When Robert Kraft stood in front of reporters on Monday to discuss his decision to fire Jerod Mayo after the Patriots final game of the 2024 season, he shared their desire to set up interviews throughout the week and find their next head coach as soon as possible.
That inevitably led to several meetings over the next few days, including Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton on Tuesday, Mike Vrabel on Thursday, and Ben Johnson on Friday.
They also requested to interview Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, another highly sought-after prospect, but it appears he declined to meet with the team and will interview with four other teams instead.
#Lions DC Aaron Glenn has declined an interview request from the #Patriots, per sources.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 9, 2025
Glenn will interview for the other five head coaching vacancies over the next few days.
This prompted a lot of conversation speculating why Glenn may have decided against interviewing with the most desirable team of all the head coaching vacancies, and it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room. The belief is that the Patriots are already focused on hiring Vrabel, who Kraft reportedly favored last year before even firing Bill Belichick, and Glenn made his rejection based on that.
The Patriots are doing themselves a disservice by giving the impression they've already decided who their next head coach will be
There was a lot of optimism heading into this week that the Patriots would conduct a thorough process to find their next head coach, especially since Kraft hand-picking Mayo clearly did not work out how they wanted. That's why the interview with Johnson feels much more important, as he is a rising star in the league and will meet with many teams for the head coaching vacancies.
Because he is still on the docket for Friday and has been picky about which teams he will meet with, it seems that Johnson doesn't feel their search has already been decided. If he thought that way, he would have likely rejected their request for an interview, just like his fellow Lions coordinator Glenn did.
There is also no indication that Vrabel has decided it's Patriots or no team since he has also been meeting with other teams, and rumors have swirled about his interest in the Raiders.
It would be a massive mistake for the Krafts to conduct this search in a way that deters potential coaches from even taking an interview, so hopefully, that's not the case. It will be a big problem if whoever they decide they want to hire turns them down, and they have to start over if other candidates are already ruling them out.
They can't afford to miss on such a big decision for the future of the team.