Grading each NFL head coaching hire so far this offseason

Where you land matters. This could not be more the case than the NFL. Every other profession outside of professional sports rewards winners and punishes losers. The best college football programs are able to land the best recruits and sustain excellence. Meanwhile, professional leagues like the NFL are defined by parity, doing everything in their power to give everyone a sliver of hope.

The NFL does a better job of selling hope in the form of next year than McDonald's does selling burgers or Nike does selling sneakers. Nobody stays on top forever, as this is every bit a "what have you done for me lately?" league. It is cutthroat, but that is why we can never seem to get enough of it. Even in the heart of the offseason, the NFL finds ways to captivate throughout a 24-hour news cycle.

At the end of the day, only four things really matter when it comes to sustaining success in an NFL organization: Top down, it is owner, general manager, head coach and quarterback. All four positions need to be filled by great leaders. While owners, general managers and quarterbacks get their own criticism too, no position lives and dies by the sword quite like the head coach does. It is quite brutal.

Only time will tell if these teams got it right, but here are some early grades on who all just got hired.

New England Patriots promoted inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo from within

To say the New England Patriots completely blew it by promoting Jerod Mayo from within would be putting it lightly. Again, I could be proven wrong with this, but this is the worst hire an NFL team has made at head coach since Jimmy Haslam decided that Freddie Kitchens should be promoted from within to lead the Cleveland Browns. This so reeks of Jim Tomsula leading the San Francisco 49ers.

Was Mayo a helluva a player for Bill Belichick in New England? Yes, but don't you see it, Kraft Family?! I feel like I am taking crazy pills. This is going to be the worst team in the league next year. The Patriots will have more Lombardi Trophies on display at One Patriot Place (six) than New England will have wins next season. For six wins to be the ceiling of what this team is capable of, what a terrible hire!

As with everyone who got an opportunity of a lifetime to live out a dream as an NFL head coach, I want this to work, but this feels closer to June Jones in Atlanta than it is to Barry Switzer in Dallas. Neither ended swimmingly over in the NFC in the 1990s. The fact that Mayo was not even a defensive coordinator bothers me so much. The fact they did not interview anyone else has me speechless.

Robert Kraft shamelessly quintupling down on The Patriot Way here feels like ownership malpractice.

Grade: F