Patriots fire coach Jerod Mayo shortly after beating Bills to finish his lone season at 4-13

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Patriots fire coach Jerod Mayo shortly after beating Bills to finish his lone season at 4-13

2025-01-06 09:59 Last Updated At：10:11

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The New England Patriots fired coach Jerod Mayo on Sunday after one season, beginning another reboot for the franchise just a year after it parted with longtime coach Bill Belichick.

Owner Robert Kraft announced the firing in a statement shortly after New England closed its 4-13 season with a 23-16 win over the Buffalo Bills.

“After the game I informed Jerod Mayo that he will not be returning as the head coach of the New England Patriots in 2025. For me, personally, it was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made,” Kraft said. “Unfortunately, the trajectory of our team's performances throughout the season did not ascend as I had hoped.”

Kraft was set to discuss the move in a news conference on Monday.

A former Patriots linebacker who worked as an assistant under Belichick, Mayo started the season with a strong endorsement from Kraft. But alongside a coaching staff that featured offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and first-time defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington, he struggled to get the most out of a young roster that included rookie quarterback Drake Maye.

The Patriots opened the season with a win at Cincinnati before losing their next six games. They won two of their next three but then closed the season by losing six of seven, missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season. Belichick was 4-13 in his final season in 2023 to cap a 24-year run in New England that included six Super Bowl titles.

Mayo played eight seasons with New England and won a Super Bowl during the 2014 season. He took a post-retirement job in corporate America in 2015, then returned to football in 2019 to work with Belichick. He served primarily as the Patriots' linebackers coach while developing a strong reputation among players.

It made him a rising star in the coaching ranks and he turned down several interviews for head coaching jobs following the 2022 season, instead signing an extension to remain in New England.

A week after letting Belichick go, the Patriots hired Mayo as the franchise’s first Black head coach. At age 37, he started the season as the NFL’s second-youngest coach behind Seattle’s Mike Macdonald.

From the beginning of his tenure, Mayo tried to establish a culture that differed from Belichick’s often robotic devotion to football — a move that drew praise from players.

Yet, it didn’t translate into victories for a team that was ranked near the bottom of the NFL offensively and defensively and went 3-6 in one-score games.

Kraft could turn to another former Patriots linebacker in Mike Vrabel, the former Tennessee Titans coach who recently interviewed with the New York Jets for their coaching vacancy. Vrabel was a pivotal part of the Patriots’ first three Super Bowl titles during his eight seasons, and he led the Titans to three playoff appearances in six years before he was fired after the 2023 season.

After Sunday's win and before Mayo's firing was announced, players praised the job he did this season.

“He’s stayed consistent,” cornerback Jonathan Jones said. “The effort from the guys today showed just how no matter what the situation is, how he can get guys to go out there and fight.”

Veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett said coming together under a new coaching staff was a challenge for everyone.

“First year for head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, (general manager). People don't understand all that," Brissett said. “But good things take time. It's not like Rome was built in a day. ... The word that people don't want to use is patience. You've got to have patience with this thing.”

Yet Kraft didn't show patience with his handpicked coach.

Kraft first noticed Mayo’s confidence shortly after the Patriots drafted him 10th overall out of Tennessee in 2008.

“I remember him immediately coming up to me and saying, ‘Kraft and Mayo, they go together pretty well,’” Kraft said during Mayo’s introductory news conference last January. “Sixteen years later, here we are.”

When Mayo initially returned to Patriots in 2019, Kraft noted how he saw an even more skilled leader who hadn’t lost his ability to relate to players.

That same year, Mayo accompanied Kraft on a trip to Israel and the men grew closer. Kraft then made an internal prediction.

“I knew while observing him in Israel, he was the right person to be the next head coach of the New England Patriots,” Kraft said. “I had that same conviction when I hired Bill Belichick, a decision that many questioned at the time, and told me I was making a major error.”

But those instincts didn’t pay off, and the 83-year-old Kraft will now begin the process again to find a coach who can get the franchise back on track.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Middle East latest: Israel's military launches wave of raids across the occupied West Bank

2025-01-07 20:17 Last Updated At：20:21

The Israeli military launched a wave of raids across the occupied West Bank overnight and into Tuesday, killing at least three Palestinians it said were militants a day after a deadly shooting attack.

The army said it killed two militants in an airstrike after they fired at troops in the area of Tamun in the northern West Bank. It said another militant was killed in “close-quarters combat” in the nearby village of Taluza and an Israeli soldier was severely wounded. The military said it arrested more than 20 suspected militants.

Hamas said in a statement that one of its veteran commanders, Jaafar Dababsah, was killed by Israeli forces in the area of the two deadly raids.

It said the overnight operations were not related to Monday's shooting in which gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Israelis in the West Bank, killing two women in their 70s and a 35-year-old policeman before fleeing.

Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis, especially during the past 15 months of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Israel has launched near-nightly military raids across the West Bank that frequently trigger gunbattles with militants and have also killed civilians.

Here's the latest:

DAMASCUS, Syria — The first international commercial flight since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad last month landed Tuesday at the Damascus airport from Qatar.

Jordanian state-run Petra news agency also reported that a Royal Jordanian Airlines plane was heading to Damascus on a test flight.

The head of Syria's Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, Capt. Haitham Misto, who was on board the flight with a team of specialists, said the aim was to evaluate the condition of the Damascus airport before resuming regular flights.