Over the past five years, the great New England Patriots dynasty came to an end as both head coach Bill Belichick and star quarterback Tom Brady left the franchise. With another year of chaos coming to an end for the Patriots, longtime sports host Dan Patrick believes the famous “Patriot Way” is now a thing of the past.
Discussing New England’s decision to fire Jerod Mayo after one season as coach, Patrick explained why he believes the “Patriot Way” is “done.”
“The ‘Patriot Way’ is done. The ‘Patriot Way’ was Belichick and Brady,” Patrick said Tuesday on The Dan Patrick Show. “Let’s be honest. It’s not the Krafts, it’s Belichick and Brady.”
Patrick noted how owner Robert Kraft and his son, team president Jonathan Kraft, are more involved now than they were during the dynasty years. It may not be a coincidence that the team is in a slump as a result.
“They got more involved, and I think to the detriment of the team,” Patrick said. “You didn’t spend any money. How do you bring in a rookie coach and a rookie quarterback and you don’t surround them?”
Reports suggest Robert Kraft targeted Mayo as the replacement for Belichick years before Belichick left. Yet the team’s defense slipped as Mayo continued to make PR mistakes with comments to reporters. Now, Mayo is out after just one season and New England is searching for answers.
Patrick believes New England can salvage the situation around rookie quarterback Drake Maye, but the culture needs to come from Maye and the next head coach — not ownership.
“Maybe Mayo wasn’t the right guy to begin with. Maybe they made a mistake to put him [as] the coach in waiting,” Patrick said. “But now you’ve gotta get Mike Vrabel. Because Vrabel gives you a culture.”
Perhaps the Krafts convinced themselves they were a bigger part of the team’s success than they really were. If you watch the team-produced Apple documentary The Dynasty, it certainly seems that way.
Patrick pushed back on that notion and emphasized the only way the Patriots can return to a dominant place in the NFL is if they find another great coach-QB tandem.
“Players didn’t want to play for Belichick. They wanted to play for Belichick and Brady,” Patrick said. “Because that meant you were going to get a chance to play for a Super Bowl, plain and simple.”
Most assume New England will hire Vrabel, who won multiple Super Bowls with the team. That’s a great start, but the Patriots have a lot to sort out as they try to build the next great Patriots team.
