The focus of Wednesday’s press conference in New England was to introduce Jerod Mayo as the team’s new head coach, but there were questions about another hire that the team is expected to make in the near future.
Bill Belichick served as the team’s top personnel executive in addition to being their head coach and team owner Robert Kraft was asked multiple questions about his plans on the personnel front. He said “we’re looking for collaboration” in the short term when asked about who would have final say on personnel and that his bias has always been “to try to develop a culture” internally, although his answer to a question about hiring a General Manager suggested that the search will be more expansive than the head coaching one.
“As I said, this is the first time in a quarter of a century we had to make major changes, and we want to see what we have in-house, look what’s out there in the marketplace, and then do what we think is right,” Kraft said. “I know people have ideas, but I can just assure you, any decision we make at this time will be to try to give the support to Jerod and put the organization in the best position it can to win games. We don’t have a fixed formula. We’re going to do — we know what’s worked for us in the past, and that’s what we’re going to do here in the future.”
Mayo was also asked about the role he hopes to play when it comes to roster construction.
“That’s a great question,” Mayo said. “One thing with collaboration, also, there are experts. I believe in leaning on experts in their field. Now, will we always do what that expert advises us to do? No, absolutely not. But at the same time I’m going to go into this thing with no expectations, and I said this as a rookie, I wanted to be a sponge and learn as much as I can. We have a lot of people in this building that I can learn from in those regards.”
Whatever path the Patriots choose, it will be a very different mode of operation in 2024.
