BB's Successor?

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Chad Graff of the Athletic thinks he knows who BB has chosen to be his successor. We'll see.

The 39-word statement was posted at 7:24 p.m. ET on a Thursday night in mid-January.

A franchise so often cloaked in secrecy offered a glimpse of transparency after a disappointing 8-9 season. The message was deemed so important that the team opted to go live with the statement at dinnertime rather than waiting until the following morning.

The New England Patriots and Head Coach Bill Belichick have begun contract extension discussions with Jerod Mayo that would keep him with the team long-term. In addition, the team will begin interviewing for offensive coordinator candidates beginning next week.

News headlines were quickly crafted about the latter half of the statement: the Patriots were going to hire a new offensive coordinator, notable because of the title itself and the suggestion of parting ways with Matt Patricia. New England eventually rehired Bill O’Brien for the role.

The more meaningful long-term development for one of North America’s most successful sports franchises was initially covered as an afterthought, but the rest of the league took note of the Mayo update. He had been asked by the Carolina Panthers to interview for their vacant head-coaching job. Now he was staying in New England and turning down a shot at fulfilling his self-proclaimed dream of becoming a head coach.

“When he turned those guys down, I understood without even talking to him what went on,” said Kevin Faulk, a friend and former teammate.

What went on, people close to Mayo believe, was a profession of support from Patriots ownership, perhaps an implicit indication of what could lie ahead for him — and for the franchise.

Belichick, who turns 71 next month, is 19 victories away from surpassing Don Shula for the most total wins in NFL history. If he intended to retire afterward, as some believe he will, who might be the right person to handle the daunting task of succeeding the greatest coach of all time?

The Kraft family — Robert has been the Patriots’ principal owner since 1994 and son Jonathan has been team president since 2005 — thinks highly of Mayo. Belichick is fond of him. Former teammates revere him. Coaching colleagues praise him.

“They definitely know they have something here and don’t want to let him go,” Rob Ninkovich, a former teammate, said of Patriots ownership.

What they have is a man capable of leading a locker room of professional athletes and discussing investments with hedge-fund executives. Someone who hangs out with Harvard business professors, ballet composers and “Jeopardy!” winners in his free time. Someone who only five years ago was working with the board of a major healthcare company and still theorizes about how blockchain technology could solve the healthcare backlog.

But he’s also so good at the X’s and O’s of football that he has become one of Belichick’s most trusted assistants. A fierce former linebacker who was named the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2008 and an All-Pro two years later, with a Super Bowl ring from his playing days and a rapid ascension up the coaching ladder.

“Some people, I don’t know what it is, have that it factor. And he’s got it,” said Brandon Spikes, a former teammate. “He makes everyone around him better. He’s a perfect human being. If I had a son, I’d want him to be just like Jerod Mayo.”

When Mayo first arrived in New England in 2008, he entered a locker room filled with Pro Bowlers and future Hall of Famers: Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel. He was just a rookie — albeit the second-highest draft pick of the Belichick era, taken 10th overall out of Tennessee — but when Mayo heard the stars complaining about wear and tear during the season, he felt the need to stick up for them.

“The guys are tired,” he’d say on occasional visits to Belichick’s office. “They’re beat-up from practice. Maybe we can take it easy today?”

Most of the time Belichick told him to go away. But about 30 percent of the time, Mayo estimated, he’d relent. And on those days, Mayo would eagerly head back to the locker room to share the news with his teammates.

“And it was like an eruption,” Mayo told Gautam Mukunda, a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. “Literally, they would pick me up and throw me on their shoulders.”

He was named a team captain in his second season, 23 years old and one of the leaders of a star-studded roster.

Ninkovich arrived in New England before that 2009 season as a castoff who had only played in eight NFL games over the last three seasons. The first player who introduced himself was Mayo, who offered thoughts on the playbook and simple advice like where to get lunch. Ninkovich was impressed, but, somewhat embarrassingly, didn’t know anything about Mayo. So he asked the defending Defensive Rookie of the Year how long he’d been in the NFL.

