The New England Patriots wrapped up their 2024 campaign in the worst way possible; with a win over the Buffalo Bills. The 23-16 victory gave New England a 4-13 record on the year, and it led to them falling from the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to No. 4. Immediately after the game, head coach Jerod Mayo got fired by the Patriots, signaling the start of another new era after his failed year with the team.
Bumps in the road were expected with Mayo, but his final month in charge of the team was catastrophic, highlighted by a win that could be considered borderline malpractice. There's a decent chance Mayo suspected he was going to get fired one way or another after Week 18, so he decided to go out with a bang and hit the Patriots where it hurt them, and boy did it hurt.
New England is still armed with a high draft pick, tons of cap space, and a talented quarterback in Drake Maye, but before they can do anything, they must rebuild their coaching staff again. And with that in mind, it only makes sense for the team to go out and hire the guy they should have hired when they were in this spot a year ago in Mike Vrabel.
Why Mike Vrabel is the right guy to lead the Patriots
For much of the year, the questions surrounding Mayo's job status were overblown. He was a rookie head coach being thrown into an incredibly difficult situation. Replacing the legendary Bill Belichick was never going to be easy, let alone when it came with a roster that was arguably the worst in the league. Mayo had shown the ability to lead while working alongside Belichick, but taking over for him was a different story.
Despite all the mistakes, whether it be his poor game plans, his idiotic comments in the media that he almost always walked back, or the fact that the team looked lifeless under him, firing Mayo did not make sense until the final weeks of the season. Less than a month ago, this space said that firing Mayo was not the right move for the Patriots, and yet here we are, agreeing with Robert Kraft's decision to fire him right after their season ended.
The straw that broke the camel's back was obviously the win over the Bills. Everybody knew what was on the line, and yet Mayo ostensibly played to win the game, even though it was not in the best interest of the franchise. The head coach of the team needs to do what's best for the team, and in this case, losing to Buffalo was what needed to be done. He didn't do it, and he got fired as a result.
New England used a fast-pass to hire their own guy in Mayo last year, but this time around, it's going to be different. There is no internal candidate worth interviewing for the head coach position, so the Patriots are going to have to conduct a full-fledged search. That will involve their former player in Vrabel, who is reportedly set to interview with the team on Thursday.
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Even before Mayo got fired, Vrabel was being linked to his job, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that he is the favorite to land the gig now that Mayo is gone. And quite frankly, hiring Vrabel is the move New England should have made last offseason. As we just saw in 2024 with the Mayo experiment blowing up in the team's face, this is not an opportunity the team can afford to pass up.
Vrabel played for the Pats from 2001 to 2008, winning three Super Bowls with the team. Just like Mayo, he was beloved by fans during his time as a player, but unlike his fellow former linebacker, Vrabel has head coaching experience. He led the Tennessee Titans from 2018 to 2023, turning them into a top team in the AFC before the front office pulled the rug out from underneath him by tearing their roster apart.
In 2024, Vrabel spent time with the Cleveland Browns as a coaching consultant, and it became clear that he would be arguably the top candidate in this head coaching cycle pretty early on. The tie to New England makes sense, but beyond that, Vrabel is precisely what this team needs, especially after enduring Mayo's catastrophic stint in charge of the team.
The Patriots need someone who has experience as a head coach. Their staff alongside Mayo was woefully unprepared to support him, which is a direct result of transitioning from Belichick, who typically had one of the smallest coaching staffs in the league, to Mayo, a first-year head coach. With a guy like Vrabel, New England would have a bit more leniency in that department.
Vrabel is a no-nonsense guy who will do whatever it takes to win. During the Titans peak with him in charge, Vrabel turned the team into an elite defensive squad, while devising an offensive game plan that focused on maximizing their best players in Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown. It was effective, and had they gotten a bit more help on offense, that team could have made some real noise during Vrabel's stint with them.
In New England, the pieces for a top-tier defense are already in place, as Belichick showed us in 2023. And offensively, the Patriots have their supposed quarterback of the future in Maye, who's ceiling may already be higher than Tannehill's. New England is armed with the resources to make significant upgrades to their roster around Maye this offseason, which makes their head coaching hire extremely important.
If it wasn't clear this team needed a guy like Vrabel last offseason, it is now. He knows what it takes to win in Foxboro, and unlike Mayo, he has the experience to get this team to play up to its full potential. Kraft knows he made a mistake hiring Mayo last offseason. This time around, he cannot afford to make the same mistake, which is why New England needs to do whatever it takes to bring Vrabel to town.
