The New England Patriots fired coach Jerod Mayo on Sunday after one season, beginning another reboot for the franchise just a year after it parted with longtime coach Bill Belichick.
Owner Robert Kraft announced the firing in a statement shortly after New England closed its 4-13 season with a 23-16 win over the Buffalo Bills.
“After the game I informed Jerod Mayo that he will not be returning as the head coach of the New England Patriots in 2025. For me, personally, it was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made,” Kraft said. “Unfortunately, the trajectory of our team’s performances throughout the season did not ascent as I had hoped.”
A former Patriots linebacker who worked as an assistant under Belichick, Mayo started the season with a strong endorsement from Kraft. But alongside a coaching staff that featured offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and first-time defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington, he struggled to get the most out of a young roster that included rookie quarterback Drake Maye.
The Patriots opened the season with a win at Cincinnati before losing their next six games. They won two of their next three but then closed the season by losing six of seven, missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season. Belichick was 4-13 in his final season in 2023 to cap a 24-year run in New England that included six Super Bowl titles.
Mayo played eight seasons with New England and won a Super Bowl during the 2014 season. He took a post-retirement job in corporate America in 2015, then returned to football in 2019 to work with Belichick. He served primarily as the Patriots’ linebackers coach while developing a strong reputation among players.
It made him a rising star in the coaching ranks and he turned down several interviews for head coaching jobs following the 2022 season, instead signing an extension to remain in New England.
A week after letting Belichick go, the Patriots hired Mayo as the franchise’s first Black head coach. At age 37, he started the season as the NFL’s second-youngest coach behind Seattle’s Mike Macdonald.
From the beginning of his tenure, Mayo tried to establish a culture that differed from Belichick’s often robotic devotion to football – a move that drew praise from players.
Yet, it didn’t translate into victories for a team that was ranked near the bottom of the NFL offensively and defensively and went 3-6 in one-score games.
It’s a stunningly brief tenure for a coach who was handpicked by Kraft.
Kraft first noticed Mayo’s confidence shortly after the Patriots drafted him 10th overall out of Tennessee in 2008.
“I remember him immediately coming up to me and saying, ‘Kraft and Mayo, they go together pretty well,’” Kraft said during Mayo’s introductory news conference last January. “Sixteen years later, here we are.”
When Mayo initially returned to Patriots in 2019, Kra