Patriots coaching search already raising concerning questions

The original Bill Belichick succession plan going up in smoke, forced the New England Patriots to conduct a proper coaching search for the first time in over a quarter century. That process is still in its early stages — Jerod Mayo was fired only three days ago — but there are already questions about the organization’s approach.

So far, the team has been tied to four head coaching candidates. Among them, two — Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich — interviewed for the vacancy on Tuesday. In addition, the team also requested to speak with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and scheduled a meeting with ex-Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel for Thursday.

On paper, the Patriots starting their interview process with Hamilton and Leftwich comes as a surprise. Neither of the pair had coached in the NFL since the 2022 season, and they do not necessarily appear to be in high demand at the moment.

So, what do the Patriots see in them that others do not? There are two potential answers, with the first of those seemingly the most likely.

Both Hamilton and Leftwich are minority candidates, and interviewing them in person helped the team fulfill the requirements stipulated by the NFL’s Rooney Rule.

One cynical way to look at those interviews therefore is this: the Patriots knew they had to interview two minority coaches, so they made sure to talk to two who are not currently contractually bound to any NFL team. This allowed them to quickly get those over with, check the Rooney Rule box, and move on.

Is that what happened? From the outside looking in, it at least seems like a possibility.

The second answer would be the team simply casting a wide net, something owner Robert Kraft said during a press conference after firing Mayo.

“We want to interview as many people as we can that we think can help us get to that position that we want to be in,” he said on Monday.

As of Wednesday, however, his club has been tied to only the aforementioned four candidates. For comparison the other four teams who have been looking for head coaches — not yet counting the Las Vegas Raiders, who just fired Antonio Pierce on Tuesday afternoon — have been tied to anywhere from five to fourteen candidates.

The Jacksonville Jaguars, who fired Doug Pederson the day after the Patriots let go of Jerod Mayo, are up to eight interview requests already; three of them are minority candidates who coached in the league in 2024.

Of course, it is in the Patriots’ right to satisfy the Rooney Rule however they see fit. The rule, which was implemented with the noble goal of helping promote diversity within coaching circles, has clear limitations. Teams exploiting those has to be expected, unfortunately (whether the Patriots did or didn’t do that, of course, cannot be said with full certainty).

The more concerning aspect of all that — at least as it relates to New England’s search for a new head coach — is the size of that aforementioned net. It might change, still, but so far it seems the team has zeroed in on two candidates.

The one it knows best (Vrabel) and the most prominent name on the market (Johnson).

Johnson is an interesting target. One of the most creative play designers and play callers in the NFL, he has done a fantastic job leading the most productive offense in football over the last three seasons combined. The 38-year-old has earned an opportunity to prove himself as a head coach, and the fact that he has been linked to three teams — New England, Chicago, Jacksonville — speaks for his status as a hot commodity.

Vrabel, on the other hand, is a Kraft family favorite. He played for their team for eight years, won three Super Bowls along the way, and was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2023. He seemingly already has the stamp of approval, and is unsurprisingly considered the frontrunner to ultimately earn the job. Given his experience as a coach at both the college and NFL level, he would have both the credentials and the connections as well (neither of which Patriots-exclusive Jerod Mayo, for comparison, ever possessed).

Both Johnson and Vrabel would make for interesting Patriots head coaches, and there are arguments for and against both of them. The question, however, is whether or not setting the coaching search up as a 1-on-1 battle — assuming that the Hamilton and Leftwich interviews were, in fact, a means to an end — is best for the organization moving forward.

The Patriots, after all, might be smart to widen their scope a bit.

As noted above, they did not have to conduct a coaching search for a quarter century. They did one in 2000 and came close to hiring Dom Capers before acquiring Bill Belichick in a trade with the New York Jets. When Belichick left last January, Jerod Mayo was already in place as a head coach in waiting, no search needed.

In between, they only knew one way of doing things; the Belichick way. In fairness, it paid tremendous dividends and there was no need for a change. Until there suddenly was.

In the Kraft family’s eyes, Mayo and quasi-general manager Eliot Wolf were capable of modifying what Belichick had started building in the early 2000s. And they did break with the established order in a lot of ways, for better or worse. But the early results still did not look the part on and off the field, and one year later New England is back to square one.

The team also might be back to making the same mistake it made last year, when it never opened up its search process to new ideas or visions for the organization. Obviously, there were reasons for that, and circumstances are different in 2025 compared to 2024; Johnson also would be at least one outside perspective as a head coaching target.

That is, if they actually ever get to do an in-person interview with him. The Patriots, after all, might not have the patience to wait until the Lions are no longer in the playoffs — all while Vrabel, possibly their only other serious candidate, might end up entertaining other offers.

Robert Kraft gave an interesting answer in that regard when asked about the fate of Mayo’s former assistant coaches under a new head coach.

“Look, we move fast and we’re going to let him make those decisions,” he said.

Moving fast was what defined the Patriots’ head coaching vacancy — or lack thereof — last offseason. In combination with a narrow view on the market, it might come to define this year’s ass well.

Still, one is left to wonder whether or not patience might be what is needed at One Patriot Place. The early coaching search so far makes it look like that virtue is not valued, and neither is opening oneself up to a truly diverse set of candidates.

Click here to read article