Henry McKenna
AFC East Reporter
The New England Patriots were getting into a competitive 7-on-7 drill during OTAs on Wednesday, and first-year head coach Jerod Mayo was practically standing in his old position, inside linebacker.
Mayo, in his Patriots-issued blue T-shirt and shorts, stood right in the middle of his defense while it attempted to stop quarterback Jacoby Brissett, receiver Tyquan Thornton, tight end Hunter Henry & Co. It was a good vantage point for the coach — albeit unorthodox.
If Bill Belichick ever stood there, I wasn’t at the practice to witness it. He spent most of his time watching from behind the defense or from the sideline — and often at an intentionally extreme distance. But Belichick never played inside linebacker at the NFL level. So it makes all the sense in the world that Mayo might feel more comfortable in the middle of everything, as he once was as a player.
It marks one of the subtle differences developing between Belichick and Mayo.
Mayo has been careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Belichick won six Super Bowls, after all. Mayo played his entire eight-year NFL career for Belichick and then worked under him as a Patriots assistant. There’s a lot that Belichick taught Mayo — about football and about coaching — that will help New England succeed in this new era. But we’ve seen over and over again that no one has succeeded by imitating Belichick. Look at Matt Patricia, Josh McDaniels, Joe Judge, Bill O’Brien, Romeo Crennel and so many others.
Mayo is attempting to do something a little different: Re-create Belichick’s success without re-creating Belichick.
How does Mayo stay true to himself?
“This is me,” Mayo said Wednesday before practice. “I do change. I am still evolving. I’m evolving as a head coach. This isn’t the final form of Jerod Mayo, the head coach. I have only been doing this now for a couple months, so we’ll see how it is going forward. But…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/can-patriots-jerod-mayo-re-create-bill-belichicks-success-his-own-terms
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Publish date : 2024-05-30 13:34:40
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