The Patriots moved swiftly after their 2024 season officially ended, firing head coach Jerod Mayo just over an hour after the final whistle of their Week 18 win over the Bills.

Now, for the second straight offseason, team owner Robert Kraft must hire a new head coach. This time, the Patriots will need to conduct a full search with multiple interviews including minority candidates to adhere to the NFL’s Rooney Rule.

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The job should be more appealing this offseason anyway, since the Patriots appear to have a franchise quarterback in 2024 third overall pick Drake Maye, over $130 million in salary cap space and the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

There’s a clear path to an improved team with the right leadership.

Here are some of the top candidates available to the Patriots:

MIKE VRABEL

It all starts with Vrabel, who was fired by the Titans after compiling a 54-45 record in six seasons as head coach.

Vrabel won three Super Bowls as a player with the Patriots from 2001 to 2008 before he was traded to the Chiefs along with Matt Cassel for a 2009 second-round draft pick.

The 49-year-old coach returned to New England during the Titans’ bye week last season to be inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame.

“I don’t want you to take this organization for granted,” Vrabel told fans. “I’ve been a lot of places. This is a special place with great leadership, great fans, great direction, and great coaching. Enjoy it. It’s not like this everywhere.”

Vrabel was not hired during the 2024 coaching carousel and spent the season with the Browns as a coaching and personnel consultant before his contract expired on Dec. 30.

He interviewed for the Jets’ head coaching vacancy this week. The Bears and Saints also fired their head coaches this season, and Vrabel is expected to be a hot candidate.

Vrabel, like Mayo, is a former Patriots player and a defensive-minded coach, but he would come with a far different demeanor and leadership style. He’s also far more experienced than Mayo, and with his connections across the NFL would be able to recruit better coordinators and assistants to New England.

The Patriots struggled to develop young players, outside of Maye, under Mayo and his staff.

BEN JOHNSON

With Maye at quarterback, it would make sense to try to hire an offensive-minded head coach to ensure that the Patriots’ young quarterback is playing under the same system for years to come.

Vrabel had two of his offensive coordinators hired away as head coaches during his tenure in Tennessee in Matt LaFleur and Arthur Smith.

Johnson, like Maye, a UNC grad, has been the Lions’ offensive coordinator since 2022.

The Lions have been top five in points and yards each year since Johnson took over as offensive coordinator. Prior to Week 18, they rank first in points and second in yards this season.

Johnson has never been a head coach at any level, but offensive-minded leaders are hot commodities in the NFL. He had some local ties, since he began his coaching career at Boston College as a graduate assistant and tight ends coach.

BRIAN FLORES

Flores began his NFL ascent as a scouting assistant with the Patriots in 2004 before moving over to coaching in 2008. He was hired away to be the Dolphins’ head coach in 2019 after serving as the Patriots’ de facto defensive coordinator as a linebackers coach in 2018, when his unit dominated the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.

Flores was 24-25 as the Dolphins’ head coach before being fired following the 2021 season. He was a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach with the Steelers in 2022 and has served as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator in 2023 and 2024.

Prior to Week 18 games, the Vikings rank fourth in points allowed and 16th in yards allowed.

Flores would have to answer for issues he had with offensive coordinators and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa before beginning work with Maye.

Flores had four offensive coordinators during his three-year stint in Miami. Tagovailoa was critical of Flores’ approach while comparing him to current Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel in an appearace on the “Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” this summer.

“To put it in simplest terms,” Tagovailoa said, “if you woke up every morning, and I told you that you suck at what you did, that you don’t belong doing what you do, that you shouldn’t be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven’t earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this. You are accurate, you are the best whatever, you are this, you are that.’ How would that make you feel, listening to one or the other? You see what I’m saying?

“And then you hear it and hear it — regardless of what it is, the good or the bad — and you hear it more and more, you start to actually believe that. I don’t care who you are. You could be the President of the United States. (If) you have a terrible person that’s telling (you) things that you don’t want to hear or probably shouldn’t be hearing, you’re gonna start to believe that about yourself. That’s sort of what ended up happening. It’s basically been two years of training that out of, not just me, but a couple of the guys as well that have been here since my rookie year all the way ’til now.”

OTHER CANDIDATES

Josh McCown: It seems risky to hire another former player who has never served as more than a position coach, but McCown, the Vikings QB coach, is offensive-minded and actually coached Maye in high school as an assistant high school football coach at Myers Park High School in Charlotte.

Aaron Glenn: The Lions are one of the top overall teams this season, and their defense ranks ninth in points allowed. He’s been a head-coaching candidate for years and could draw interest from the Jets and Saints.

Kliff Kingsbury: A former Patriots draft pick, Kingsbury has thrived with Jaylen Daniels as the Commanders’ offensive coordinator. He was 28-37-1 as the Cardinals’ head coach from 2019 to 2022.

Liam Coen: One more candidate who comes from the offensive side of the ball, Coen has served as the Kentucky offensive coordinator, Rams offensive coordinator, Kentucky offensive coordinator and Buccaneers offensive coordinator over the last four years with success at each stop along the way. The former UMass QB has led the Buccaneers to seventh in scoring and fifth in yards this season.