Kraft did the only thing he could do after Jerod Mayo firing. He took the blame for the "situation" and set out to fix his fallen franchise.

He fired Mayo, his hand-picked successor to Bill Belichick, and leapt back into the unknown; a leap that left the rest of the Patriots hanging, with the future of every coach and front-office member suspended until further notice. With all eyes on him, Kraft must now stick the landing.

When Robert Kraft hired Jerod Mayo a year ago, he felt he’d identified the right person to follow Bill Belichick.