Jerod Mayo’s many excuses and lack of accountability should write his Patriots fate

At some point, Robert Kraft is going to have to look in the mirror and ask himself what he has done to the New England Patriots franchise. Under his ownership, this team went from being totally irrelevant in the AFC, to being the Evil Empire that won six Super Bowls during the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era. Under his successor, Jerod Mayo, are the Patriots ever going to win six games in a season again?

The Patriots are guaranteed a losing record on the season with their latest loss on the season. After getting pantsed by the hapless Miami Dolphins in Week 12, the Patriots are a dismal 3-9 on the year. This team was not expected to compete for a playoff spot this year. While the defense has been solid, the only thing that really matters is setting up rookie quarterback Drake Maye for long-term success.

Under Mayo's watch, it has become more and more apparent that the Patriots made a GOB Bluth huge mistake by promoting him from within so hastily in the wake of kicking Belichick out the door. In time, Mayo could have been a good head coach. The only problem with that is Mayo cannot see the forest through the trees because he is so deeply entrenched in the antiquated Patriot Way right now.

Here he is saying he cannot do anything when it comes to making adjustments because of personnel.

Mayo was not exactly defending his players for making mistakes whenever they go out onto the field.

What this rampant excuse making and lack of accountability suggests is they have the wrong coach.

Jerod Mayo is looking more and more like a one-and-done head coach

I honestly feel bad for him. What was Mayo to do? Decline the opportunity to be the head coach of the Patriots? I feel that he was set up for inevitable failure by Belichick and Kraft. You never want to be the guy to follow the guy. You want to be the guy who follows the guy who followed the guy. For as dynastic as the Patriots were for 20 years, that dynastic run ended more than half a decade ago, y'all.

While I think there is a strong possibility that Mayo gets another full season to figure things out on the fly, I wonder how much better off if Kraft did the right thing by hiring someone with previous head-coaching experience to help get this team out of the crumbling rubble of yesteryear. Yes, I would hire a retread because a first-time head coach does not have the gravitas to shake off the Belichick era.

For me, all I would care about if I was calling the shots in New England is how can I put Maye in the best position to succeed long-term. I would probably hire an offensive-minded head coach or someone who was a master in-game tactician like Belichick to have all the pieces on the chess board working together in unison. Belichick was a lot of things, but never made excuses about his players.

I want to say the Patriots will eventually get this right, but I am afraid they have fallen into decadence.