Mike Vrabel Back With Patriots Following Draft, Did Not Communicate With Team On Day 3 Picks
APRIL 28: As confirmed by Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, Vrabel will continue to attend counseling moving forward while also attending to his head coaching duties in between. The balance struck on this front will be key for Vrabel and the Patriots as the offseason progresses.
APRIL 27: Last week injected a football element to the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini saga, bringing it to the PFR pages. The second-year Patriots HC said he would miss Day 3 of the draft, spending time with his family as he confirmed he would begin counseling.
Vrabel’s announcement came after the New York Post dropped more incriminating photos of he and Russini, the latest batch showing them together at a New York City bar in March 2020. Vrabel spoke briefly at a news conference before Day 1 of the draft but has not been available to the media since. Coaches speak after draft days, and the Patriots made six picks on Day 3.
Although Vrabel was away from the team Saturday, NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry notes the 2025 Coach of the Year has returned to the Pats’ facility Monday as voluntary workouts continue.
ESPN’s Peter Schrager indicated Saturday that Vrabel was in contact with the Patriots, but the veteran reporter later backtracked, indicating that while an expectation existed the HC would be in contact with the team during the draft the sides ultimately were not in communication. De facto GM Eliot Wolf said Saturday that he and Vrabel did not communicate regarding draft matters.
“Last night we kind of talked through things and made the decision that the time away really needs to be time away,” Wolf said, via MassLive.com’s Karen Guregian, “so we were not in contact with Mike today other than some just, ‘Hope everything’s going OK’ kind of texts early this morning.”
The initial photographs from 2026 released by the Post showed Vrabel and Russini hugging and holding hands at a resort in Arizona. The Post’s subsequent photo drop came hours after Vrabel announced he would be away from the Patriots on Day 3 of the draft. The 2020 photos showed Vrabel and Russini kissing at a New York bar. Vrabel, 50, was the Titans’ HC in March 2020; Russini was an ESPN reporter at that time. Vrabel and his wife, Jen, have two sons; the couple has been married since 1999. Russini has been married since September 2020. She had been The Athletic’s top NFL insider in recent years but resigned her post this month as an internal investigation began.
Vrabel was with Wolf, Ryan Cowden and Co. in the Pats’ draft room on Thursday and Friday; still, his Day 3 absence became the story coming out of the defending AFC champions’ draft. Vrabel said (via the Boston Herald’s Doug Kyed) he could not confirm whether he would miss more football-related activities because of this scandal.
“I can’t answer that. I can only say that whatever my family needs, that’s what I’m going to provide,” Vrabel said. “But I also understand what’s needed for me here.”
Wolf held final say on Day 3 of the draft, he confirmed (via Guregian). Vrabel and Wolf work collaboratively, but when the Patriots won the Vrabel derby last year, it was understood he would hold significant sway regarding personnel. Both Vrabel and Wolf report to ownership. It is worth wondering if Wolf will take on more responsibility as Vrabel navigates continued fallout from these reports.
The Patriots will begin OTAs May 27; their mandatory minicamp will run from June 15-17. It will be interesting to see how available to the media Vrabel will be during those periods, as a lengthy break falls annually between mid-June and training camp in late July. This scandal has not shown signs of slowing down yet, and Vrabel beginning counseling during the draft made this one of the stranger draft-weekend storylines in recent NFL history. The Patriots backed their successful HC when he revealed he would be absent for Day 3. While Vrabel’s high-profile off-field issue has the potential to overshadow more Pats matters, he will certainly be expected to attend OTAs and minicamp before the midsummer hiatus.
Patriots’ Mike Vrabel To Begin Counseling, Miss Day 3 Of Draft
While head coaches’ influence in draft rooms varies from team to team, they are regularly present throughout draft weekend. Mike Vrabel will only be available for part of the Patriots’ draft this year, however.
The second-year New England HC will miss Day 3 of the draft this year. Not long after making a statement after the New York Post published photos showing he and former Athletic reporter Dianna Russini at a resort in Arizona this year, Vrabel told ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss he will be with his family on Saturday.
“As I said the other day, I promised my family, this organization and this team that I was going to give them the best version of me that I can possibly give them. In order to do so, I have committed to seeking counseling, starting this weekend,” Vrabel said. “This is something that I have given a lot of thought to and is something I would advise a player to do if I was counseling them.
