Mayo: "I'm Not Trying To Be Bill" Notes On New England Presser
It is a new era in New England; Belichick is out, and Jerod Mayo is in. We had our first chance to hear what he had to say about the future of their franchise. This press conference had some juice, which is a good change of pace from the typical mumbles of Belichick pressers. No matter how great of a Head Coach he was, speaking to the media was not one of his strongest traits.
Jerod Will Differentiate Himself From Belichick
Jerod Mayo dropped some bombs during this 40-minute media session. One of the most notable things he said was
"As he's told you, look, they win a lot. They win a lot, and I love being here. I took a break, I went to Optum. I needed a break from Bill, went to Optum for about four years, and I came back." Jerod Mayo Patriots HC
Mayo was referring to when he retired in 2015, but this is sort of a direct shot at how Bill was doing things and an indicator of how Mayo might see things differently as the shot-caller. I am not saying he didn't like Bill, but it's just a philosophical difference. The next thing that stuck out to me was
"One thing you'll notice about me in our interaction as we continue to go, is I don't like echo chambers. I want people around me that are going to question my ideas or yes question the way we have done things in the past because realistically this game is a lot different than when I was drafted in 2008. At the same time, that's why I try to spend so much time developing young men and young women. I don't want to teach them what to think, I want to teach them how to think. Once we get to that point, I think we can get back to where we need to be, at the top. I'm an open book. I'm honored. I'm ready to go. I'm excited to be the next head coach of the Patriots." Jerod Mayo Patriots HC
This excites me, and I want a Head Coach and Front Office full of ideas that can come from anywhere as long as they are good and can help the team move forward and win. Belichick's way was the best for almost 20 years, but the landscape of sports has changed; the modern-day athlete doesn't operate or succeed with the same style as in 2004.
Mayo is ready to bring this Patriots team into the modern-day era of the NFL, which excites me. The echo chambers part really struck me as something that Jerod intends to change. He doesn't want, yes men. Belichick wanted things to appear as a group decision with tons of input, but these quotes tell a different story.
The other point in that quote that makes me happy is the development part; all of these teams, like the 49ers, Ravens, Bills, and Chiefs, have been fantastic at developing their talent both on and off the field.
That is where we need to be from a front office and personnel standpoint. Much of what Mayo can do as an HC is unknown, but these are appealing messages to start this new era of Patriots football. Moving on to some other things that were said in the presser.
Mayo Will Bring His Own Staff To New England
"Obviously, the staff that I've been working with isn't the staff that I have chosen, but everything is under evaluation. One thing I would say with all of my coaches, the number one thing is developing people, and with this generation -- back when I first started playing, most of the time Coach would say something and guys would do it. I think with this generation, you have to show them that you care about them before you get into competency as far as Xs and Os are concerned..... But to me, whether we're talking offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, all that stuff is under eval, and my number one thing is I want to bring in developers." Jerod Mayo Patriots HC
This expands on what he was talking about he was talking about earlier in the presser: how to reach and connect with these modern-day athletes. It seems to me that this was another dig at Belichick and how, towards the end, players had much pushback on this team and how they were being motivated.
Mayo brought up the word "developers," which makes me happy because this team has lacked for years. The Patriots haven't signed a draft pick from the first three rounds to a second contract since Duron Harmon. This is a massive problem for the team and something that needs to be fixed moving forward.
Another crucial detail about this quote is that all of the coordinators have yet to be decided on; Mayo has a chance to bring in his staff and build this thing up correctly. The biggest thing that makes me nervous is that New England is looking to keep their GM in-house if possible. I'd prefer someone from a team who's had great success in the draft. However, I have no say in this naturally.
For me, I'm not trying to be Bill. I'm not trying to be Bill. I think that Bill is his own man. If you can't tell by now, I'm a little bit different even up here. But what I will say is the more I think about lessons I've taken from Bill, hard work works. Hard work works, and that's what we're all about.
Jerod is obviously going to share some of the same philosophies as Bill Belichick due to playing for him for seven years and spending five years as a coach on his staff. It is a good thing to pull some of those qualities and mix them with his own methods.
Mayo has to get the most out of his guys and execute an excellent defensive scheme in year one, and the offense needs a total rehaul, but this is a great offseason to get some promising pieces on that side. The last quote I'll pull is directly about the offense.
"Yeah, you know, first of all, I would say just the energy, the passion, the leaders on the offensive side of the ball. I think you have to get that stuff in place. Honestly, as the season starts to roll, this season when it ends, we start in the weight room. I think the weight room is one of the most important areas in the building to really evaluate the people you have on your team. One thing we don't want to do is have people who are complainers or finger pointing or things like that.... I don't want to just talk about offense, but that's across the board. Special teams, defense and offense. You want your players to have a sense of accountability. You want your players to have a sense of commitment. You want your players to, when they walk out the door, you're not worried about the decisions that they're going to make outside of this building. Once again, I think we have a good foundation. We have a good foundation, and my thing here over the next few weeks is to rebuild some relationships, knock down silos, and collaborate. That's what I'm focused on."
This is directed to the offense as a whole but not every offensive member, if I would have to hypthosize it was too Mac Jones, DeVante Parker, Trent Brown. These guys just never seemed to pull it all together, Jones tried but ultimately started showing the cracks with on field temper tantrums, questionable press conference respones and honesty bad QB play.
DeVante Parker lost a lot of respect after the Vegas game, he dropped that ball and he hid from it instead of being a leader and owning up to it. Parker was supposed to elevate this offense and he ended up throwing it under the bus whenever he would make a mistake. He also got a pricey extension at the beginning of 2023 which he never deserved or lived up to.
Trent Brown has always been a guy who’s effort could wan and wax like the moon, so Bill decided to give him a raise and lay more money in incentives to try and get the best out of him but like most of his career he took what he was orginally getting witht he raise and turned in another subpar effort with a handful of cryptic tweets shading the organization.
Mayo isnt going to tolerate that type of behavior and nor should he, but the difference between him and Bill (towards the end) is supposedly going to be his ability to connect to players and have them want to give everything they have for him.
End Of Rant
Obviously we can know exactly how Mayo will be coaching this team or if he will be successful in doing it by one press conference but it was nice to have a media day with some juice in it. Mayo is well spoken and brings energy, he seems like he wants to take this and make the Patriots his own.
If they play anything like he did we will have a smart, disciplined, tough and frankly explosive football team. I just hope he brings the fun and excitement back to the New England Patriots.