. Mayo earned the respect of New England players, but Kraft felt a change was needed after a 4-13 season.
While multiple players stood up for Mayo publicly, he still struggled in key areas of the job. The Patriots internally felt the 38-year-old “struggled with discipline and how to enforce it,” according to The Athletic’s Chad Graff on Wednesday. Graff highlighted Mayo telling Scott Zolak on 98.5 The Sports Hub before the Week 17 Los Angeles Chargers game that Rhamondre Stevenson would be benched. However, the running back earned the start without any drop in his typical workload.
“I still don’t know what happened with that,” a team source told Mayo. “Honestly, Jerod is a good guy. I just don’t think he was ready for all the big decisions and discipline and focus the job takes.”
Mayo revealed postgame that it was a “coach’s decision,” and Antonio Gibson admitted he hadn’t heard about any possible change to his workload.
It was believed that Mayo would be more of a players coach than his predecessor, but Graff’s report noted how it might have gone too far in that direction. Mayo suffered the consequences, and the Patriots were left looking for another head coach.
