The New England Patriots named Jerod Mayo the 15th head coach in franchise history on Friday. (AP ... [+]
After moving on from Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots moved fast to announce Jerod Mayo as the 15th head coach in franchise history on Friday.
The former linebacker, who turns 38 in February, now enters 2024 as the youngest head coach in the NFL.
Mayo will be formally introduced with a 12 p.m. ET press conference next Wednesday at Gillette Stadium. But his homegrown development from a player to a coach needs no introduction in Foxborough.
The University of Tennessee product arrived in the first round of the 2008 draft at No. 10 overall. From there, Mayo went from Associated Press NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year to a team captain by his second training camp. He would hold that title with the Patriots from 2009 through 2015, retiring as a Super Bowl XLIX champion with two Pro Bowls and one first-team All-Pro honor.
“There have been very few players in my career that I’ve had the opportunity to coach that I’d say had more of an impact on the team than Jerod has from day one, which is unusual,” Belichick said at the league owners meetings back in 2016.
A member of the franchise’s latest All-Decade team, Mayo’s playing career spanned 93 starts, 802 tackles and 11 sacks to go with eight forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries and three interceptions in the regular season. His 174 tackles, including 113 solo, led the league in 2010. But the final three campaigns ended on injured reserve as he continued to mentor a young linebacker room featuring the likes of Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins.
After retiring, Mayo went outside the football realm, working as an executive in finance at Optum. It’s an experience he credited during his final video conference of the 2023 season when asked about becoming a head coach.
“I want to build an environment like that where there is a sense of psychological safety that people don’t feel handcuffed to give their opinion,” Mayo told reporters as the calendar turned to January. “And at the end of the day, when you think about just a great culture, I would say that’s a longer conversation as far as what culture actually is. Because sometimes, culture could be a retrospective way of really validating or invalidating success, right? So, ‘This team won a bunch of games. The culture must be great.’ Or, ‘This team lost a bunch of games. The culture must be bad.’ And that’s not necessarily true.
“So, I feel like I’m prepared. I feel like I’m ready. I feel like I could talk to men, women, old, young, white, Black — it doesn’t matter. And hopefully develop those people into upstanding citizens and help them evolve. That’s kind of how I think about it. I feel like my calling is to develop. And I would also say the role of a head coach is way different than the role of a coordinator. The role of a coordinator is way different than the role of a position coach. And so, I look forward to the opportunity wherever that may be.”
For Mayo, the opportunity will be where it has been. Joining New England’s staff as the inside linebackers coach in 2019, he remained in that role through 2023 while serving as a de facto co-defensive coordinator alongside play-caller Steve Belichick.
Despite a 4-13 record and injuries ranging from Pro Bowl outside linebacker Matthew Judon to rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez, the Patriots finished the year ranked ninth in terms of defensive DVOA. No unit around the league allowed fewer yards per rushing attempt than New England’s 3.3. Meanwhile, the 6.6 yards allowed per passing attempt ranked seventh. Opposing offenses totaled 33 touchdowns.
A succession plan had been in place since Mayo signed an extension last offseason. By contractually establishing the move, as NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported, it allowed an organization with the same head coach for 24 years to go forward without the standard search for another.
Turnover is ahead. So is continuity.
