Breaking News: Patriots Icons Unveil Jerod Mayo’s Path to Head Coach
The Brady-Belichick era was at its peak when the Patriots found themselves in an instant classic with the Baltimore Ravens during the divisional round playoffs in the 2014 season.
Baltimore was proving a worthy adversary for the top-seeded Patriots, holding a 14-point lead not once but twice. Due to Brady’s greatness, a seldom-used ineligible receiver trick, and a double-pass with receiver Julian Edelman connecting on a 51-yard touchdown to Danny Amendola, the Patriots rallied from two double-digit deficits.
As was tradition, the legendary quarterback threw a picture-perfect touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell for the game-winning score, which Brady says is one of his top-10 throws in his Hall of Fame career.
Although it was Brady’s late-game heroics and Belichick’s brilliant tactics that put the Patriots into a then-fourth consecutive AFC Championship Game, it was on the sideline during that memorable win where the first seeds were planted on Jerod Mayo’s path to a career in coaching.
Mayo’s season ended three months earlier when he suffered a significant knee injury in a win over the Bills. The Patriots linebacker only appeared in six games in his seventh season after being selected in the first round by New England in the 2008 NFL Draft. However, he was helping his teammates as another set of eyes for a star-studded defense.
During his rehab process, Mayo’s relationship with then-coaching assistant Steve Belichick grew. Mayo would help Belichick with special projects by reviewing film as the duo scouted future opponents. On that electrifying Saturday night, Mayo, Microsoft Surface tablet in hand, showed his teammates how the Ravens were attacking the Patriots run defense.
“In 2014, when he got hurt, I remember being in the Baltimore game. He’s just coming up to us non-stop with the Surface [tablet] showing us what’s going on in the game, how Baltimore was kind of doing some things against us in the run game,” franchise legend Devin McCourty told Patriots.com.” That was the balance of keeping it light and keeping guys ready to go. But also the Xs and Os and the player type and understanding the game can get you from both sides. I think that fully embodies who Jerod is.”
Nine years after New England’s run to a fourth Super Bowl championship in 2014, Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft introduced Mayo as the franchise’s 15th head coach. The heir to Bill Belichick, the greatest coach of all-time, earned the job as the youngest current head coach in the NFL (37) and without the organization interviewing a single other candidate — a succession plan from Belichick years in the making.
To those who know him best, it wasn’t surprising that Mayo rose through the ranks in the Patriots organization to head coach.
“He’s always been a coach to me on the field. But now it’s stamped, it’s labeled, he’s the coach now. He’s not putting the pads on. He’s really the coach, and now he’s the head coach,” former defensive standout Jamie Collins said.
“He’s just somebody people gravitate towards,” Dont’a Hightower explained. “He not only leads by example, he also has the vocal aspect of it, too. Mayo has a great message and does a great job of delivering that message.”
“I’m not surprised one bit that we are sitting here talking about this. That man was born for this. He was born to be the New England Patriots head coach,” former linebacker Brandon Spikes stated emphatically.
From the outside looking in, Mayo’s rapid hiring might’ve seemed unorthodox. However, as described by his former teammates, some of whom played for him over the last five seasons as a linebackers coach, Mayo was always on the fast track to being the Patriots next head coach.
Following a booming trend around the league, the Patriots are the latest team to hire a former player as head coach to relate to modern athletes.
Mayo’s playing journey began at Kacoughtan High School in Hampton, Virginia, where he earned three Varsity letters by playing linebacker and running back. Mayo was a four-star recruit, committing to play his college football at the University of Tennesee for legendary Vols coach Phillip Fulmer. Mayo was already a known commodity for his future teammates in New England.
“I’m from Tennessee. I watched Mayo whenever he was in Tennessee. He was one of the guys that I really liked watching. So, to come in and play with him was surreal, like playing with an idol. Someone you look up to,” Hightower said.
Spikes, a standout at the University of Florida, painted a picture of what it was like to go against Mayo in their collegiate days. The First-Team All-SEC linebacker caught the eye of the Gators coaching staff in the yearly showdowns between the two SEC rivals.
