The Patriots spent Tuesday interviewing Chicago Bears interim coach Thomas Brown for their vacant post, MassLive confirmed. Brown was first promoted to offensive coordinator when the Bears fired Shane Waldron, and later was named interim head coach after Matt Eberflus was let go.

Pats fans were rooting for him. But as verbal missteps continued, it became obvious Mayo lacked the proper amount of head-coach training.

As a former player, coach Mike Vrabel always had connections to the New England Patriots organization, and that was probably enough to get him a coaching job with the team earlier. However, he felt a need to leave New England and build his own path to an eventual