Patriots fans calls to fire Jerod Mayo made worse by seeing what they could’ve had

The New England Patriots were on the wrong end of a 40-7 blowout on Saturday, with the Los Angeles Chargers dishing out the punishment. The defeat moves New England to 3-13 on the season, on track to finish worse than last season (4-13) with a loss to the first-place Buffalo Bills in Week 18.

At this point, the Pats are focused on securing the highest possible draft pick and looking to the future. Drake Maye has proven his mettle despite less than ideal circumstances, so this season isn't a complete bust. That said, there was an expectation of competence, or at least pluckiness, after firing Bill Belichick. That has not panned out.

New England turned the reins over to Jerod Mayo, a former Super Bowl champ on the field and a longtime Belichick understudy. That always felt like an oddly rushed decision for a team so eager to move on from Belichick's oppressive regime. Another defensive mind plucked from the very same tree New England wanted to root out.

Mayo was, at least, a new voice and a fresh perspective, and Belichick's departure lifted a palpable weight from the locker room. The Patriots finally had a semi-real front office in place and a head coach focused on, well, coaching.

The results aren't there, though, and fans are starting to get tired of just how bad it all looks.

It doesn't help when other, far superior options were out there — such as Jim Harbaugh.

Patriots fans sure wish Jim Harbaugh was their head coach right about now

Harbaugh won a championship at his alma mater, Michigan, and made the decision to return to the pros, where he came up just shy of a Super Bowl last decade in San Francisco. Rather than going to a marquee franchise, Harbaugh ended up in sunny Los Angeles with the Chargers, a team far too comfortable with mediocrity.

The Chargers won five games in 2023. Their win on Saturday was No. 10 this season, clinching a postseason berth with one week to spare. Harbaugh, in the process, became the first coach in the Super Bowl era to take over two losing teams and make the playoffs out of the gate.

One can't help but wonder why the Patriots didn't push harder for an established winner like Harbaugh, who offered a palpable track record of NFL success. Mayo wasn't even a coordinator in New England. He was the youngest and least experienced head coach in the NFL when the hire was announced. That is not inherently bad, but it qualified as a huge gamble for an organization looking to follow up the greatest head coaching stint in league history.

Harbaugh belongs in the same conversation as Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh or his brother, John, in Baltimore. He may not be the most "modern" or high-concept head coach, but his teams play their specific style at the highest possible level. The Chargers have leaned on the run while the entire NFL pivots toward more ambitious air raids. He carried over his same offensive coordinator from Michigan, asked the canon-armed Justin Herbert to operate as a game manager, and it all worked. The Chargers are in the postseason with a cohesive, balanced unit, while the Patriots feel utterly aimless by comparison.

New England's issues go well beyond Mayo — there are deep personnel flaws holding this team back — but the Patriots are ostensibly a worse team than last year despite upgrading the QB room and making a concerted effort to build out the team around him. It's bad when your ex-coach is joining the college ranks and your current, super-young head coach appears even more antiquated by comparison.

Mayo probably deserves more time to right the ship, but things are dire in Foxboro right now.