“I have always wanted to lead by example, and I believe this is what I have to do to be the best husband, father and coach that I possibly can be. This is not an easy thing for me to admit, but it is one that I know will make me a better person. I appreciate the support that everyone has given me and promise a stronger resolve as a result.”
The photographs released by the Post showed Vrabel and Russini hugging and holding hands. The Post has since released another batch of photos, these showing Vrabel and Russini kissing at a New York bar in March 2020. Vrabel and his wife, Jen, have two sons. Vrabel, 50, was the Titans’ HC in March 2020; Russini was an ESPN reporter at that time.
Vrabel told media this week the report showing he and Russini together at the Arizona resort this year is a “personal and private matter,” and indicated he “had some difficult conversations with people I care about — with my family, the organization, the coaches, the players.” His statement to Reiss emerged before the second round of photos surfaced. Russini resigned from The Athletic days after the Post published the first batch of photos.
Although Vrabel will be with his family Saturday, he told Reiss he will remain in contact with team decisionmakers. De facto GM Eliot Wolf and VP of player personnel Ryan Cowden are set to lead the draft room. This will be Wolf’s second draft with an official title atop the Patriots’ front office, though the veteran exec — initially brought in during Bill Belichick‘s HC/GM run — ran the 2024 draft before being named executive VP of player personnel. Vrabel brought in Cowden, his longtime Titans coworker whom he ultimately preferred be named GM during the team’s 2023 search process, shortly after his Pats hire in 2025. Although a report following Vrabel’s hire indicated he effectively overtook Wolf as the top Patriots decisionmaker, both he and Wolf report to ownership in New England.
The Pats have 11 draft picks this year. Eight of those picks come on the final day. The defending AFC champions hold two fourth-round choices, one fifth-round selection, four in Round 6 and one in Round 7. Vrabel not being present on an eight-pick day, with an absence allowing the successful coach to avoid media questions in a post-draft Saturday setting, will certainly come up as this wave of later-round prospects begin their careers.
“The New England Patriots fully support Mike Vrabel’s decision to prioritize his family first, as well as his own well-being,” the Patriots said Thursday in a statement (via the Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi). “Mike has been open with us about his commitment to being the best version of himself for his family, this team and our fans, and we respect the steps he is taking to follow through on that commitment.
“We are confident in the leadership and communication Mike has established with our personnel staff throughout this pre-draft process. While he will not be present at the facility on Saturday, we know the draft evaluations are complete and Eliot Wolf and his personnel staff are prepared to execute our draft as planned this weekend.”
Joe Milton’s Starting Ambition, Questionable Fit With Mike Vrabel Led To Trade
While the Patriots have Drake Maye entrenched as their franchise QB moving forward, it was still a bit surprising when the organization decided to quickly move on from fellow 2024 draft pick Joe Milton. The sixth-round pick had a standout performance during New England’s season finale, and he was still locked into his rookie pact for another three years.
[RELATED: Patriots Trading Joe Milton To Cowboys]
Mike Giardi of Boston Sports Journal provided some insight on the move (via Bill Jones of CBS Sports Texas), noting that the Patriots were wary of another Mac Jones/Bailey Zappe situation. Milton believes he’s a future starter in the NFL, and the organization didn’t want the QB to be a locker room distraction. While the player’s ambition is obviously admirable, there was apparent concern that he could cause some disruption with no clear path to future playing time.
Perhaps more importantly, Milton wasn’t a Mike Vrabel pick, and Giardi opines that the new head coach never would have saddled himself with two rookie signal callers. The executive who made that pick, Eliot Wolf, it still leading the front office, but Giardi said there should be no confusion about who’s truly running the show. Maye also wasn’t a “Vrabel pick,” but the Milton trade signaled to the former third-overall pick that he’s the clear-cut guy in New England.
Milton’s lone NFL appearance led to one of the Patriots’ only wins in 2024 (while also hurting the team’s draft standing in the process). Milton played the majority of the snaps at QB during the season finale, completing 22 of his 29 pass attempts for 241 yards and a touchdown. The rookie also added another touchdown on the ground.
The Patriots quickly settled on their 2025 QB hierarchy, as the team added Josh Dobbs as a clear QB2 behind Maye. The Patriots later traded Milton to Dallas, with New England only receiving the ability to move up 46 draft spots late in the draft. With the Cowboys, Milton still won’t have a clear path to playing time behind Dak Prescott and the star’s lucrative contract. However, Dak’s injury history and age do provide somewhat more hope for Milton’s playing chances.
