The New England Patriots' season didn't go as planned, as Jerod Mayo's team quickly fell out of the playoff picture early in the season. The Patriots changed quarterbacks and trudged through numerous weeks of uncompetitive football as one of the worst teams in the NFL.

Now, just hours after the end of the Patriots' season, the team has fired Mayo after just one season as head coach, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Mayo and the Patriots finished the season 4-13 after a win to close the season over the Buffalo Bills, who were playing a lot of their backups with playoff seeding locked up. The win cost the Patriots a chance at the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, which is now in the hands of the Tennessee Titans.

Mayo's time as the head coach got off to a good start, as the Patriots opened their 2024 season with an upset win over the Cincinnati Bengals. However, Mayo's squad lost six consecutive games after that, leading them to bench quarterback Jacoby Brissett in favor of Drake Maye. Maye showed a ton of promising signs this season, but it wasn't enough to save Mayo's job.

It's easy to envision a big fallout from this move in New England, but that may not be the case. The rest of the front office seems to be safe for now, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.

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Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft released a statement shortly after the firing.

“After the game today, I informed Jerod Mayo that he will not be returning as the head coach of the New England Patriots in 2025,” the first part of the statement read. “For me, personally, this was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made.”

Robert Kraft and the rest of the Patriots front office will now begin another coaching search to see who the next leader of the franchise will be. Mike Vrabel, a former Patriots linebacker who had a successful stint as the head coach of the Titans, is a name to watch according to CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones.

Vrabel will be one of the hot names on the coaching carousel this offseason. Some of the other big names expected to be in the mix are Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen, among others.