Robert Kraft made his first head coach hiring in 24 years official on Wednesday when he introduced Jerod Mayo as the New England Patriots' next head coach. But the hiring of Mayo brings some similarities to Bill Belichick for the Patriots owner.
Kraft explained that he had a similar conviction to hiring Mayo as he did with Belichick 24 years prior.
“I had that same conviction when I hired Bill Belichick – a decision that many questioned at the time and told me I was making a major error,” Kraft told reporters.
“I've learned to trust my instincts throughout my career, and I trust Jerod is the right person to lead the Patriots back to championship-level contention and long-term success,” Kraft added.
The Patriots opted to hire Mayo in an unusual way. They gave him a succession clause as part of his contract extension last offseason, making it so that they didn't need to go through a formal process in order to hire him as their next head coach.
Best of Jerod Mayo Introductory Press Conference:
🗣️ "I'm not trying to be Bill"
😤 Hard work, works
🏟️ Evaluating Culture: "I don't want to be in an echo chamber." pic.twitter.com/34MGkSzFPd— NBC Sports Boston's Patriots Coverage (@NBCSPatriots) January 17, 2024
Kraft ended up doing just that, naming Mayo as the team's next head coach just 24 hours after officially parting ways with Belichick. He explained that doing things in an “unorthodox” way has worked out well for his family over the last 50 years, including in the 30 years he's owned the Patriots as he continued to share previous insight on Belichick's hiring and how it pertains to Mayo.
“The only time I didn't [go with my instinct] was Bill Belichick in '96 after I saw what went on,” Kraft said. “I didn't hire him, I hired someone else. I didn't hire him, my instinct was to do it but because of his loyalty to a man we had such difficulty with – who did a great job for the [team] – he took another job while we were going to the Super Bowl. I just couldn't bring someone [close to him] in because trust is so important.
“But as I watched what happened when he was with his next team, I realized I made a mistake. I should've gone with my instincts in '96 and hired Bill. That worked out pretty well. I have the same feeling now with Jerod.”
Robert Kraft says it was instinct to hire Jerod Mayo instead of interviewing other candidates
Says he had the same feeling as he did when he hired Bill Belichick#Patriots #NFL pic.twitter.com/kp7Ne42tl3
— Patriots on CLNS (@PatriotsCLNS) January 17, 2024
Of course, Kraft is talking about the team's decision to hire Pete Carroll to replace Bill Parcells, who left the Patriots for the New York Jets following their Super Bowl run in the 1996 season. Belichick was an assistant on Parcells' staff in New England at the time, allowing Kraft to get a good idea of who he was as a coach. Of course, that led Kraft to hire Belichick after he fired Carroll in the 2000 offseason.
As Kraft has a similar feeling about Mayo, he called his new head coach a “very special” person and praised his leadership skills, adding that the Patriots are ready to “kick butt.”
What Robert Kraft said about the Patriots' front office structure
Mayo is replacing just half of Belichick's duties, as the former Patriots coach also served as the team's de facto general manager. Reports emerged following Mayo's hire that the team could wait until after the draft to hire a general manager, if they do so at all. It was also unclear if they would promote from within or if they would look at adding an outside candidate.
Kraft insinuated that the team is going to look at possible candidates before tabbing a head person for the front office.
“We know we have a lot of people internally who have had a chance to train and learn under the greatest coach of all time, a man whose football intellect is very special,” Kraft said. “So in the short term, we’re looking for collaboration as our team has a tremendous opportunity to position itself right, given our salary cap space, and we’ve never drafted, in my 30 years of ownership, we’ve never been drafting as low as we’re drafting.
“So we’re counting on our internal people, whom we’re still learning and evaluating. So we’re going to let that evolve and develop, and before the key decisions have to be made, we will appoint someone. And at the same time, we’ll probably start doing interviews and looking at people from the outside. But my bias has always been, in all our family companies, to try to develop a culture from within where we understand one another.”
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