Is there a brand new Patriot Manner? How Jerod Mayo approaches teaching

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Robert Kraft remembers the day he knew Jerod Mayo could be Invoice Belichick’s successor as New England Patriots head coach. Kraft was ready in a non-public lounge at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, joined by previous and current Patriots gamers on the finish of a six-day journey in June 2019.

Kraft had frequently sponsored non secular visits to Israel, bringing Professional Soccer Corridor of Famers who’ve described being baptized within the Jordan River and visiting holy websites in Jerusalem as transformative.

This journey was totally different. Devoted solely to Patriots players from all eras of his possession tenure, it remodeled Kraft’s future imaginative and prescient for the franchise.

There was a delay returning dwelling. The airport lounge was like a locker room. And Mayo was within the center, surrounded by gamers from the Nineteen Nineties reminiscent of quarterback Drew Bledsoe and cornerback and Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Ty Legislation, gamers from the early and mid-2000s together with operating again Kevin Faulk and defensive deal with Vince Wilfork, and gamers from the 2010s with cornerback Stephon Gilmore and offensive linemen David Andrews and Joe Thuney.

Kraft noticed how Mayo, who had been working for the healthcare firm Optum since his NFL retirement following the 2015 season, linked with the various group.

“What particularly received my consideration was how he organized some conferences, a dialogue. … It was with veterans and present Patriots. He had been out of the group, however that confirmed me a ability of with the ability to get alongside,” Kraft stated.

“A bell went off, and I stated, ‘That is my subsequent head coach.'”

When the Patriots take the sphere on the New York Jets on Thursday night time (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), Mayo will probably be on the sideline making his prime-time head-coaching debut. It will likely be the primary time in 25 years Belichick will not be teaching the Patriots towards an AFC East rival.

It is the start of the brand new Patriot Manner.

The variations in management between Belichick and Mayo are placing. Belichick was inflexible and intimidating to method, with relentless consideration to element that included difficult gamers with pop quizzes concerning the upcoming opponent. Mayo believes in empowering gamers and investing in them personally earlier than demanding extra on the sphere.

“It is about creating folks,” Mayo stated. “I would like these guys to play nicely each snap and win a bunch of video games. However I additionally need them to be resilient when instances are powerful. That results in the post-football profession.”

The change in tradition was intentional. Kraft believes gamers coming into the NFL reply higher to a distinct model of teaching than they did a decade in the past. On the similar time, he knew that transferring away from the old-school Belichick for a first-time head coach was a bet — particularly for a crew in the middle of a rebuild.

The early returns have been promising because the Patriots are 1-1, one thing that wasn’t anticipated from a crew ESPN’s Football Power Index projected would have the least quantity of wins this season.

The season-opening victory over the Cincinnati Bengals was the largest Week 1 upset throughout the NFL since 2018, in keeping with ESPN Analysis, with the Patriots coming into as a 7.5-point underdog.

It is a potential signal that Mayo’s means is working.

Exterior linebackers coach Drew Wilkins, who’s in his first 12 months in New England after spending a decade with the Baltimore Ravens below John Harbaugh and the previous two seasons on Brian Daboll’s New York Giants workers, described Mayo as “an ideal North Star to look as much as.”

“The main points he coaches with, the passion he brings to the room, a man who collaborates and brings constructive vitality into the constructing on daily basis, you possibly can’t ask for something greater than that,” Wilkins stated.

MAYO, 38, is youthful than Belichick’s adorned 49-year teaching profession.

He was Belichick’s first-round draft decide in 2008 out of Tennessee because the tenth choice. Mayo performed linebacker for the Patriots from 2008 to 2015 — a seven-time captain who totaled 905 tackles — then coached on Belichick’s workers from 2019 to 2023.

Some teammates referred to as Mayo “Mini Invoice” as a result of they believed he noticed the sport by a coach’s lens. Mayo lived minutes away from the crew facility as a result of he spent a lot time there — like Belichick. When gamers wished to sway Belichick on issues like altering the crew’s itinerary, they might ask Mayo to talk to him.

To Mayo, these had been moments he might show to his teammates that he had their backs. He factors to that relationship constructing as a foundational a part of his teaching model now.

Such an method appealed to Kraft, who stated at Mayo’s introductory information convention in January: “I feel we have somebody very particular who understands how one can handle younger folks immediately. The world is totally different than 20 years in the past, even 10 years in the past.”

For this reason Legislation, a former Patriot who grew to become shut with Mayo in Israel, believes Kraft made a shrewd selection.

“It’s important to have somebody in tune with that, and he understands these gamers,” Legislation stated of Mayo. “Take into consideration second- and third-round draft picks; that was once an enormous deal. Now with NIL, a few of these guys are taking a pay reduce from faculty, they’re already coming in as millionaires. It is a totally different mentality, and [Mayo is] younger sufficient to know it.”

