The only reason — The ONLY REASON — the Patriots could consider bringing back both Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf is that Robert Kraft doesn’t want to admit he blew it.

Simply put, this leadership combination didn’t work. Running it back would be another sign of a franchise in disarray.

Sunday’s lopsided loss to the Cardinals was the latest evidence proving it. Arizona isn’t a good team, and the Patriots weren’t even competitive with them.

Jacksonville, Tennessee and the Jets are a combined 10-32 and three of their wins are against the Patriots. New England has eight losses against teams that entered the weekend with a losing record. They have three wins against the third-weakest schedule in the NFL.

They’re more watchable, but as an overall package, the Patriots worse than last year.

The Patriots can get rid of Wolf and keep Mayo. They can fire Mayo and keep Wolf or they can boot both of them. They cannot stand pat and hope that a shakeup of coordinators/assistant coaches/other front officer personnel magically fixes the problem.

Kraft’s ego put him in this spot. Overcommitting to Mayo whenever he put the head-coach-in-waiting clause in his contract was a mistake. Not conducting a search for both gigs after firing Bill Belichick was a massive blunder.

Worse, he’s drawn attention to it. Kraft told anyone with a platform about the moment on his trip to Israel when the belief came to him that Mayo was a great leader of men. He was praising Mayo, but he was boasting. Kraft touted his success in choosing Belichick and implied that he had this sixth sense about recognizing future football greatness.

In the 15 weeks that have followed, Mayo has made a bunch of strategic, first-time coach mistakes and struggled to present his public message correctly as he’s walked back several press conference comments.

Wolf’s errors in roster construction have been even more glaring, making it a wasted year developmentally. The offensive line has been overmatched. Their best wide receivers would be No. 3 or 4 on most teams’ depth charts, and the others barely belong on practice squads. Drake Maye looks terrific, and Wolf deserves some credit for not either trading down or picking J.J. McCarthy, but the quarterback’s progress has been hampered too by the absence of building blocks around him.

Either Mayo and his staff have done a bad job of developing Wolf’s signings and draft picks or Wolf and the front office didn’t give Mayo enough talent to be competitive with. Obviously, both could be true.

Asking a first-time head coach, two first-time play callers, a rookie quarterback and a first-time general manager to succeed together looks more and more short-sighted by the week. Stacking their mistakes on top of one another has created chaos.

Kraft wouldn’t look dumb for making a change. In fact, he’d look wise for realizing this isn’t working and for being willing to fix the problem even if it negates his earlier big talk. He’ll look much dumber for doubling down on a mistake.

The Patriots need to add someone or more than one someone with real experience and success outside of the organization.

After Sunday’s loss, New England is in position to pick third in the 2025 Draft. Assuming the teams ahead of them pick quarterbacks, New England would have their pick of any other player available, including Heisman winner Travis Hunter.

Is this coaching staff capable of creating a plan to get the most out of the unique receiver/cornerback talent?

Or they could trade down for more draft picks to fill more holes. But is this personnel department capable either of getting enough in that trade or making the right choices with the additional picks?

If he’s honest with himself, Kraft should be concerned about the answer to both questions and act with wisdom.