Breer: Patriots head coach search ‘looks like a sham’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The New England Patriots wasted little time searching for a new head coach after firing Jerod Mayo on Sunday. They appear poised to quickly find their replacement, but how they’ve handled the process hasn’t sat well with The MMQB’s Albert Breer.
They began their search by requesting an interview with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. On Tuesday, they interviewed Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton for the position. Their interview with rumored frontrunner Mike Vrabel is scheduled for Thursday.
By interviewing Leftwich and Hamilton, the Patriots have satisfied the NFL’s Rooney Rule. The rule requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation jobs.
Breer believes that for the Patriots, those interviews were conducted simply to check a box so they could cut the line of teams interested in hiring Vrabel. He ripped New England for that approach during Tuesday’s Early Edition.
“It looks like a sham. I mean, I’ll call it what I think it is,” Breer said of the Patriots’ head coach search. “Those are two guys — and all due respect to Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich — I think they struggled to get coordinator jobs this year. And for people who don’t know the mechanics of the rule, you have to have at least two in-person interviews with diverse candidates, and you are not allowed to interview anybody who is working for a team, playoff or otherwise. … So the reason you would do this and hustle two guys in who aren’t working for teams right now is because that’s the only way to check that box so you can actually go forward with hiring somebody.
“This is very clearly flouting the rule. And look, we can argue about how valid the rule is and everything else. What gives the Patriots the right to do this? They haven’t had a legitimate coaching search in 25 years. The Rooney Rule didn’t exist 25 years ago, so you can say the rule sucks and maybe it does, but what gives you the right not to have to jump through all the hoops that everybody else has for two decades?”
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NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots insider Phil Perry added that the Patriots would prefer to end their search by the end of the week. Breer didn’t mince words about the franchise continuing to sidestep a genuinely thorough search for a new head coach.
“I think it’s complete garbage,” he said. “Like, what gives you the right to skip the process that the Raiders have to go through, that the Bears have to go through, the Jets have to go through? Teams that are competing for him. What gives you the right to jump the line? Just because you have a relationship with him? Well, the Raiders do too. The Raiders have Tom Brady and Richard Seymour there. So what gives you the right to jump in front of all these other teams?
“You’re worried about losing him? Well, if you have that strong of a relationship with him, you shouldn’t be worried about losing him. You should go through the whole process like the Chargers did last year when they knew they were going to hire Jim Harbaugh, probably from the jump. They still interviewed 15 head coaching candidates. They interviewed nine general manager candidates. … Again, it’s like putting yourself in a different — it’s, ‘We’re not subject to the rules which this organization, we should note, has had problems with in the past.’
As Breer notes, the Patriots have had the privilege of not having to undergo a legitimate head coach search since they hired Belichick in 2000. They hired Mayo one day after announcing Belichick’s departure last winter.
It’s no surprise they’re seemingly expediting the process in hopes of landing Vrabel. The former Patriots linebacker has enjoyed some success in his first stint as a head coach with the Tennessee Titans. As a player, he helped New England to three Super Bowl titles and was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2023.
That said, the Patriots will have competition for Vrabel’s services. The New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, and Las Vegas Raiders are among the teams expected to be in the mix to hire him. The Raiders fired head coach Antonio Pierce on Tuesday, leaving the door open for Vrabel to sit down with his former Pats teammates Tom Brady and Richard Seymour, who became minority owners in the Vegas franchise last year.