“When we were preparing for them, I remember Urban [Meyer] talking in the team room about what we needed to do to take care of business. One of them was to stay away from Jerod Mayo,” Spikes recalled. “He was just like an impact player, man. Everybody knew he was gonna make his plays. Just try to contain him. Make sure he didn’t beat you and make a huge play to beat us. Stay away from him, and we should be able to do what we need to do. But we let him get going, and it’s gonna be a long day.”
“You got all these skills. What? You couldn’t get one win against Florida when you’re this gifted and talented? I used to tease him all the time,” Spikes laughed about his playful jabs at Mayo.
After starring for the Vols, the Patriots selected Mayo with the tenth overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. The Hampton, Virginia native would go on to win Defensive Rookie of the Year, earned First-Team All-Pro honors while leading the NFL in tackles in 2010, made two Pro Bowls, and was a Super Bowl champion with the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX.
“He was like a coach on the field. I never forget Matt Patricia, Pepper Johnson, and Bill [Belichick] going over corrections and stuff. Mayo had already told me half the stuff while we were jogging off the field. Like we need to do this, this, and that. He just spit stuff out. He processed stuff a lot faster than most players,” Spikes added.
It also didn’t take long for Mayo to become a leader in the Patriots locker room, being named a team captain in just his second season. With the captaincy came complete control of Bill Belichick’s defense. As is customary for many middle linebackers in a leadership role, Mayo was truly the quarterback on that side of the ball.
“I remember sitting in a meeting, Bill’s like, I don’t care what the check is and what you think we’re supposed to be in: we don’t do anything until Mayo puts us in it. Don’t check it unless Mayo checks it. I’m like, but I mean, we can all see it. But again, that was the command he had, and he didn’t make mistakes,” said McCourty.
Mayo’s on-field accolades speak for themselves, with four seasons accumulating over 100 tackles, Pro Bowls, and Super Bowl championships. However, his infectious leadership behind the scenes impacted his teammates, coaches, and, eventually, those who played for him in New England.
Mayo made an immediate imprint on those around him in the facility. One might expect the Patriots aura to stem from Belichick and Brady, and it did to an extent, but there was a different larger-than-life character for those on the defensive side of the ball.
“When I first got there, he was the man. It was Mayo, Mayo, Mayo,” Collins reminisced. “I had no worries about who my leaders were because Mayo was Mayo all day, every day.”
Along those same lines, many Patriots past and present put McCourty in an upper-echelon of leaders and role models that have walked through the halls of Gillette Stadium. As a high-character individual on and off the field himself, McCourty, who was drafted by the Patriots two years after Mayo, credited the current Pats head coach for being his role model in football.
“For me, when I got in the locker room. I know what my goal was. My goal is to have the same kind of impact he had on the team,” McCourty said. “If you play defense, Mayo was the guy you wanted to be like. Mayo was the guy that ran the huddle. He told everybody where they line up. If you had a question, you went to him.”
Even for Brady, it was clear who was top dog to Coach Belichick. In an old All-Access clip that has surfaced since Mayo was promoted to head coach, host Scott Zolak asked a group of big-name Pats who had the most clout in the locker room.
“If we want something done, we go to Jerod Belichick,” Brady jokingly said, with Matt Light referring to Mayo as Belichick’s “son” as Kevin Faulk laughed at the playful jabs by his teammates.
Mayo’s gravitas in a room full of alpha’s stood out even to the greatest quarterback ever. As a young player entering the NFL, Collins recalled that, upon arrival to Foxborough, it wasn’t the Brady-Belichick mystique but rather the Mayo effect that got him to buy into the Patriot Way.
“I’ve always heard all the things about what went down with the Patriots with the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady situation. But when I first got there, it wasn’t even that it was just our linebacker room,” Collins explained. “Tom Brady and Bill are the greatest at what they do. But, for me, when I walked into the linebacker room, I saw Jerod Mayo, Brandon Spikes, a young [Dont’a Hightower]. That’s what I was looking at. That linebacker room was special.”
“Mayo taking me under his wing like do this, do that. Normally, I have a problem with stuff like that. But after hanging with a guy like Mayo, it was easy,” Collins continued.
Mayo’s impact on those around him was seismic, extending to the meeting rooms as well, a precursor of things to come where Mayo would be leading his own meetings as a coach on the Patriots staff.