Ian, what did you make of some of the
comments from Robert Kraft as he addressed the media just
a few minutes ago. Well, I think,
you know, first of all started out by taking
full responsibility for putting Gerard Mayo in a untenable situation
. That is an understatement and you know for the
Patriots now I mean look, their, their season
was bad, the team was bad. Uh,
the results were bad. Everything was bad, but
so much of it was all there before Gerard Mayo
took the job. I mean, yes, the
roster got a little bit better at quarterback. I
don't think anybody doubts Drake May's unbelievable potential, but
he is a rookie and you know, rookie quarterbacks
can go up and down. But you look the
rest of the roster. I mean it is,
it is not good, um, and I,
I think you know this situation, um, without
. Without a lot of improvement in the roster,
without a lot of infrastructure there, still recovering,
still trying to move on from the Bill Belichick era
to put Gerard Mayo in there as a successor,
basically keep everything the same, just say same talent
, new head coach, nothing else changes. It's
, it's rough for anyone, um, obviously it
wasn't good, uh, for Gerard Mayo, but
you know to hear Robert Kraft take responsibility, I
think was a good thing. Um, also,
Judy, I would say the fact that Elliot Wolf
and Alonzo Highsmith will be taking part in the head
coach interviews is noteworthy. Uh, now if it's
Mike Vrabo, I would imagine he would have a
heavy hand in who potentially would be his GM if
the Patriots even have a GM, but the fact
that those two were involved is at least a good
sign. I thought Robert Kraft acknowledging that part of
the reason this was untenable was because Gerard Mayo needed
more time to get ready before taking over the head
coaching job is important because as we've discussed in the
past, this was written into Gerard Mayo's contract that
he would succeed Bill Belichick, but everybody thought at
that time that Bill Belichick would be the Patriots coach
a little longer, at least one more season,
and that would have given Gerard Mayo more time to
get ready. As it turned out, things declined
with the Patriots. Belichick left and Mayo was put
into the job obviously before he was fully ready to
do it. Robert Kraft acknowledged as much today.
He also said that the new coach will have a
big say in choosing the players. Certainly that is
what you would expect him to say if he is
going after some of the top coaching candidates. Coaching
candidates who have options are. Going to look to
have uh lots of input, especially if there is
a GM or a GM-like figure in Elliot Wolf.
The head coach candidate is going to still want to
have a big input in what the roster construction is
going to be. Um, certainly I would expect
the Patriots to target all of the head coaching candidates
that we have talked about, most especially Mike Rael
. You can hear how I think sad Robert Kraft
sounds. about putting Gerard Mayo, somebody he likes
a lot personally into just a terrible spot, but
as you pointed out, Ian, whoever that next
head coach is going to be, whether it is
Mike Rael or somebody else, they are not coming
into a substantially improved situation from the one Gerard Mayo
was put into the roster still has a lot of
holes. They need to do a lot of work
. They have a high draft pick. They don't
have the number one draft pick anymore. This is
still a team very much in rebuilding mode, no
matter who the new head coach is.