Bill Belichick’s time running Robert Kraft’s football team is winding down, even if we still don’t know exactly when or how the end will come for the Hoodie in New England.
Jerod Mayo’s coaching career is simultaneously taking off, even if we don’t know exactly when or how the former All-Pro linebacker will ascend to a head-coaching role.
Tuesday morning, Belichick’s weekly chat with “The Greg Hill Show” on WEEI and Mayo’s video conference with the local media gave us all the answers we needed in terms of the future of Belichick, Mayo and the Patriots. Previously uncertain things are becoming clear. Crystal clear.
After four years of organizational regression and bottoming out in this ugly-at-times, four-win season it feels like time has indeed run out on the 71-year-old Belichick’s dynastic run in New England. Kraft may have even reportedly come to that very decision while watching his team flop on its floundering face in Frankfurt in an early-November loss to the Colts. But a measured leader in both business and football, Kraft is smartly and characteristically letting things play out and keeping his options open until the final decision needs to be made, a time that is now less than a week away.
But the answer now and the answer next week is the same as the answer Kraft penciled in last winter when the octogenarian owner went public with his retention of and affinity for the 37-year-old Mayo. He made it clear then that the times were a changing in New England and the time for change is now.
Forget the talk-radio rhetoric declaring that if you want to move on from Belichick you need to cut ties with all things connected to the future Hall of Fame coach who was the coaching foundation of two decades of success.
Rather, remember the lesson learned by Kraft himself in the mid-90s when he wanted to hire Belichick in the wake of Bill Parcells’ departure but felt a need to cut ties with anyone that still had the stench of Tuna on them. Three years later, after watching his team spin its post-Super Bowl wheels under Pete Carroll like a rear-wheel drive pickup on a hill in an ice storm, Kraft hired Belichick and a dynasty was soon to follow.
Now, Kraft is supposed to make the same mistake again? Supposed to question his apparent and publicly-voiced support for Mayo simply because he played for and coached under Belichick? Like that’s a bad thing? What in the illogical hell are we considering doing?
Mayo is the guy Kraft has seemingly wanted to be the heir to Belichick for a while now and Mayo is the guy who reminded the world why on Tuesday.
It wasn’t just his head-on defense of recent reports that the young assistant has supposedly rubbed some people the wrong way in the football offices of Gillette Stadium. But Mayo did defend himself in an open, raw and direct way that Belichick never would.
“It was hurtful,” Mayo acknowledged before revealing that he turned the nameless, behind-the-scenes backstabbing into a positive. “It actually helped me. It kind of triggered a period of self-reflection.”
That honest Mayo response came just hours after Belichick interestingly dodged, sidestepped and deflected a direct question about his top defensive assistant and his role leading New England’s defense that’s been the obvious strength of the team all season despite playing without stars Matthew Judon and rookie Christian Gonzalez.
“I think all of our defensive coaches have done a really good job," Belichick said. “Collectively, they work together. It's hard to single everybody out because they work so well together as a total group."
Guess Belichick was too focused on the season and maybe his New England career finale against the Jets to recall Mayo’s name or obviously impressive contributions, which have been publicly noted by plenty of Patriots players of late.
Meanwhile Mayo spent large portions of his media call explaining his desires to be a head coach, the culture he’d build when given the chance, how his experiences from the corporate world would translate to the football business and really just impressively selling himself as a candidate in the way he might sitting across from Kraft or any other NFL owner in an actual job interview.
“From a coach’s perspective our job is to put a mirror in front of your face and really show what you are doing on the field and hopefully you can take that out of love. That’s the way I coach,” Mayo said mapping out a portion of his coaching philosophy, which clearly is quite different than Belichick’s. “That’s the way a lot of us here coach, we coach out of love. So once you build that relationship with a guy you can be tough on the players. But if you don’t have that…I always talk about warmth before competence. Like at this stage, it was a little different back when I played. Whatever the coach told you to do, you just go out and do it. This generation is a little bit different where they really want to have accountability, they really want to understand the why.”
After interestingly bringing up the idea of “why?’ guys, something that could be seen as a point relative to Mac Jones’ style and regression as New England’s supposed franchise QB, Mayo then went all-in explaining just why his resume as a former player-turned-young assistant coach with a sprinkling of business-world leadership background has him prepared to be a head coach.
“Just being able to talk to different people,” Mayo said. “I think I’ve talked about this before as far as diversity is concerned. Most people think of diversity just black and white. But there is generational diversity. There is diversity of thought. And all those are welcomed, at least to me. I want to build an environment like that where there is a sense of psychological safety that people don’t feel handcuffed to give their opinion. At the end of the day, when you think about just a great culture…and I would say that’s a longer conversation as what culture actually is. Because sometimes…culture could be a retrospective way of validating or invalidating success. You know, this team won a bunch of games so the culture must be great. Or this team lost a bunch of games, the culture must be bad. And that’s not necessarily true.
“So when I think about when I do get my opportunity, and I don’t know when that’s going to be. And honestly, I’m kind of like a dry leaf blowing in the wind wherever God takes me. But at the same time I feel like I’m prepared. I feel like I am ready. 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 kind of how I think about it. I feel like my calling is to develop. And I would also say the role of a head coach is way different than the role of a coordinator. The role of a coordinator is way different than the role of a position coach. So I look forward to the opportunity wherever that may be.
It may just be where his feet currently are, in New England. It may be filling the biggest coaching shoes in NFL history. It may be as early as next week.
Why should Mayo be the next head coach of the Patriots? Because he’s learned from Belichick and he’s a natural-born leader ready to hit the ground running in a modern NFL that’s become a young-man’s game.
And because he’s not Belichick. He’s not a Belichick facsimile, production or disciple. Mayo is his own man ready to pave his own unique path as a head coach. He’s the right man for the job in New England. He made that quite clear again this week. And it’s probably something that Kraft has known for a long time.
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