Kraft fired Mayo on Sunday, less than an hour after the season finale. He let Mayo go through his final postgame news conference without providing an inkling of what was about to happen, then essentially deactivated his key card as soon as it ended. Of the three teams to fire head coaches after the season, the Patriots were the only one that rushed to do it Sunday night.
Kraft didn’t provide Mayo with one final news conference to say goodbye to fans. Nor, more strikingly, did he allow Mayo to address the team one last time in Monday’s farewell meeting, which was led by Kraft and the front office. By contrast, the Jaguars confirmed that Doug Pederson led the final team meeting and spoke to his players on Monday after he had been fired.
“Wish we all could’ve said goodbye,” defensive end Deatrich Wise said of Mayo. “I didn’t really get a chance to see him. It really happened so fast.”
Mayo had been a player, assistant coach, and head coach for 14 years in the Patriots’ organization, yet they couldn’t usher him out the door quickly enough. He deserved a more graceful exit.
▪ Is something up with Drake Maye? The rookie quarterback was a rare bright spot, playing better than anyone expected and displaying strong leadership traits throughout the season, including humility, competitiveness, and responsibility.
Which is why I was surprised to see Maye bail on his media responsibilities this week. Maye left the locker room after the Bills game without talking to reporters, then didn’t show up to the open locker room period on Monday morning as his teammates spoke to the media and cleaned out their lockers.
Maye wasn’t required to participate in either media session, but as the starting quarterback and team leader, skipping out is a bad look, especially on Monday when most of his teammates faced tough questions about Mayo and the team. Last year, Mac Jones spoke to the media on locker clean-out day after going through probably the worst season of his life. Maye wouldn’t have faced questions nearly that difficult.
I also found it odd two weeks ago when Maye showed up to his weekly news conference with tight end Hunter Henry, and did a joint session. Maye seemed to be in good spirits that day, but bringing a teammate as a human shield to the podium is usually a move that only happens when something is amiss.
Is Maye upset that Mayo got fired? With his own play? With all of the losing this season? That he didn’t get to play on Sunday while Joe Milton shined? Or is Maye just a 22-year-old who doesn’t understand his media responsibilities?
Whatever the explanation, it wasn’t a great look for Maye to avoid the media.
▪ Kraft said Monday that his decision to fire Mayo “evolved . . . over the last month,” and that’s probably true. I recall seeing Robyn Glaser, the Patriots’ executive vice president of football business and the Krafts’ right-hand person, engage in a lengthy meeting with Mayo’s agent, Sean Kiernan, in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton at the NFL owners’ meetings on Dec. 11, when the Patriots were 3-10 and on their bye week.
It gave the impression that Mayo and the Patriots were still aligned despite their struggles. But four days later the Patriots were blown out by the Cardinals, followed two weeks later by a blowout loss to the Chargers, which seemed to seal Mayo’s fate.
▪ The Patriots still have officially fired only Mayo, and Kraft said the new coach will decide what to do with this season’s staff. But this is mostly just word games as the Patriots figure out what to do with several coaches who are still under contract.
Per a league source, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt walked out of Gillette Stadium shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday and told friends in the parking lot that he and Mayo had just been fired. And defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington already has one interview lined up with the Bengals for the same position.
It’s certainly possible that the new coach will keep a few guys.But as colleague Nicole Yang reported, most of the staff is expected to be replaced, certainly at the top.
▪ Patriots fans booed their hearts out on Sunday when the Patriots beat the Bills to lose the No. 1 draft pick and drop to No. 4, which should hurt the Patriots’ chances of trading down. Perhaps I’m being too much of a homer, but the No. 4 pick may not be so bad after all.
The top three teams in the draft — Titans, Browns, and Giants — need quarterbacks. Right now, there are two coveted QB prospects, Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward, but there are still 3½ months for players such as Jalen Milroe and Quinn Ewers to move up the board, as often happens.
If quarterbacks go 1-2-3, that will leave the Patriots with the best non-QB in the draft (hello, wide receiver Travis Hunter or left tackle Will Campbell). Or even better, the Patriots may still be able to trade No. 4 to a team that desperately wants Hunter, or if a fourth quarterback emerges.
Getting No. 1 certainly would have been ideal for the Patriots, but No. 4 might not be a wasteland.
▪ Lost in the hubbub of the week: Milton had a big game on Sunday, completing 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards, a passing TD and a rushing TD. He made several highlight-reel plays and tantalizing throws, the best of which was called back because of a penalty.
But more impressive was his accuracy and ability to run the offense. Milton completed his first 11 passes, and his first incompletion was a throwaway. Milton finished 7 for 7 on in-breaking routes for 133 yards and a TD, for a perfect 158.3 rating that is the best by any Patriot since Next Gen Stats came into existence nine years ago.
Also per Next Gen, Milton’s plus-22.5 completion percentage over expected — he completed 22.5 percent more passes than the computers say he “should” have — was the second-highest by any quarterback this season.
Yes, it came against the Bills’ backups, and yes, the Bills may have been tanking. But it reminded me of Patrick Mahomes’s Week 17 start in 2017, when he ripped off several impressive throws in a game that was also deemed meaningless. Milton isn’t Mahomes, but he opened a lot of eyes on Sunday.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.
