The Patriots are Starting 2025 Off Right, With Reports of Huge Rifts in the Organization and Major Firings on the Way

Kathryn Riley. Getty Images.

In my neverending quest to be achieve perfection in all things, I'm trying to be as forthright, gracious, and magnanimous as possible. Even as my football team has descended into humiliation and disgrace, I'm endeavoring to be charitable about it. In the span of just six short years, they've gone from being at the center of the national conversation to the worst thing anyone can be in American life: Irrelevant. And yet, I'm making every effort to be forgiving about it. 

But today they've done the unforgivable. They've made me and every other Patriots fan root for them to lose. To Buffalo, no less. I can accept some levels of failure, but when they've got us boxed into a corner where our only option is to hope for the Bills to pull the plug, yank out the IVs, jam a pillow into our face and give the 2024 Pats a swift, merciful end (and the No. 1 pick), I can't find forgiveness in my cold, black heart, no matter I how hard I search. 

But if there's a ray of hope besides a pick that can be turned into draft capital to rebuild the horrid roster around Drake Maye and Christian Gonzalez, it's the latest reports about just how divided and dysfunctional the organization in Foxboro is. Assuming there's truth to them, it means massive amounts of change are necessary. Ownership will be left with no choice but to clean house. Consider this one, from Mike Giardi:

“If you ask me if Eliot Wolf was given his choice of coaches, he wouldn’t have hired Jerod Mayo. They talk about being on the same page, but they’re not; they haven’t been. Nothing has been on the same page the entire time. …

"I think if they’re firing Jerod, they’re firing everybody. I think that will just be like, ‘You know what? We screwed this whole thing up. We had loyalty to this guy, and it happened too soon for him and we weren't prepared for it and he wasn't prepared for it. And now we’re just gonna hit the nuclear option and we’re just gonna blow the whole thing out and we're gonna start from scratch.'"

Not since Ellen Ripley decided to drop a few megatons of radioactive vengeance on Acheron from orbit has the nuclear option sounded so inviting. At the very least, blowing the entire operation into the Kuiper Belt has to be on the table. From what I'm hearing today, the tailgate scene at Gillette is a ghost town. And the people staying home today and eating their tickets aren't in the mood for hearing about minor changes. 

The thing is, the idea of Wolf and Mayo not being on the same page is no idle speculation. When a GM starts talking about how the rookies he drafted didn't develop properly:

Henry McKenna, Fox Sports - "We're 3-13, so not good enough. Let's start there. We had a lot of needs. I would say that I guess personally, what I was expecting maybe a little bit more internal development, which is a good lesson certainly heading into next year, and that you can't always rely on that," Wolf said. "The rookie receivers didn't have it really that much for us. And, you know, [Ja'Lynn] Polk was sort of in our estimation a plug-and-play. … Ultimately, to answer to your question, our record speaks for itself. We didn't do enough."

… you know that's coded language for "I did my job; the head coach didn't do his." Which is exactly what happened the last time Mr. Kraft had a head coach who wasn't also the GM. In 1999, Bobby Grier said virtually the same sentiments about Pete Carroll, and they were both gone in a matter of weeks. It's often the nature of hiring a GM and a head coach who aren't one in the same like Bill Belichick or come as a package deal like John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan. When times get tough, they're going to start a shootout in the lifeboat. And if you haven't noticed, the boat Wolf and Mayo are in is filling up with water, fast.

Which brings us to this report from Dianne Russinni:

And while Russini specifically reported Mike Vrabel's interview with the Jets went well and he plans on talking to Chicago and New Orleans as well, it's worth noting that he recently changed his profile pic to one of him and Tedy Bruschi in happier times:

So this is where we're at, counting down to the end of the worst Patriots season since 1992. One that could only get worse with an accidental win today that could potentially drop them all the way to the 4th overall pick. Strap in. The next 24-48 hours are going to be wild around these parts.