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00:00And we will start with this, did you think one year is a sufficient enough time for Gerard
00:06Mayo to be let go as the coach of the Patriots?
00:10I think you could fence ride that one.
00:11You could argue both sides.
00:12You know, Bill Belichick, who obviously was here for basically 25 years and doesn't even
00:17count his time as a coordinator and assistant and all that stuff, you know, he long said
00:22of just being a coach in general, you need more than one year to build a program.
00:27In fact, he would argue you need a handful of years.
00:30You know, he used to impress car press conferences, pardon me, scoff at the idea of guys who
00:34were one and done elsewhere.
00:36Not that I think he's too sad right now that his handpicked successor by Robert Kraft,
00:43the owner, is one and done.
00:44I think it's bigger than whether or not Mayo was going to develop into a good head coach
00:50and maybe he will somewhere else.
00:53But I think it was very clear for those of us that were paying close attention to this
00:57team on a weekly basis and probably a lot of people that were, you know, sort of doing
01:01that 10,000 foot national view as well, that this guy was just in over his head.
01:06And you know, saying nothing of Gerard Mayo, the man, I think he's a good guy.
01:09He's obviously a nice guy, affable guy, personable guy, well-liked by the media, all that stuff.
01:15Just simply not ready to be a head coach in the NFL.
01:18Robert Kraft, in meeting with the media earlier today, said as much.
01:21You know, he deeply regretted the position that he put Mayo in and said, you know, it
01:28is on him, the owner, for making this mistake and going with his gut and going the wrong
01:33way with it.
01:34I just think that it's very rare that a guy ascends from not even being a coordinator,
01:41be it offensive or defensive, entitled in responsibility to the role of head coach and
01:46has immediate success.
01:48There's very, I guess it's worth acknowledging, too, that he was put in a position kind of
01:53to fail.
01:54Not intentionally, but he was.
01:55You know, there's just so little talent on this Patriots team, both sides of the ball.
02:01They're incredibly talent deficient.
02:03They have drafted like crap for years, which obviously goes back to the Belichick regime.
02:08Hell, it goes back to when Tom Brady was still a Patriot, that drafts had been a problem
02:12in New England.
02:13So I just don't know realistically what kind of success people really thought Mayo was
02:17going to have.
02:18The larger issue was that he just always seemed like he was a mess.
02:22Meeting with the media, the press conferences were a disaster.
02:26It seemed like people were never really on the same page between he, the front office,
02:30his coordinators, his staff, the coaching staff.
02:33So it was time to cut bait, obviously write a big check for the duration of that contract,
02:38and bring in somebody who is either established, like Mike Vrabel, who's the popular name,
02:43and I know you brought him up, or someone even like a Ben Johnson, who, no, he hasn't
02:48been a head coach, but we know what he has achieved as a solidified offensive coordinator
02:53there in Detroit.
02:55I think, Adam, from the outside, and not everybody thinks this, and I'll say I do as well, I'm
03:01not sure he gets fired if Mike Vrabel's not available.
03:04I think that maybe he gets another crack at it if Mike Vrabel, and I'll also say this,
03:09I went and looked.
03:11They hired Mayo on January 13th last year.
03:15Vrabel was fired on January the 9th.
03:18I think that by January the 9th, the Crafts probably already knew that Mayo was going
03:22to be the successor to Bill Belichick.
03:24I think if they knew Vrabel was going to be available, I'm not so sure they don't hire
03:28him last year, and I think it was just too quick and too small of a window for them to
03:32make it happen.
03:33I think Vrabel, they love each other, you've seen them.
03:36The red jacket ceremony that night, the big hugs and kisses, I mean, a former patriot,
03:41all those things, experienced, has won in the league.
03:44I think Vrabel had a lot to do with this, and I think people from the outside, Adam,
03:47do.
03:48Do people in Boston feel that way?
03:50Well, what you left out, too, is that Mike Vrabel's Twitter avatar, ex-avatar, if we
03:55want to call it that, is him playing in a Patriots uniform.
03:59So look, the guy, his heart is certainly with New England and the championships and all
04:04of it, and I was in the building for that day that he was given the red jacket and honored
04:10as a Patriots Hall of Famer, and yeah, I think he would love the job.
04:14And there have been a lot of reports out there that he would love the job.
04:17I think, to your point, though, about, you know, was he available long enough?
04:21You know how this works in all these inner circles in the NFL.
04:24Like they had to have at least had a sense that he was going to spring available.
04:29I think the bigger issue that you hit on there is that Drodd Mayo had it written into his
04:34contract, basically, that he was going to succeed Bill Belichick, that he was the next
04:39guy.
04:40And they just, they did this to themselves, ownership to not, you know, present any sort
04:46of alternatives.
04:47I said, I was very vocal at the time saying that if you want to hire Drodd Mayo, and this
04:52was not my choice, but if you want to hire Drodd Mayo, fine.
04:56But how do you not at least go through a search?
05:00How do you not bring in Vrabel or, you know, five, six, ten other guys just to at least
05:07go through the process and have the interviews and get a freaking outside perspective that
05:12is different from what you have been doing for the last 25 years.
05:17And for whatever reason, they opted not to do that and just went with the in-house candidate
05:22who they really liked, who, you know, really won over Kraft in his years playing for the
05:26Patriots, his years as an assistant, that week-long trip to Israel that he's talked
05:30about so many times.
05:32And he just made his decision, you know, to the, you know, with the same conviction
05:36that he chose his wives, as Kraft has talked about a number of times.
05:40And it was just misguided and clearly blew up in everybody's faces there in Foxborough
05:45to where there was dissension internally, according to reports.
05:49And just, again, everyone was sort of out for themselves.
05:53And so they need a fresh start.
05:54They need the new head coach.
05:56They need to blow out the front office in terms of, you know, GM Elliott Wolfe and Alonzo
06:02Hightower.
06:03They need to get rid of these guys.
06:05The whole coaching staff needs to be turned over.
06:08You have really two talents.
06:10You have Drake May, incredibly important, obviously, the quarterback.
06:13It's a quarterback league.
06:14And you have Christian Gonzalez on the other side of the ball, a cornerback who is very
06:18good when he can stay on the field.
06:20It's these two guys.
06:22Everything else can go.
06:23And you've got tons and tons of cap space to go out there and spend.
06:27And you need to draft well.
06:28They already blew an opportunity, potentially set themselves back even a couple more years
06:32in terms of the rebuild by not losing yesterday to the Bills and securing that number one
06:38pick, which, of course, they wouldn't have used.
06:40You trade down a couple of spots, but you get more and more assets to bring in more
06:44and more talent that you so desperately need.
06:47And they just they can't get out of their own way down there in Foxborough.
06:52I don't know how much longer this is going to be going.