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The last remnants of the Bill Belichick era in New England are being cleared away.
Very quietly, the new coach of the New England Patriots has been wiping away ties to the old ones. According to an analysis by a longtime Patriots reporter for The Boston Globe published on Wednesday, “new coach Mike Vrabel has been holding a liquidation sale in Foxborough: Everyone connected to Jerod Mayo and Bill Belichick must go.”
Mayo, a former Patriots linebacker who played under Belichick from 2008 through 2015 including on the squad that won New England’s fourth of its six Super Bowls during the Belichick era, was the head coach of the Patriots who replaced Belichick in 2024.
Mayo lasted only one season. He led the team to a 4-13 record, the same mark as in Belichick’s final year.
Belichick, of course, established himself as one of the most successful coaches in the history of pro football by helming the Patriots for 24 seasons, winning six Super Bowls, nine AFC championships, and getting the team to the AFC Championship game 13 times, including eight years in a row from 2012 to 2018.
Vrabel Cutting All Ties to Belichick Regime: Report
But following the departure of equally legendary quarterback Tom Brady before the 2020 season, the Patriots and Belichick lost their way, winning just 29 games and losing 39, including the only playoff game of the post-Brady years, before Belichick was let go by owner Robert Kraft and replaced by Mayo.
Vrabel was hired quickly after the Patriots finished Mayo’s lone season. According to the Globe analysis by Ben Volin, the former Tennessee Titans head coach — who also played linebacker for the Belichick-coached Patriots — systematically set about dismantling what was left of the Belichick regime, and Mayo’s as well.
“A high rate of turnover is to be expected when an NFL team hires a new coach, and it’s not like the Patriots had too many parts worth saving from a team that went 4-13 each of the last two years,” Volin wrote. “But Vrabel seems to be making a point with some of his roster moves: The past is history. This is Vrabel’s team now.”
According to a prediction by Patriots analyst and host of the Locked On Patriots podcast Nick Cattles, the next to go will be the third-round pick from Belichick’s final draft, the 2023 class.
Often-Injured Belichick Draft Pick On Hot Seat
That would be strong safety — or is he a linebacker? — Marte Mapu, who was selected by Belichick out of Sacramento State.
“I don’t know what position he plays,” Cattles said on the Thursday Locked on Patriots podcast. “I don’t know what the perfect position would be for Marte Mapu. But I would be surprised if Mapu was on this team in September. The hypothetical theory of Marte Mapu overshadows the reality of Mapu.”
The problem has not exactly been Mapu’s performance. Pro Football Focus gives him an overall grade of 64.1, ranking him 83rd of 171 strong safeties receiving PFF grades. His pash rush grade of 81.2 places him ninth of 171.
“He’s super smart. Great IQ on the field. But all of that stuff, what you’re envisioning, it doesn’t come to fruition because he just can’t stay healthy,” Cattles said. “And the old saying — you can’t make the the club in the tub.”
Mapu started 2024 on the Physically Unable to Perform list with a calf injury, and later missed time with a neck ailment.
The 25-year-old has two years remaining on his four-year, $5.6 million rookie contract, but his status as a Belichick leftover together with his injury issues put him on the “hot seat,” according to Cattles.
