A brand new era of Patriots football is now officially underway at Gillette Stadium!
Following Wednesday’s big press conference, which appropriately took place in the beautiful, modern GP Atrium that was part of the offseason construction facelift in Foxborough, it’s clear that Robert Kraft is quite confident that Jerod Mayo is the perfect man to lead his team into the future.
Change is very much afoot, the new now very much the norm in New England where for two-plus decades now-ousted GOAT coach Bill Belichick liked to say “the status is quo.”
Not anymore.
There’s a new head coach.
There will be a new offensive coordinator, Bill O’Brien a one-and-done play-caller now on his way to Ohio State.
There will almost certainly be a defensive coordinator in a titular sense, a change from recent years even if the leadership on that side of the ball remains some familiar mix of faces led by Mayo.
There are interviews taking place for a variety of roles on the work-in-progress coaching staff, including on special teams.
And with Belichick gone south reportedly likely to land as the new boss man in Atlanta, there will obviously and necessarily be someone other than the Hoodie having final say over roster moves in what is one of the most critical offseasons this or any NFL team has ever had.
But therein lies the rub, the wrench in the well-lubed gears of change that was on toothy display when Kraft and Mayo met the media this week.
Kraft admirably and believably professed his faith in the 37-year-old former All-Pro linebacker Mayo dating back years, maybe even all the way to a fortuitous trip to Israel the duo shared back in 2019. And Mayo played his part as the not-Belichick man to take over the reins with a smile, a youthful energy and a modern-if-too-corporate approach to what the culture will be in his tenure in Patriot Nation.
Mayo declared that he’s “not trying to be Bill Belichick,” his massive-shoes-filling predecessor who famously wore “all the hats” in Foxborough.
But if you want to know who’ll be wearing all those hats now? Well, great question and no answer.
In barely a month, a decision about using the franchise tag will be required, a short-term to solution if the team would like to keep right tackle Mike Onwenu. Early March brings big-dollar decisions in free agency. Then, in case you weren’t aware, comes New England’s No. 3 overall pick in April’s draft, the team’s most important pick under Kraft’s three decades of ownership.
“We have a lot of people internally who have had a chance to train and learn under the greatest coach of all time and a man whose football intellect is very special. In the short-term, we're looking for collaboration,” Kraft said. “Our team has a tremendous opportunity to position itself right … We're counting on our internal people whom we're still learning and evaluating. So, we're going to let that evolve and develop, and before the key decisions have to be made, we will appoint someone. At the same time, we'll probably start doing interviews and looking at people from the outside.”
Um, OK? So the man with admirable conviction and trusted “instincts” on Mayo isn’t sure if Matt Groh or Eliot Wolf or both or neither or an outsider will steer his franchise in the coming weeks and months, even though he made it quite clear it won’t be him or Jonathan Kraft making football decisions.
“It will be the same input that we've had for the last three decades. We try to hire the best people we can find and let them do their job and hold them accountable,” Kraft said this week. “If you get involved and tell them what to do or try to influence them, you can't hold them responsible and have them accountable. It'll be within the people's discretion who are the decision makers to do it, and if we've hired the wrong people, then we'll have to make a change.”
Even if they aren’t yet sure who those people to hold accountable will be.
Mayo had a similar non-committal approach to the early phase of his leadership. While avoiding “echo chambers” and trying to “knock down silos” he’ll be handing out titles. To other experts that he’ll lean on from the weight room to the meeting room to the personnel department.
“What's an expert? An expert has to be validated by their peers. I'm not going to sit here and say, this guy should be squatting that much. I don't know that much about squatting, so I'm going to -- especially early on, I think you have to lean on the experts in their space,” Mayo admitted.
“We're still evaluating everything as far as players, as far as the schemes, as far as the coaching staff. I will probably be better equipped to answer this question a little bit down the line.”
He’d better be.
Kraft and Patriot Nation clearly have their man. The leader of men that is Mayo is the man to lead the Patriots organization into the post-Belichick era. Kraft is very happy to have him. Mayo is very happy to be that guy.
But the plan for that era?
Well, Kraft and Mayo will seemingly have to get back to us on that. And that may have to wait until they actually figure it out themselves.
