Getty Former Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo

The Jerod Mayo era for the New England Patriots was short and not very sweet. Mayo was hired at the outset of 2024, just three days after Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired the team’s legendary coach of 24 years, Bill Belichick. But after a 4-13 season, Mayo was handed his walking papers, too.

Now, with Mayo and most of his coaching staff long gone, one leading defensive player on the Patriots offered his brutally honest take, summed up in nine words, on the difference between playing under Mayo, and new head coach Mike Vrabel.

“I was training myself, I’m not going to lie,” said edge rusher Keion White on Tuesday, when asked about the differences from last season that he sees after OTA and mandatory minicamp practices with Vrabel.

“Now, I feel like I have a coach,” the 26-year-old White, entering the third year of his four-year, $7.79 million rookie contract, added.

Keion White on a big difference this season:

“Now, I feel like I have a coach” pic.twitter.com/aKK0iD5Rnl

— Savage (@SavageSports_) June 11, 2025

Mayo Ties Rod Rust For Shortest Patriots Tenure

The 39-year-old Mayo, a former Patriots linebacker for his entire eight-year playing career from 2008 to 2015 — with a first team All-Pro honor in 2010 — had the shortest tenure of any head coach in Patriots history, dating back to the club’s founding as an original American Football League franchise in 1960.

The only other coach to last no longer than one season in New England was Rod Rust, who coached the Patriots to a 1-15 record — worst ever for the Patriots — in 1990 before being fired after that single, disastrous campaign.

The team’s dismal record in 2024, it can be credibly argued, was not entirely Mayo’s fault. The Patriots simply did not have the talent to compete at even an average level against most NFL teams. But there were other issues that prompted Kraft to give Mayo the heave-ho so soon after hiring him to replace the only coach in NFL history to win six Super Bowls.

“Patriots players publicly stated their support for Jerod Mayo, but team sources have described a poor culture with a lack of leadership that can make demanding and decisive decisions,” wrote Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald shortly after Mayo was fired.

But quality of coaching also played a role in the Patriots’ failed season, and in why Mayo was fired, according to ESPN.com Patriots reporter Mike Reiss.

“Opponents had little fear of a receiving corps with Kayshon Boutte, Kendrick Bourne and DeMario Douglas atop the depth chart,” Reiss wrote, after Mayo’s ouster. “Part of that is tied to coaching and a lack of development, as the Patriots had first-year position coaches at offensive line and receiver and didn’t see their rookies progress to become the frontline contributors they hoped they would be.”

White Also Spoke Out Last Season

One of the most glaring indications that all was not right inside the Patriots culture under Mayo also came from White, who spoke out after the Patriots had played their 14th game, with 11 losses to that point.

“I’m going to try to get through these next two games, and then figure it out after that, and see where the cards may lie for my future,” White told veteran beat writer Karen Guregian at the time. “It is what it is. You just figure out where you go … Something’s gotta change. That’s the way I feel at this point.”

Something did change. Mayo was shown the door and Vrabel was welcomed in — and White, at least at this early stage, seems much happier.