Mike Vrabel Talks Patriots Front Office, Free Agency Approach, Browns Stint
Since the Patriots brought in Mike Vrabel as head coach, there’s been plenty of talk about who truly runs the show in New England. While executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf is expected to have a heavy hand in the roster’s construction, Vrabel acknowledged that he wouldn’t have taken the gig if he wasn’t going to have some say in building the roster.
[RELATED: Mike Vrabel, Eliot Wolf Will Both Report To Patriots Ownership]
“Well, I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have wanted to be the head coach here if I wasn’t comfortable in my impact on the roster,” Vrabel told reporters (via Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald). “So we want to continue to have great conversations with the personnel staff, with me, with Stretch (John Streicher), with coaching. We’re all just trying to find ways to bring the right players in here, whether that’s the first part of free agency, [the] middle free agency like we talked about, or the draft. There’s going to be players who get released that we’ll have to pivot to and have options. So again, we need to strengthen the roster. We understand that. And have some really good conversations as to how we get there.”
Vrabel cited his right-hand man, John Streicher, adding another component to the organization’s murky front office hierarchy. For years, Bill Belichick ran the show, and when Wolf and former HC Jerod Mayo took over that responsibility in 2024, the organization revealed some troubling cracks in the foundation. The Patriots will continue to operate without a traditional GM in 2025, and it sounds like the organization may even be reverting back to their old ways by empowering the head coach to build the roster.
Whether it’s Vrabel, Wolf, or owner Robert Kraft making final calls on personnel, it sounds like there’s general agreement that the team will be actively adding to the roster this offseason. While speaking with reporters, Vrabel said he expects the Patriots to be “aggressive” in improving their team.
“I’m confident that we’ll be aggressive,” Vrabel said (via ESPN’s Mike Reiss). “We’ve started some of those discussions internally. We have to be ready to pivot and adjust and have a vision for each player at each level.
“There’s going to be this high level [financially] that things are going to get done very quickly. That will transition then to maybe some midrange dollars. And obviously you look at opportunity. Free agency gets broken down into compensation and opportunity. I feel like we’re in a position to offer both.”
With a league-leading ~$131MM in projected cap room, the Patriots should have more than enough financial wiggle room to add to their roster. Armed with the fourth-overall pick, the organization is also positioned to add a foundational piece in the draft, and there’s hope that the Patriots can take a leap with more talent (and a more experienced Drake Maye) in 2025.
While speaking with reporters today, Vrabel provided some more insight on his coaching free agency. While the former Patriots linebacker always seemed destined for New England, his outlook was a lot more unclear a year ago. The former Titans head coach spent the 2024 campaign serving as a coaching and personnel consultant with the Browns, but despite his experience, he wasn’t explicitely asked back for the 2025 campaign.
Vrabel said the Browns never approached him about a long-term role on the staff, but he admitted that he “would have listened” had they asked (via Tony Grossi of 850 ESPN Cleveland). Vrabel noted that he “didn’t have a job” heading into the 2025 offseason, although Cleveland’s approach was likely rooted in the assumption that Vrabel would ultimately land a HC job elsewhere.
While Vrabel apparently wants some control over building the roster, he won’t be micromanaging his defense. Despite his defensive expertise, the head coach said he plans to let defensive coordinator Terrell Williams call the plays on that side of the ball (via Kyed).
Mike Vrabel, Eliot Wolf Will Both Report To Patriots Ownership
Since the Patriots hired Mike Vrabel as their head coach, there have been some questions regarding the organizational hierarchy. Despite the major changes, it sounds like the team’s operations should remain status quo. According to Albert Breer of SI.com, both Vrabel and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf will report to ownership, an indication that there’s no singular leader in the front office.
When Vrabel was brought on, it was assumed that he’d have a major influence over player personnel. That will surely be the case, but it sounds like it will be a collaborative approach vs. the former totalitarian approach under Bill Belichick. While last season’s results left plenty to be desired, Breer notes that Wolf and former HC Jerod Mayo already started making an effort to build an actual football ops department, something that was sorely lacking.
