Why was the Patriots' succession plan for Jerod Mayo so stunning? | Inside Coverage
Following the team's introduction of its new head coach, Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz, Jori Epstein & Charles Robinson discuss how the Patriots' choosing of the former linebacker was kept under tight wraps and caught many across the league off guard. Hear the full “Inside Coverage” conversation on the “Zero Blitz“ podcast, and subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
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JASON FITZ: I did think it was pretty stunning, y'all. For all the conversations we've had about Belichick, and is he gonna stay, is he gonna go, none of us, nobody in the world seemed to know that Jerod Mayo had it built into his contract, in a way the league had approved in advance, that allowed them to not have to deal with the Rooney Rule at all, because the league had already approved that it was in the contract that he's the successor. Did you guys have any sense that this was something that was possible?
JORI EPSTEIN: Here's the deal. I did not see this talked about a ton nationally. I didn't have familiarity with Jerod Mayo until I went to Belichick's finale, his last game in New England. Pretty much everyone around there on Sunday and Monday who I talked to was like, yeah, they didn't know if Belichick was out, but they felt confident that, if he was out, Mayo was it. Now, no one was talking at that point about, like, a succession plan that the league had already approved. Like, I think people thought he had to interview for it. Give Mayo credit. That speaks to his respect around the organization.
That was my first time watching him talk. I really had not had exposure to him. This was a guy who was comfortable. This was a guy who was making fun of Robert Kraft. What I will say is, while I didn't see this coming before I went to New England, I felt like it was very clear the respect that Mayo had developed based on, one, of my conversations with people there, and, two, seeing how comfortable he was in that intro press conference.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Now, what's also interesting about it, though, for a while, when you talked to people who were both in the organization currently, and then also people who left for other jobs across the NFL, when you would talk to them about the Patriots, they all, to a person, would tell you, Mayo is a very, very strong inside candidate to be the next head coach. Like, it was very well known that, if there was someone on the staff that was going to be groomed into the position to take over for Bill, it was very much Mayo was the number-one candidate that was talked about.
So there had to be some sense internally there. There had to be-- You know, something was given off by ownership that, OK, this is who we're aiming at. This is the person that we're leaning toward. Maybe that's because they obviously knew, it's in his contract to be the successor. I think the oddity is just that we didn't know it until everything ultimately happened.
And one thing, though, I will bring up, it raises some questions about the interest that the Kraft family had in Vrabel, right, because I heard that multiple places, and I'm talking about not reporters, like, in the league, they're interested in Mike Vrabel, and if Mike Vrabel comes free from the Titans, they're interested. Now, what was attached to Mayo's deal, if he did not get that head coaching job, he got a cash payout. There would be a cash settlement, right?
So, if they just said, hey, you know what, I know we promised, the succession, it was gonna go to you, but we've decided to go a different way, I don't know if they pay out, what the contract would have been, or I would guess that the language in the contract says what the cash payout would have been, but he basically would have gotten a lump sum, and, you know, hey, you're gonna go be a head coach somewhere else now.