The Patriots will name Jerod Mayo as their next head coach, sources confirmed.
Adam Schefter first reported the news.
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UPDATE: Patriots have set a Noon Wednesday press conference at the G-P Atrium at Gillette Stadium. Robert and Jonathan Kraft will also speak.
Release:
The New England Patriots have called an introductory press conference at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 17 to formally introduce Jerod Mayo as the team’s 15th head coach in franchise history.
In 2019, Mayo returned to the Patriots when he joined Bill Belichick’s staff as the inside linebackers coach. In his five seasons with the Patriots, the defense finished in the top-10 in total defense four times. Under Mayo’s tutelage in his first coaching season, Dont’a Hightower earned his second career Pro Bowl nod and the defense finished No. 1 in the NFL in total defense (275.9 yards per game) and scoring (14.1 points allowed per game). Without a defensive coordinator by title in the past five seasons, Mayo’s role and responsibilities grew each year. Last season, the defense ranked seventh overall in yards allowed.
Mayo was originally drafted by the Patriots in the first round (10th overall) of the 2008 draft out of Tennessee and spent his entire NFL career in New England before retiring following the 2015 season. Mayo played linebacker and appeared in 103 games during his career, racking up 905 total tackles. He was named captain for seven consecutive seasons (2009-15) and is a 2014 Super Bowl Champion.
Following his retirement in 2015, Mayo served as an executive in finance at Optum as vice president of business development before returning to the Patriots in 2019.
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Mayo, 37, will be introduced next week as the franchise's 15th head coach. The Patriots can forgo the normal hiring process in regard to the Rooney Rule because they inserted succession language into his contract before this season. This was last done with the Ravens and Eric DeCosta in 2019 when Ozzie Newsome retired in 2019.
"I feel like I'm prepared. I feel like I'm ready," Mayo said earlier this month when asked if he wanted to be a head coach. "I feel like I can 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 how I think about it. I feel like my calling is to develop."
BEDARD'S ANALYSIS
- Don't mind up where they ended up, don't like the process.
- The Patriots, for the first time in 25 years, had a chance to look out around the NFL, evaluate how every team does things to decide on their future ... and they didn't look beyond their backyard.
- In every other succession circumstance in avoiding the Rooney Rule, (Eric DeCosta and Ozzie Newsome in 2018; Jim Caldwell and Tony Dungy in 2008; Jim Mora Jr and Mike Holmgren in 2008) these were planned retirements and those successors were hugely in demand, especially DeCosta and Mora - they had standing. They both had standing offers from other teams. Robert Kraft gave that provision to Mayo before he even did the initial interview with the Panthers.
If Mayo had a standing offer to be a head coach elsewhere, then absolutely give him the language in the contract. And I get the succession plan.
Absent that, play it out. There are other fish in the sea, especially at this time in the NFL.
Also, if they had this, why not announce it like every other place?
- This also violates the spirit of the Rooney Rule, which the Patriots have now never been subject to (Bill Belichick pre-dated it). Yes, I know they are hiring their first black head coach and that is terrific. But the Rooney Rule is not about the end result, it's about exposing the best minority candidates to the most owners.
For example, let's say Eric Bienemy and Raheem Morris were brought in at this time. First of all, you never know what is going to happen. Mayo could bomb and quit in a year, and now you already have background with two minority candidates. What if both of them absolutely knock the socks off the Krafts, they relate that to some of their fellow owners and that helps them land that big first job? That's the spirit of the rule.
- Why did the Krafts hire Mayo? He is very intelligent, can command a room, has a modern vision and business experience. They think he's the guy to bring the Patriots forward, similar to how they viewed Belichick in 1996 when they didn't hire him.
- This will go over big with a lot of the players, especially on defense. There's a lot more to being a head coach. A lot. How many players loved playing for Bill Belichick?
"They're going to have to hire five people to replace what Bill did," said one team source.
- 4-13 should have changed everything for the Krafts. Mayo succeeding Belichick now was never the plan. It was multiple years down the road. They should have opened this process up. If Mayo was the best guy at the end, all the better.
So we could be looking at largely the same setup as years past, just with Mayo for Belichick and a few tweaks? Not only is that very cheap for the Krafts, that's fairly underwhelming.
- There are definite skeptics about Mayo and this whole plan in that building. "He's sold them on being collaborative and a puppet," one said. "He's not qualified at all. How can (the Krafts) not speak to anyone else, (Mike) Vrabel - who's done it and well?"
Guess we now know why Mayo was being perceived as having nothing to worry about as the losses piled up - he didn't.
- We'll see which direction they go with personnel. Eliot Wolf is a top internal candidate. Matt Groh could stay. Trey Brown, a former Patriot scout, is a top external candidate from the Bengals with ties to Mayo.
- Bill O'Brien is expected to be Mayo's offensive coordinator.
- Who else goes if Belichick gets a head job? What does Mayo's network look like?
- The Krafts have a great track record of hiring coaches, so they get a bit of a wide berth here. But they better be right. They are passing on a great class of coaching prospects, especially Mike Vrabel, for a person who hasn't even called a defense before.
Mayo will directly compared to Belichick and Vrabel, wherever they land.
As for Mayo, he gets a clean slate to impart his vision for the football team, although he should have a shorter runway than most since he's not walking into a foreign locker room with a new vision.
Krafts have set the bar at three seasons. Clock will be ticking, although you can't get much worse than this past season.