The next step could see the Vrabel/Wolf duo look to improve the “player-development side” of operations. The Patriots had “next to nothing” in that regard under Belichick, meaning there was effectively nobody overseeing the development of bottom-of-the-roster players and practice squad players. The Patriots could also look to improve their football analytics/research department (with Marshall Oium a name to watch) and their sports science department.
Following a dismal season in New England, it was thought that Mayo may not be the only casualty. However, Breer notes that ownership was impressed by Wolf during his first season at the helm. The executive worked on “modernizing the scouting department” and building out football operations. Wolf’s strategy won’t be completely foreign to Vrabel; as Breer writes, Tennessee’s Chad Brinker had a similar Green Bay-centric grading system, so New England’s head coach is already familiar with the perspective.
Vrabel is also familiar with a handful of other members of New England’s front office. Ohio State alums Camren Williams and Pat Stewart are the Patriots college and pro scouting directors (respectively). In fact, Vrabel recruited Williams to the Buckeyes when he was on Ohio State’s staff. Of course, Vrabel has also influenced some new additions to the front office dynamic. Ryan Cowden, who previously held multiple high-ranking roles in the Titans front office, was brought over to New England earlier this offseason. Breer notes that Cowden will definitively be under Wolf in the franchise’s pecking order.
Vrabel also continues to add to his coaching staff. According to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, Zak Kuhr has agreed to join the Patriots. Kuhr spent four seasons working under Vrabel in Tennessee, and he spent this past season on the Giants defensive coaching staff. Meanwhile, Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic reports that John Streicher is also joining the staff in New England. “Stretch” spent this past year as the Rams game management coordinator, and he also has experience working alongside Vrabel in Tennessee.
The Patriots’ first season in their post-Belichick era revealed some major cracks in the organization’s foundation. While the team still isn’t operating with a traditional front office hierarchy, it doesn’t sound like there will be any power struggle between some of the team’s major voices.
Mike Vrabel To Control Patriots’ Roster?
Mike Vrabel became connected to each of the first six teams to carry a coaching vacancy this offseason, with only the Cowboys — whose official Mike McCarthy ouster came a day after Vrabel’s Patriots hire — not tied to the former Titans HC. This gave Vrabel considerable leverage in negotiations with the team he played for during most of the 2000s.
The Bears and Jets made late pushes, but the Patriots — who were connected to Vrabel before firing Jerod Mayo — were always viewed as the frontrunners. As of Sunday, it was not known if Vrabel’s leverage was enough to secure him final say on the 53-man roster in New England. De facto GM Eliot Wolf held that last year, but he might no longer wield that power.
Instead, NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran views Vrabel as the top decision-maker in New England now. Wolf and Vrabel met early this week, but the roles of Wolf and 2024 hire Alonzo Highsmith are being determined. The exec Vrabel wanted the Titans to name GM in 2023, Ryan Cowden, is also en route to Foxborough. Cowden may end up being the No. 2 man to Wolf in the Pats’ front office, but the Giants let him out of his contract for this opportunity. That points to a significant role for Cowden, who had been the Titans’ acting GM between the Jon Robinson firing and Ran Carthon hire.
Wolf has been with the Patriots since 2020, moving into a scouting director role in 2022. The Bill Belichick hire, once a popular GM candidate, would still stand to carry a major say in Pats personnel matters moving forward. But the arrivals of Vrabel and Cowden will undoubtedly curb his influence — perhaps by a significant degree. Wolf is believed to be tied to a four-year contract, the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin adds. How the organization proceeds with its current front office leader will be worth monitoring this offseason.
Vrabel’s power will not reach the level of Belichick’s, Curran cautions, and SI.com’s Albert Breer said (via NBC Sports Boston) the official workflow chart should feature both Vrabel and Wolf reporting to ownership. But Curran indicates Wolf will likely see less control over the Patriots’ roster compared to what he held in 2024. Considering the about-face the Patriots completed with Mayo, it is unsurprising they agreed to a Vrabel-friendly structure to help them save face after Robert Kraft had long anointed Mayo.
A desire for more control moved Vrabel onto thin ice in Tennessee, as clashes with ownership — one of which emerging after he sat with Kraft at his Patriots Hall of Fame induction during a Titans bye week in 2023 — developed during the veteran HC’s final weeks on the job. With Carthon eventually sticking around (for another year, at least), Vrabel received his walking papers after Amy Adams Strunk tired of his presence and the Titans’ downward spiral on the field. Of course, matters have worsened for the Titans — who had advanced to three straight playoff brackets from 2019-21 — since Vrabel’s Nashville departure.
