What should the Patriots prioritize when hiring their next head coach?
After firing Jerod Mayo, what should the Patriots prioritize when looking for their next head coach?
For the second time in less than a year, the New England Patriots need a new head coach. 360 days after parting ways with Bill Belichick the team has now fired his replacement, letting go of Jerod Mayo almost immediately after their season finale on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
When the Patriots hired Mayo last year, there was no coaching search. He’d had it written into his contract that he would be Belichick’s successor, negating the need for one. That won’t be the case this time around.
The big question now is what will the Patriots prioritize as they look for Mayo’s replacement. Given the way things went with Mayo there should be an emphasis on one trait in particular – experience.
More than anything else, what the Patriots need right now at the coaching level is a culture reset. After a year of inconsistent messaging and unclear leadership, a new coach is going to have to step in ready to fix that.
That experience should also help build out the staff beyond the head coach. Coaches who have been around longer have more connections they can pull from in the hiring process, which in theory should lead to a more complete and talented staff from coordinators on down.
Establishing a culture and building up a program at the NFL level isn’t easy, but there are candidates available who have done so before.
At the top of that list is former Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel. Vrabel coached the Titans for six years before being let go at the end of the 2023 season. In his time in Tennessee he compiled a 54-45 record with three playoff appearances, including a trip to the AFC Championship Game in 2023.
Expect to hear Vrabel’s name plenty as long as the Patriots’ coaching search lasts. Reports were tying him to the Patriots for a few weeks leading up to Mayo’s firing, and after that news broke there were more reports indicating mutual interest between the two sides.
WATCH: Patriots Postgame reaction to Jerod Mayo’s firing
Vrabel’s connections to the Patriots are obvious – he was inducted into the team Hall of Fame last year for his time in New England as a player. When it comes to coaching though, those years aren’t as relevant.
During his eight seasons in New England Vrabel certainly learned plenty about football playing for Belichick, but his coaching path is independent of New England. His first coaching job was at Ohio State, where he worked as a linebackers and then defensive line coach under Luke Fickell and then Urban Meyer.
After three seasons in Columbus he jumped to the NFL as the linebackers coach for the Houston Texans, later becoming the defensive coordinator. There he worked for Bill O’Brien, so while the program was Patriots-influenced it wasn’t Belichick-run.
In 2018 the Titans hired Vrabel. During his time in Tennessee he didn’t hire many coaches from the Belichick tree, especially on the offensive side of the ball. This past season Vrabel was a consultant for the Cleveland Browns under Kevin Stefanski.
If the Patriots hire Vrabel, the Patriots would get a coach ownership knowns and already has a relationship, while also getting somebody whose coaching rolodex extends well beyond New England.
Vrabel may be the first name that comes to mind as an experienced coach with outside influence, but he’s not the only one. Brian Flores is another good name to know. Flores worked for the Patriots from 2008-2018, finishing up as the linebackers coach and de facto defensive coordinator.
Flores left in 2019 to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, where he went 24-25. His firing came with controversy, with Flores alleging Dolphins ownership had offered him money to ‘tank’ games, with Flores refusing to comply. There is still a pending lawsuit between Flores and the NFL related to his firing and later head coach candidacy.
After a stop in Pittsburgh, Flores has spent the last two years as the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings. During his tenure, Minnesota has had one of the best defenses in the NFL.
Minnesota in particular has had one of the best programs in the NFL under head coach Kevin O’Connell. They’ve become one of the model staffs in the NFL, and one the Patriots could emulate with Flores’ help. In particular, there’s the draw of him bringing current Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown with him. McCown is a likely offensive coordinator candidate league-wide, but for the Patriots in particular there’s an extra draw in the fact he coached Drake Maye when Maye was in high school.
Of course, there is the (fair) case to be made that the Patriots should be looking for an offensive-minded coach to pair with Drake Maye. Keeping the experience factor in mind there aren’t any many options available on that side of the ball, and the Patriots may need to see if any currently-employed coaches shake free from their current teams in the coming days.
Leading that category is New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll. Daboll began his coaching career at the college level, including working as a graduate assistant on Nick Saban’s staff at Michigan State. He went on to work for the Patriots, Browns, Jets, Dolphins, and Chiefs, plus a stop at Alabama where he worked for Saban again.
Daboll’s big bump came in 2018 when the Buffalo Bills hired him as their offensive coordinator. He was key in the growth of Josh Allen, who made significant strides during Daboll’s tenure and struggled for a period after he left. With many of Allen’s issues at the time similar to Maye’s now, there’s a natural draw there.
After four years in Buffalo, Daboll was hired as the head coach of the New York Giants in 2022. He led the team to a 9-7-1 record and playoff appearance his first year, but has gone 10-24 since.
Currently viewed as being on the hot seat, the question is will the Giants part ways with him, or give him a chance to develop his own quarterback after he was saddled with Daniel Jones early on. If he does become available, he’ll be among the top candidates on the market this coaching cycle.
Experience should be important to the Patriots in this coaching search. Replacing one rookie head coach with another isn’t guaranteed to solve some of the more pressing problems of the Jerod Mayo era. The list of leading first-time head coaching candidates is highlighted by some great designers and schemers, but it’s impossible to know if they can handle the responsibilities beyond the X’s and O’s that come with leading an NFL team.
We’ve seen that happen plenty in the past. For every Kevin O’Connell, there are multiple coaches that end up proving they’re at their best at the coordinator level. Patriots fans saw this for years, with many Belichick assistants leaving to run their own ships and unable to have success without Belichick at the top.
If the Patriots do go that route though, arguably the two best candidates are both in Detroit. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was one of the top names available last year, but didn’t end up taking a job. On defense Aaron Glenn is also highly regarded around the league. Another name to know is Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen. The former UMass quarterback and Rhode Island native spent time with the Los Angeles Rams and University of Kentucky before joining Tampa’s staff this year.
One thing the Patriots may be wise to avoid? College coaches. The track record of college coaches making the jump to the pros as first-team head coaches hasn’t been great in the last 25 years. Since 2000, 12 coaches have been hired from the college ranks as first-time NFL head coaches. Only two (Jim Harbaugh, Bill O’Brien) have a record over .500, while six have a record under .400.
Whoever the Patriots end up hiring, it would be in their best interest to speak to as many possible candidates and get as wide a range of ideas on what the future of the Patriots should look like. Obviously any future plan should be centered around Maye, but beyond that there’s plenty of flexibility to go in multiple directions.