At one level, Kraft stated he grew to become involved the Patriots would possibly lose Mayo. Then New England’s linebackers coach, Mayo was interviewed by the Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles and Las Vegas Raiders for his or her head-coaching openings in 2021 and 2022. So, earlier than the 2023 season, Kraft included a succession clause in Mayo’s contract to make him the top coach each time Belichick’s time in New England ended.

When Belichick left the Patriots in January after a 4-13 marketing campaign, they wasted no time in naming Mayo as his successor. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell later referred to as the succession clause “good administration.”

Virtually two months into the job, Mayo bumped into Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin on the NFL annual conferences in Orlando, Florida. If anybody might relate to Mayo’s new place of succeeding a legendary coach, it was Tomlin.

Tomlin, who like Mayo is from Hampton, Virginia, was employed by the Steelers in 2007 when he was 34. He succeeded Invoice Cowher (15 seasons), who himself succeeded Chuck Noll (23 seasons) — two legends who had delivered a mixed 5 Tremendous Bowl titles.

“He informed me, ‘Every single day goes to be totally different,'” Mayo recalled Tomlin saying. “He wasn’t mendacity. That is the way it’s been thus far.”

SIX DAYS BEFORE the Patriots opened the 2024 common season at Cincinnati, eight-year veteran defensive deal with Davon Godchaux wished to interview Mayo for an episode of his podcast. However Godchaux hesitated.

He by no means would have thought of asking Belichick, who usually reminded gamers to remain off social media and maintain their deal with soccer.

“I wasn’t even going to ask [Mayo] at first, however then I used to be like, ‘Why not?'” Godchaux stated. “And he is so understanding. He stated, ‘After all, something to help you.’

“It is a busy time for him, and it was a attain for me to ask. I might say so many issues, however he is supportive and caring.”

Godchaux stated he would run right into a wall for Mayo and believed his teammates would do the identical.

Mayo’s standing as a former participant has helped him within the locker room, in keeping with fifth-year security Kyle Dugger, who has noticed a crew tradition that features a few of Belichick’s core rules complemented with a Mayo twist.

“It is a variety of comparable values so far as the muse of laborious work and all-around doing our job the correct means, not stepping into the media and listening to the skin noise,” Dugger stated. “I feel the largest distinction is that the communication has been actually open and up-front from him to us — coach to participant — and him having the voices to be taken somewhat extra significantly within the locker room.”

“It is actually essential for me to really feel I’ve a voice, and he desires to understand how issues will be run higher or how he might help us.”

Dont’a Hightower, the previous New England linebacker who performed alongside Mayo for 4 seasons and is now in his first 12 months on the Patriots’ teaching workers, stated Mayo pulls no punches.

“What you see is what you get,” Hightower stated. “Ardour and function. He motivates guys to do sure issues and step exterior their consolation zones. Guys gravitated towards him when he was a participant, and so they do it now.”

KRAFT FIGURES THERE will probably be some inevitable rising pains. Along with 17 outside-the-organization coaches employed by Mayo, the roster contains 10 rookies and 12 different newcomers.

So, Kraft is measured when requested how he’ll assess the 2024 season for a franchise that was the NFL’s gold customary for practically twenty years, successful six Tremendous Bowls below Belichick.

“I do not know what is going on to occur. We are going to in all probability be in for some tough instances. However that is the way you construct. Our first 12 months with Invoice, we went 5-11,” Kraft stated. “Jerod exudes a sure confidence and has created an environment of positivity.

“I do not know what our report goes to be, however … there’s a sure connectivity and mutual respect but pushing again on each other.”

Within the fourth quarter of the Week 1 sport towards the Bengals, as New England tried to expire the clock, beginning quarterback Jacoby Brissett informed his teammates to “take them to the hill!” It was a reference to how Mayo ran lengthy, powerful coaching camp practices that completed with gamers operating up a close-by hill a number of instances, which had been a Belichick staple. It has develop into the crew motto.

“I used to be so excited listening to that from the gamers. It meant so much,” Mayo stated. “We all the time discuss taking the laborious route. That simply means all the additional issues we do, it pays off.”

In Week 2, the Patriots misplaced 23-20 in time beyond regulation to the visiting Seattle Seahawks. New England could not maintain a three-point lead late within the fourth quarter when it was accountable for the sport. The Pats had entered as a 3.5-point underdog.

“We talked about it firstly of the season — what success appears like for me — and that is getting higher each week,” Mayo stated. “Not solely the gamers, but additionally the coaches and myself.”

After the win in Cincinnati, Kraft introduced Mayo with a sport ball. Kraft hopes it will likely be the primary of many victory celebrations, which the Patriots had grown accustomed to throughout Belichick’s reign, earlier than issues tailed off in recent times.

“I actually imagine he is created an environment the place the dialogue and communication with the gamers, they are going to exit and play for him. I wish to see that effort and gamers placing out,” Kraft stated. “The [external] expectations for us should not very excessive; I would like that to tick them off, and look, we wish to win video games.

“However I feel this 12 months … will probably be nice development and lay the muse for the longer term.”