This will be more of a fixer-upper than what Vrabel inherited in Tennessee. The Titans had fired Mike Mularkey after a 9-7 season that ended in the divisional round. The Patriots are coming off a 4-13 season, with win No. 4 coming only because of the Bills having secured the AFC’s No. 2 seed. In order for Vrabel to sign off on returning to New England, it certainly appears the Patriots had to provide assurances he will hold considerable say in how the roster is shaped. With a big lead in terms of projected cap space ($120MM-plus), the Pats will see that become a significant matter soon.
Patriots Hire Mike Vrabel As Head Coach
To no surprise, the Patriots have named Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com was the first to report that the hire was imminent.
Just yesterday, we learned that New England and Vrabel were engaged in contract discussions, a clear sign that a deal was forthcoming. Now, just over a year after he was dismissed as head coach of the Titans, Vrabel is back in the HC ranks at the helm of the team with which he won three Super Bowls as a player.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Vrabel is the seventh person to become the head coach of a team that he once helped win a Super Bowl as a player. The sixth person on that list, Jerod Mayo, was fired by New England last week after just one season in the top job.
Mayo was owner Robert Kraft‘s hand-picked successor to Bill Belichick, and for a long time, it appeared that Mayo would be given at least another year in charge. After all, he inherited a team that was clearly in the early stages of a rebuild, and despite a few public missteps, it would have been easy to justify allowing him to return for 2025.
Last week, however, it was reported that those public “gaffes” — in conjunction with a locker room culture that may not have been as strong as some players portrayed it to be and an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Chargers in Week 17 — were conspiring to drive Mayo out of Foxborough. He was canned later that same day, shortly after the Pats’ regular season finale.
Speculatively, Vrabel’s availability may well have clinched Kraft’s decision to hand Mayo his walking papers. During his time as the Titans’ head coach, Vrabel established himself as one of the league’s better bench bosses, and he is highly-regarded for his game management and his ability to develop a strong culture predicated on accountability. The Titans posted a winning record in each of Vrabel’s first four seasons in Nashville, which included three playoff appearances and a trip to the AFC title game. He earned Coach of the Year honors following the 2021 campaign, but things took a turn for the worse over the 2022-23 seasons.
A seven-game losing streak to close out the 2022 season left Tennessee with a 7-10 record after a division title seemed to be in the cards, and the team slipped to a 6-11 mark in 2023. During that 2023 campaign, Ran Carthon‘s first as Titans GM following Jon Robinson‘s surprising firing, there was reportedly tension between Vrabel and Carthon (a situation that may have been exacerbated by the fact that the Titans hired Carthon instead of Ryan Cowden, who was Vrabel’s preferred Robinson successor).
Vrabel may have also wanted more input in personnel matters in Tennessee, a situation that will bear monitoring in New England. The Pats have already announced that they will retain executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and top front office executive Alonzo Highsmith, though as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com wrote this morning, the roles of those two men are to be determined. Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reports that Cowden, who is currently serving as a personnel advisor for the Giants, will likely be added to the Patriots’ personnel department in a non-GM capacity, though he believes Wolf will retain final authority.
Another situation worth monitoring will be whom Vrabel chooses as his offensive coordinator. Josh McDaniels, a familiar face for Patriots fans, has been named as an obvious choice, and the defensive-minded Vrabel will need to get that hire right in order to maximize the potential of young quarterback Drake Maye. Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 draft, showed flashes as a rookie and is one of the reasons why the New England HC job was generally seen as a desirable one, and his continued development will be a top priority.
Indeed, as Reiss points out, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — one of the most respected offensive minds in the game — was New England’s second choice. If they had offered Johnson the job, and if Johnson had accepted, the Pats would have had an ideal coach-QB pairing, but unlike Vrabel, Johnson has never had to create his own team culture. Vrabel, on the other hand, does have that experience, and the Pats are banking on his ability to properly fill out his staff.
