FOXBOROUGH — When he spoke to the media, Robert Kraft wouldn’t field questions about his plans or his process for hiring a Patriots new coach. He said Thursday was a day to celebrate and appreciate Bill Belichick and all the departing coach contributed to the Patriots organization and the success it has enjoyed during his tenure.
That’s fair and well within the owner’s purview.
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But it also means that Kraft is unlikely to say much publicly about what he’s looking for until he’s sitting at a podium introducing the next guy. What traits does he want? Offensive coach? Defensive coach? Prior head coach? That’ll remain a mystery for the time being.
Kraft said he wants a guy who’ll get the Patriots back to the playoffs and win. If he’s wise, he’ll go in a completely different direction to find that.
Owning a sports team presents a unique challenge because most owners never worked in a team’s front office. It’s not like Kraft has a background in evaluating general managers and coaches. Most owners don’t. That makes it very tempting to hire someone familiar, someone they have a level of trust with already. Doing that worked historically well for Kraft last time when he brought back Belichick. He made that point himself on Thursday.
But that would be an incredibly risky move to attempt again.
It’s always hard to be the guy who follows The Guy. That’ll be doubly true with Belichick, who is the most successful coach in history.
By and large Belichick’s former assistants have failed as head coaches. Josh McDaniels has flamed out twice. Matt Patricia was awful in Detroit. Eric Mangini crashed badly in New York and Cleveland. Charlie Weis was lousy at Notre Dame, a place that’s hard to be lousy at, and awful at Kansas. Romeo Crennell had one winning season in seven years. Brian Flores got his legs unfairly cut out from under him in Miami, but his grade was at best incomplete.
The most successful has been Bill O’Brien who did well at Penn State and reasonably well with the Houston Texans. But given how awful the New England offense was in 2023 it would be a hard sell to promote the guy who’d been hired to elevate it.
But in any year during his tenure in New England, if Belichick had abruptly retired and Kraft hired his best assistant/coordinator to replace him, he’d have hired somebody that eventually failed elsewhere. They were all in a similar place to where Jerod Mayo is now. Mayo is a smart guy. He was well respected as a leader when he played and is well-liked by the players as a coach. But his entire professional playing and coaching career came under Belichick. If the Patriots need a change, how can Kraft expect to get it from someone who has never been part of anything other than Belichick in the NFL?
It’s why Mike Vrabel is such an appealing option. He played for Belichick but didn’t coach under him. He knows Kraft and what results are expected in New England, but will bring a different approach to achieving them. But convincing him to take the job might require surrendering more control than Kraft is willing to give anyone.
Kraft should cast a wide net. Talk to Eric Bieniemy, Brian Callahan, Ben Johnson or Brian Johnson. Would University of Washington coach Kalen DeBoer be the football equivalent of the Celtics hiring Brad Stevens? Maybe. Kraft should find out. This process doesn’t have to go fast as long as it goes well.
The Patriots can’t be looking for the next Bill Belichick or someone who can take the baton from him. That person doesn’t exist. There are other ways to coach, other ways to lead and other ways to win. Kraft should look to find them.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
