Jerod Mayo is no longer the New England Patriots head coach as Robert Kraft and the front office are set to begin their first real head coaching search in 25 years. The Patriots fired Mayo shortly after their win in Sunday’s season finale against the Buffalo Bills. The victory was just the fourth of Mayo’s first and only season as head coach, but it also cost New England the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Mayo’s one-year stint was a disaster. New England went 4-13 and regressed nearly everywhere except at quarterback, with Mayo commonly making in-game and podium gaffes that made it easy to question if he was ready for the job.

The way the 2024 season went should serve as a reminder for the Patriots and the Krafts of what they must look for in their next head coach, prioritizing candidates with prior head coaching experience.

So, here are the five best candidates to replace Mayo.

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson

Many lists are going to have Ben Johnson as one of the top candidates or the top candidate to replace Mayo. The Patriots should certainly give the Lions offensive coordinator strong consideration for the role considering the work he’s done in Detroit over the last few seasons, resurrecting Jared Goff’s career and making them one of the highest-scoring offenses in the league since he took over.

Johnson’s offensive creativity would certainly give the organization a boost, too. The Patriots offense has been no better than 26th in yards in each of the last three seasons, finishing as one of the few worst offenses in each of the last two years. It could certainly be argued that their personnel was a major reason for that, but their coaching often lacked inspiration and creativity on that side of the ball as well. So, it’s easy to think that Johnson is the head coaching candidate who could get the most out of the offense.

But Johnson lacks any head coaching experience, which knocks him down a few pegs on this list. Designing and calling offensive plays at a high level is one thing. Being able to do that while also commanding a whole locker room and having to manage a game on both sides of the ball effectively is another thing.

Ideally, the Patriots should try to avoid hiring a head coach who’ll have to learn those things in Year 1. Still, Johnson’s offensive background is so strong that they could overlook that.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman

No, Marcus Freeman has never been a head coach at the NFL level. In fact, he’s never coached at the NFL level.

However, Freeman has shown that he can be a strong culture builder and game manager over his three seasons at Notre Dame. The soon-to-be 39-year-old head coach has helped the Fighting Irish win games that their most recent former coaches struggled to win. It was also clear from the start of his tenure ahead of the 2022 season that Freeman was a popular and well-respected figure within the program at South Bend. When it was announced that Freeman was replacing Brian Kelly in December 2021, the players were more than excited.

On the field, Freeman recently outsmarted two-time national champion and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart in the Sugar Bowl.

Moments like that show Freeman’s attention to detail and his ability to manage games at a high level, something that the Patriots’ coaching staff lacked in 2024.

Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury

Kliff Kingsbury’s tenure with the Arizona Cardinals didn’t end on a great note, but he helped turn around a franchise that was pretty irrelevant for a few years. Arizona was on an upward trajectory through the first few seasons that Kingsbury was at the helm, improving the team’s record by at least two wins in that stretch. The Cardinals went 8-8 in his second season before an 11-5 year in Year 3.

Over that time, Kyler Murray played the best football of his career. Kingsbury helped him become one of the league’s best dual-threat quarterbacks with the Cardinals’ offense ranking as one of the best in the league in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

After getting fired by the Cardinals at the end of a 2022 season where nearly everything went wrong (Murray suffering a season-ending injury and multiple key players showing their signs of age), Kingsbury proved this season that he can still coordinate an offense at a high level. The Commanders were seventh in yards and fifth in scoring this season after ranking in the bottom 10 in both stats in 2023.

Of course, that turnaround was in large part due to Jayden Daniels. He’ll likely win Offensive Rookie of the Year after throwing for 3,530 yards and 25 touchdowns to go with 864 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns in the regular season. Daniels was obviously talented, but not many people thought he’d be this good right away and help the Commanders make the playoffs as a rookie.

That’s a credit to Kingsbury’s ability to develop quarterbacks, something he’s proven he can do since he was an assistant coach in the college game. Drake Maye’s development should be one of the few priorities in this head coach search. Kingsbury might be the best quarterback developer available among the possible head coach candidates.

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores

One of the other few candidates with previous ties to the Patriots, Brian Flores has proven to be one of the NFL’s best defensive minds since his days as an assistant in New England. He served as the Patriots’ de facto defensive coordinator in their last Super Bowl-winning season and has helped the Vikings become of the best defenses in the league since he became their defensive coordinator in 2023.

Of course, Flores has head coaching experience, too. He went 24-25 over three seasons as the Miami Dolphins head coach, with a talentless roster in his first season (5-11) that pushed that record below .500.

The big thing surrounding Flores, though, was his treatment of Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins quarterback made it clear that Flores treated him harshly to the point that it affected his ability to perform.

Has Flores learned his lesson? He seemed to recognize that he could’ve handled the situation better when he was asked about Tagovailoa’s comments back in August.

“Look, I’m human,” Flores told reporters at the time. “So that hit me in a way that wasn’t … positive for me. But at the same time, I’ve got to use that and say, ‘Hey, how can I grow from that? How can I be better?’ And that’s really where I’m at from that standpoint. Do I feel like that’s me? No. But how can I grow from that situation and create a world where that’s not the case that anyone says that about Brian Flores?”

If Flores has learned from that and can be an effective leader for Maye, his track record should make him one of the best candidates for this job.

Former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel

Mike Vrabel’s got a résumé that very few have on the open market. He often helped the Titans overachieve, leading them to an AFC Championship Game as the No. 6 seed in 2019. They won the AFC South a year later and were the No. 1 seed in the conference in 2021 despite a less-than-stellar year from Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry missing some time due to injury.

The last two seasons weren’t great for Vrabel in Tennessee, but that could easily be explained due to the talent drain. They were in position to win the AFC South late in the 2022 season before Tannehill suffered a season-ending injury that year and had poor quarterback play in 2023.

Vrabel’s also shown his excellence as a game manager as well. His most notable instance of outsmarting the opposing coach actually came in a playoff game against the Patriots, doing it to the point that Bill Belichick was visibly upset.

The one thing that Vrabel doesn’t have going for him is his defensive background. However, with rumors suggesting that Josh McDaniels is attached to be his offensive coordinator wherever he ends up, Vrabel would have a good plan in place to help develop Maye.