As our head coaching search tracker shows, Vrabel was connected to each of the six teams in need of a new HC this year, further underscoring the strength of his candidacy. Per Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Bears and Jets made “consistent and late pushes” to land him, and Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic believes New York had a real shot at him until the Patriots’ job became available. Meanwhile, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reports that, despite the Raiders‘ (and minority owner Tom Brady‘s) interest in Vrabel, Brady’s former teammate declined a Las Vegas interview because he knew he would be accepting the New England gig (video link).
Despite the Patriots’ 4-13 record in 2024, the presence of Maye, the hiring of Vrabel, and the prospect of the most salary cap space in the league will surely create plenty of excitement in New England in the coming months.
More On Jerod Mayo’s Firing: Succession Plan, Hiring Process, Stevenson Benching
The Patriots’ succession plan for Bill Belichick clearly didn’t go as planned, as Jerod Mayo was let go after only one ugly season at the helm. However, there were cracks in the organization’s overall plan before Robert Kraft even named Mayo as his head coach.
[RELATED: Patriots Fire Jerod Mayo]
According to Chad Graff of The Athletic, Kraft’s literal succession timeline intended for Mayo to take over in 2025. When Kraft instituted his plan in 2023, he planned to give Belichick two more seasons (allowing the coach to break the all-time wins record) before Mayo would take over the gig.
That obviously didn’t come to fruition, as Belichick’s fractured relationship with the Patriots led to his ouster after that 2023 campaign. Before that, Belichick failed to mentor his successor like the organization expected (Graff notes that Belichick cut off communication with a number of coaches during his final season in New England). So, when Mayo was suddenly thrust into the HC role, he didn’t have the prerequisite mentorship that ownership had hoped for.
That could partly explain Mayo’s unusual approach to his head coaching role. The newly-named head coach first struggled to fill his coaching staff, although he curiously avoided one solution by offering incumbent defensive play-caller Steve Belichick a demotion (which the younger Belichick refused, leading to him taking a DC job at Washington). Andrew Callahan and Doug Kyed of The Boston Herald report that some OC candidates were left unimpressed with Mayo’s approach during the interview process, leading to the team opting for their last interviewee in Alex Van Pelt.
Then, once the season began, Mayo reportedly struggled to discipline his players, and Graff passes along an anecdote where Mayo played cards with the players during a plane ride following a loss. Mayo also struggled with some of the seemingly simple tasks that are required from a head coach. For instance, The Boston Herald duo point to Rhamondre Stevenson‘s uncertain status in Week 17. Mayo intended to bench the RB for fumbling issues, and he communicated the lineup change to Van Pelt. The OC never relayed the message to running backs coach Taylor Embree, leading to Stevenson taking the field with the starting offense. Mayo later covered for his coordinator, but there were clear cracks in communication.
While Mayo has been the only Patriots leader to lose their job, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf has also drawn his fair share of criticism. The front office leader took some accountability for the team’s disappointing 2024 showing while admitting that some of the Patriots’ younger players didn’t develop as expected (specifically WRs Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker).
“I would say that I guess personally, what I was expecting is maybe a little bit more internal development, which is a good lesson certainly heading into next year. And that you can’t always rely on that,” Wolf said (via The Herald). “The rookie receivers didn’t have it really that much for us.”
Patriots To Retain Eliot Wolf, Front Office Staff
While the Patriots are set to revamp their coaching staff, it sounds like the front office will be staying intact. During his press conference today, owner Robert Kraft revealed that executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and his staff will be sticking around for the 2025 campaign (via Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald). Wolf and top front office executive Alonzo Highsmith will also be involved in the team’s head coaching search (via Kyed).
As the Patriots navigated a post-Bill Belichick era, they chose Wolf as the leader of their new-look front office. The executive did have one major hit during his first year at the helm, with third-overall pick Drake Maye appearing to be a foundational piece. However, the front office drew criticism for the rest of their draft class, and Kraft acknowledged that the team needs stronger performances from rookie-contract players if they hope to return to contention.
“Our drafts have not been good for a while,” Kraft said (via Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com). “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. It looks like we lucked out; we maybe have two quarterbacks. But I think we’ll hopefully see a big improvement this year.”
While the likes of Wolf and Highsmith are expected to keep their jobs, Albert Breer of SI.com expects there to still be significant changes to the front office operations. After Belichick was responsible for running so many aspects of the front office for years, the organization was left with an antiquated approach when the dust settled following the iconic coach’s ouster. Breer opines that the Krafts put the front office at a disadvantage by not providing the same resources as other NFL teams, with the writer suggesting that ownership could look to “add elements of analytics and sport science” to their operations.
