Good organizations always have a plan.
Great ones have the ability to adjust their plan on the fly.
Robert Kraft pivoted some when he moved up his planned timeline by a year to elevate coach-in-waiting Jerod Mayo and show the legendary Bill Belichick the door. But did the Patriots owner pivot enough with a talented pool of potential franchise-altering head coaching candidates available?
Kraft acted swiftly in solidifying Mayo’s long-rumored promotion. The last time he acted with such conviction in making a head coaching hire, well… he certainly got that decision right. Kraft knows a thing or two about how to run a successful NFL franchise, after all.
Is it fair to wonder if the now 82-year-old Kraft was too set in his ways to consider scrapping his plan in favor of a better one?
Mike Vrabel’s situation in Tennessee couldn’t have unfolded any better for New England’s timeline. A previously proven NFL coach who just climbed to the top of the college football mountain in Jim Harbaugh was ripe for the picking. Brian Flores was available, an established defensive mind who has had success both in New England and as an NFL coach. A Pete Carroll reunion would have made all the sense in the world… kidding, kidding.
A stable of rising star coordinators such as Lions OC Ben Johnson, Texans OC Bobby Slowik, Dolphins OC Frank Smith, or finally giving Chiefs-turned-Commanders OC Eric Bieniemy his shot, could have made for successful “marriages,” as Kraft likes to say.
The point being, there were options. Lots of them, and good ones. Instead of casting his net into a deep pond, Kraft was content to move forward with a catch he had already made.
It may be the right decision. Mayo is a well-regarded coach inside and outside of the building in Foxborough. At 37 years old with a Super Bowl ring and an All-Pro designation in tow, Mayo commands respect and has a much better ability to relate to today’s players than the outgoing coach who was 34 years his senior. And he clearly coaches a mean defense.
There were plenty of valid reasons for Kraft to forgo a full-fledged coaching search, too. If Kraft had hired Vrabel or someone else, there’s a good chance Mayo would have walked. Then there’s the Rooney Rule and the need for a diverse interview process that could have changed the timeline. And staying in house with Mayo helps promote stability for one of the few things that wasn’t a trainwreck this season: the defense.
But would risking losing Mayo have delivered a franchise-altering blow to the Patriots? The reality is Mayo, as promising a coaching prospect as he is, owns a 0-0 record in zero games as a head coach in the NFL.
Being the guy that followed Bill Belichick was never going to be an easy task (see Cam Newton and Mac Jones after Tom Brady), but would it have been wise to bring in a coach who has been around the block a time or two? At the very least, to weigh the mettle and fit of the coaches who were available? And who knows who else might still shake free that could be a compelling candidate? A quarter of the league has head coaching vacancies, yet none had made a move before the Patriots made theirs on Friday.
Clearly Kraft and the Patriots had been preparing to “part ways with" Belichick for quite some time now, but less than 24 hours does not seem like enough time to come to a conclusion on all of the available options.
Belichick will always be the crown jewel of personnel decisions defining Kraft’s ownership, but selecting his successor is a big part of Kraft’s legacy, too. Was it wise to rush that choice? Only time will tell. Mayo has no doubt earned his chance. But there’s more than one road to building a perennial Super Bowl contender.
Hopefully Kraft’s tunnel vision won’t be much of a speed bump or road block. As we’ve learned with Belichick, even the greatest of the greats in the coaching realm lose their fastball eventually. The same is true for owners, too.