Robert Kraft Takes Ownership, Josh McDaniels Excited

By Steve Atkinson 

Robert Kraft took control of how the team was managed over the last few years, but he essentially set himself up for failure. He promised Jerod Mayo the head coaching position for 2023, then fired Bill Belichick to make Mayo the head coach for 2024, all while providing him with little support. Kraft brought in first-year offensive and defensive coordinators and a mix of assistants from various backgrounds. If he truly believed in Mayo, why didn’t he hire Josh McDaniels last year? It seems that Mayo was used as a scapegoat, and deep down, Kraft didn’t want him to succeed.

Robert Kraft Gives Mike Vrabel Help He Never Gave Jerod Mayo

Kraft has always wanted Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels for the head coaching role. However, he felt he couldn’t go back on his word to Mayo. They endured a season with Mayo, only to fire him immediately afterward and hire the coach they actually wanted, along with the offensive coordinator. It’s evident that’s what happened, and it’s quite frustrating. They couldn’t provide Mayo with experienced assistant coaches, even though McDaniels was the person the Kraft family approached last season for advice on improving the offense.

The last two years have been really, really difficult — the worst two years of our ownership,” Kraft said. “So, we tried to create the foundation of a new beginning, and I’m pretty excited about what we have.”

Kraft is clearly excited about what they have in place. He has the coach and offensive coordinator that he truly wanted. Suddenly, the Patriots have Vrabel and a group of experienced assistants. Where was this support for Mayo? Regardless, the Patriots should be able to win more than three or four games next season.

Josh McDaniels Along with Robert Kraft Is Excited For The Future

The Josh McDaniels system has upgraded. McDaniels has spent time in other programs last year at the college level learning. The offense McDaniels ran needed to be upgraded and the staff around McDaniels can hopefully come together and we’ll see how it goes when they hit the field. I fell like Drake Maye will pick it up quickly but and him having his number one receiver Stefon Diggs is a huge plus.

“It’ll be different,” McDaniels said, via a transcript from the team. “I think that sometimes it can get overblown because one word is apple, another word is tomato, and one system it means one thing and another system it means something else. The guys, just like ‘Men in Black,’ you take the thing and just wipe the memory clean from some of the things, but a lot of it is what you call this, now we call this, and it takes them a little bit of time to acclimate to that. Our staff, we’ve done the same thing, and we’ve – honestly, we’ve changed some things, and I’m in the process of doing the same thing, too. So, what we used to call something, now we call something else because we’ve agreed that it’s the best thing to do for the team. So, we’re all going to be in that same boat. I’m sure we’ll come up with a friendly, fine system when we use terms that don’t mean anything to us now that used to. But no, I don’t expect there to be – there will be a period of adjustment, but I don’t think that will be a big deal.”