While many of these subtle changes will take place behinds the scenes, the Patriots’ search for their next head coach will be very public. Ownership is expected to be heavily involved in the search, as are the aforementioned front office executives. Breer notes that the team isn’t expected to hire a search firm to assist in the process.
As we await word on the team’s interview process, we’ll starting to hear some details about Mayo’s sudden firing, with Tom E. Curran of NBCSports Boston noting that the final four games of the season played a significant role in the decision. Curran says the past month was “untenable,” and while the team didn’t initially anticipate moving on from their first-year head coach, the “disorganization became too much to take.”
Kraft himself told reporters that he went back and forth on the decision over the past month. Ultimately, the owner believed the squad showed regression throughout the 2024 campaign, with Kraft citing the season-opening win over the Bengals as the high point of the year. Kraft also revealed that Mayo didn’t know about his impending firing prior to the season finale; the head coach ended up guiding his squad to victory while also compromising the team’s chances at the first-overall pick (links via Kyed).
While a new head coach will presumably look to bring on their own staff, there’s still a chance a few key assistants stick around. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt didn’t get a whole lot of production from his unit in 2024, but the coach did earn praise for his handling of Maye’s development. If Van Pelt is ultimately canned by the Patriots, Breer believes the coach could land back in Cleveland, where he served as OC between 2020 and 2023.
Patriots HC Jerod Mayo Likely To Be Fired?
Just a few days ago, we heard that first-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo was likely to keep his job for the 2025 season. After all, he was owner Robert Kraft’s hand-picked successor to Bill Belichick, and he inherited a team that was clearly in the early stages of a rebuild, so it would be reasonable to give him some time to learn the ropes as a bench boss and to grow into the role as the club continues to try to improve the roster.
However, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports writes that Mayo has a “weakening case” to be retained, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk hears that “nerves are extremely frayed” among team staffers as they ponder Mayo’s Black Monday fate. Meanwhile, ESPN’s Adam Schefter also hears that there seems to have been a shift in organizational thinking over the last month (video link).
As such, Schefter believes that Mayo will be fired. He references fan anger and fan apathy in his report, and Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald notes that Gillette Stadium was only half-full for the team’s 40-7 drubbing at the hands of the Chargers last week, with multiple “fire Mayo” chants breaking out in the stands late in the game.
Fan reactions are presumably not factors that will motivate Kraft to move on from Mayo, but the nature of the Los Angeles loss, in which the team was outclassed in every facet, certainly could. That defeat was the latest in a string of six consecutive losses, and even late-December reports suggesting that Mayo would be safe included the caveat that a “collapse” over the final three games of the season could change things. While the club did put up a valiant effort in a 24-21 loss to the Bills – the AFC’s No. 2 seed – in Week 16, it is hard to describe a six- or seven-game losing streak to close out a season as anything other than a collapse.
Additionally, in contrast to prior reports that the Patriots’ locker room remained united despite the difficult season, some players have told Kyed that the team suffers from a poor culture and lack of leadership. Such discontent, in conjunction with some of Mayo’s public actions that Jones and/or Kyed have classified as “gaffes” – starting Jacoby Brissett in Week 1 despite admitting that Drake Maye had outplayed Brissett in the preseason, seemingly slighting OC Alex Van Pelt in a postgame presser, and telling a pregame radio show that RB Antonio Gibson would start over Rhamondre Stevenson in Week 17 before making a “coach’s decision” to start Stevenson less than an hour later – could certainly spell trouble for Mayo.
Underscoring all of this, of course, is the presence of franchise icon Mike Vrabel, who is one of the two most coveted coaching candidates in this year’s cycle and who is all but certain to get a head coaching job in the near future. If New England wants Vrabel – and if it does, the interest appears mutual – then now would be the time to make the move.
If Mayo is retained, he is expected to add more veteran coaches to his staff, per Jones. Meanwhile, Jones suggests that executive VP of player personnel Eliot Wolf will be retained, and that he could make further changes to the club’s staff. That presumably includes firing Van Pelt.
Wolf will have the No. 1 overall pick at his disposal in the 2025 draft if the Patriots fall to Buffalo in today’s season finale, which would give the team a 3-14 record.