Who will lead the Patriots forward following Jerod Mayo’s firing
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft shared some key details on who will lead the organization forward as the 2025 offseason begins.
After having Jerod Mayo lined up as Bill Belichick’s successor last year, the New England Patriots will go through a full coaching search this year following Mayo’s firing Sunday night. On Monday, team owner Robert Kraft shared who will lead the way in that search.
“We’ll have Alonzo Highsmith and Eliot [Wolf] be involved,” Kraft said when asked who would be joining him and his son and team president Jonathan Kraft in head coaching interviews. “We’re going to try to understand who can help us best get back to the playoffs.”
Wolf has been with the Patriots since 2020 in various player personnel roles, moving up to executive vice president of player personnel (which included final say on the roster) last year. One of Wolf’s first hires last year was bringing in Highsmith as an advisor. Highsmith, a former NFL player, has held multiple personnel roles in the NFL and college levels.
Wolf’s involvement in the process may have come as a surprise to some. After what was widely regarded as a disappointing offseason from a player personnel standpoint, there were external questions whether or not he would be a part of the firings along with Mayo.
“I think that the department evolved a lot, and a lot of things were changed,” Kraft said, when asked why Wolf and others would continue in their current roles for now. “We changed our grading system this year and have done things.”
“Our drafts have not been good for a while. If you want to compete long term and be good in this league, you’ve got to have good drafts because those rookie contracts allow you to go out and get the people you need to surround people,” Kraft continued. “I think we’ll hopefully see a big improvement this year.”
However, Kraft had another answer earlier in the press conference that made it sound like even with front office personnel staying, the structure could change with a new head coach. Asked about the future of those who worked on the coaching staff under Mayo, he said “we’ll wait until we bring [the new] coach in. Obviously, he’s going to have big input on who the players are and who the coaches are. It’ll be his decision.”
To a follow up asking if it’s “status quo” for current staffers until that coach is hired, Kraft replied “Yes. Look, we move fast and we’re going to let him make those decisions.”
A new coach potentially getting final say over the roster (whether Wolf remains or not) gets to a major point of focus for this Patriots’ offseason. While coaching was certainly an issue for the team, the biggest problem was the state of the roster – which was arguably the worst in the league.
Whoever has final say on player personnel, whether it be Wolf, the new coach, or somebody else, will be the point person when it comes to the significant improvements the team needs to make this year. Yes quarterback Drake Maye is the ‘face of the franchise’ after a successful rookie year but when there’s no football being played from January through April, this person may as well be the face of the franchise during that window.
