Why Mike Vrabel faces a massive task in rebuilding Patriots

The New England Patriots, apparently, are not in the business of developing coaches. They hired Mike Vrabel on Sunday morning to replace Jerod Mayo, whose tenure as New England's coach lasted shorter than one calendar year.

The appeal with Vrabel is simple: He is what the Patriots hoped Mayo might someday be. Vrabel is ready-made for playoff-level coaching, but his new team is almost as far from playoff level as a roster can get. 

Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he decided to fire Mayo because the team "regressed" over the year, with an upset over the Bengals in Week 1 but then failing to post a respectable win past that point. 

"I feel terrible for Jerod because I put him in an untenable situation," Kraft said Monday. "He just needed more time before taking the job. In the end, I'm a fan of this team first. And now, I have to go out and find a coach who can get us back to the playoffs and hopefully, championships."

There are the expectations. Laid out.

Get New England back to the playoffs. And the Super Bowl.

That's what having Bill Belichick and Tom Brady for two decades will do to an organization. Those guys set the sites as high as two men can in the NFL.

How quickly does Kraft expect Vrabel to make a playoff run?

Because this team isn't close.

At no point this season did New England look like it had the requisite talent to make the playoffs. While quarterback Drake Maye is as promising as any rookie in this year's class, he also struggled to close out games, with a handful of late turnovers that essentially ended his team's hopes of winning. 

He needed help: on the offensive line, at receiver, on the defensive line, at linebacker. 

That was obvious. But the solution isn't clear-cut.

New England had trouble