Jan 17, 2024; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft addresses media at a press conference announcing the hiring of Jerod Mayo as the team’s new head coach at Gillette Stadium. Credit: Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports
As the new-look New England Patriots begin to rebuild, there’s one major overarching question that will impact the direction of the franchise not just this year, but moving forward – who will have ‘final say’ on personnel matters?
When it comes time to make a key personnel decision, like a draft pick or major signing, in the past that had been up to Bill Belichick. But with Belichick gone and Jerod Mayo set to replace him as head coach, that responsibility remains unfilled.
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To be clear, ‘final say’ is different that unilateral decision-making. It’s not somebody who makes every decision on their own. Rather, when there’s 10 people in the room (using round numbers just for the example) and five want to go with ‘Option A’ and the other five with ‘Option B,’ who is the tiebreaker?
Generally that person would be the general manager. But with it sounding more and more like the Patriots won’t hire anybody for that role – at least not right away – the question continues to loom. Will it be one of the remaining personnel heads – Matt Groh or Eliot Wolf – Mayo himself, or somebody coming in from outside of the organization.
During Mayo’s introductory press conference on Thursday, Patriots owner Robert Kraft was asked that all-important question for the first time (in fact, it was the first question he was asked). Based on his answer, it doesn’t sound like the team has the answer just yet.
Eric Canha-USA TODAY SportsJan 17, 2024; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft answers questions from the media about the hiring of head coach Jerod Mayo (background) at a press conference at Gillette Stadium. Credit: Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports
“What we know – we have a lot of people internally who have had a chance to train and learn under the greatest coach of all time, and a man whose football intellect is very special,” Kraft began. “So in the short term, we’re looking for collaboration as our team has a tremendous opportunity to position itself right, given our salary cap space and – we’ve never drafted, in my 30 years of ownership, we’ve never been drafting as low as we’re drafting. So we’re counting on our internal people, whom we’re still learning and evaluating. So we’re going to let that evolve and develop”
The Patriots won’t have much time to ‘learn and evaluate’ their current staff with the rapid pace of the NFL offseason. Kraft gave a loose timeline as to when somebody will be given ‘final say’ power, before adding that still could go to an external candidate.
“Before the key decisions have to be made, we will appoint someone,” he said, before adding “qt the same time, we’ll probably start doing interviews and looking at people from the outside. But my bias has always been in all our family companies to try to develop a culture from within where we understand, um, one another.”
To close things out though, Kraft once again stressed patience. “Before we just rush and hire people, we want to understand what we have internally,” he said. “It’s a long answer, but it’s an important question.”
Eric Canha-USA TODAY SportsJan 17, 2024; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft (left) announces the hiring of head coach Jerod Mayo (right) at Gillette Stadium. Credit: Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports
The topic came up one more time, when Kraft was asked if he plans on naming a general manager outright.
“This is the first time in a quarter of a century we had to make major changes, and we want to see what we have in-house, look what’s out there in the marketplace, and then do do what we think is right,” Kraft said. “I know people have ideas, but I can just assure you any decision we make at this time will be to try to give the support to Jerod and put the organization in the best place it can to win games. So we don’t have a fixed formula. We know what’s worked for us in the past, and that’s what we’re going to do here in the future.”
Towards the end of the press conference, Kraft was asked about ownership’s influence over the football team directly, and if his control could extend to having final say on any matters.
“It will be the same input that we’ve had for the last three decades. We try to hire the best people we can find and let them do their job and hold them accountable. And if you get involved and tell them what to do or try to influence them, then you can’t hold them responsible and have them accountable,” Kraft replied. “So it’ll be within the people’s discretion who are the decision makers to do it. And if we’ve hired the wrong people, that will have to make a change. But we’re going to try to enjoy it as fans.”