“I assumed this was like his eighth year,” Ninkovich said. “He just had that presence about him. I thought he was a veteran because of how he carried himself.”

Ninkovic was so impressed with Mayo that he moved in next door on Neff Drive in Foxboro. They’d play “FIFA” — Mayo usually won — and talk football late into the night. For some players, reaching the NFL means football becoming really difficult for the first time. The schemes are more complex, the checks are more important and everything happens more quickly.

When Ninkovich didn’t understand something, he just asked Mayo, and Mayo always had the answer.

“With his mind and the knowledge he has, it was just a given that he’d get into coaching because it’s teaching,” Ninkovich said. “As far as on-field quickness, he is the smartest guy that I had ever been around. His ability to decipher formations and bark out calls and get people lined up — he was by far the fastest and best that I’ve ever been around.”

Mukunda, the Harvard fellow whose research has focused on how organizations select high-impact leaders, was asked by a mutual friend to meet with Mayo toward the end of his playing career.

Mukunda didn’t know much about Mayo, but he figured the meeting was to help walk a professional athlete through some personal finance decisions. They got a drink at Sip Wine Bar near Boston Common. Mukunda thought it was going to be a 30-minute talk. They stayed for three hours, with Mayo walking him through decisions he’d already made as an angel investor.

“By the end, I was like, ‘Wait, can I invest with you?’” Mukunda said.

Every month, Mukunda organizes a dinner for interesting minds in the area, bringing together people from different walks of life who wouldn’t ordinarily meet. He invited Mayo and a small group of others to a tour of a new exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art and dinner at Del Frisco’s. At dinner, Mayo sat between William Forsythe, a renowned ballet choreographer, and Rodney Zemmel, the leader of McKinsey & Company’s digital division.

“And he could talk to both of them on even terms,” Mukunda said. “That’s part of the magic of Jerod.”

As part of his research, Mukunda has studied the qualities that make for the best leaders, writing two books on leadership selection. If he were picking a coach for a football team?

“There are a lot of people who can do X’s and O’s, but what the research tells us is that this characteristic — ‘intellectual brilliance’ — is the thing most likely to distinguish them,” Mukunda said. “It’s related to IQ but not the same. It’s horsepower with openness to new ideas, creativeness, broadness in taste.”

It’s something, Mukunda said, that most owners don’t consider, “a market inefficiency of stunning scale in the NFL.” And it’s a trait that Mayo personifies.

“If you get a chance to pick someone like Jerod, you pick them,” Mukunda said. “I don’t know if it’s with the Patriots or some other team, but Jerod will be a head coach in the NFL one day.

“But I’ll also say this: I do not think that will be the most important thing Jerod Mayo will do with his life.”
 
2/2

Wednesdays during the NFL season are when players learn that week’s game plan. For the first few weeks of his rookie season, Spikes couldn’t figure out how Mayo knew the game plan by the time Spikes showed up at 7:30 a.m.

Finally, he asked.

“Oh,” Mayo responded, “I sit in on the coaching staff’s 6 a.m. meeting.”

Spikes was floored. Players don’t sit in on meetings with coaches.

“I’m not lying,” Spikes said. “He was in the staff meetings. For real.”

Spikes had dedicated his life to football. He was one of the nation’s highest-rated recruits coming out of high school. He went to Florida, where he was one of the best players on one of the nation’s best teams. He thought football was his world.

“I thought I loved the game — like really loved it,” Spikes said. “And then I met Jerod and Tom. And then I was like, OK, maybe I just really like it. I don’t love it like them. They just eat and sleep football.”

That’s partly why, teammates felt, Mayo hit it off with Belichick.

Like Belichick, Mayo grew up with a military background. His mom, Denise, raised him in Virginia with help from her parents. Mayo spent a lot of time with his grandfather, Walter Johnson, a retired Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force. Denise worked two jobs, including one at Langley Air Force Base. Mayo was the second oldest of four boys, a youth counselor at Zion Prospect Baptist Church.

He bonded with Belichick, who spent his formative years in Annapolis, Md., where his dad worked at the Naval Academy. Teammates jokingly called Mayo a teacher’s pet because he seemingly was always in his coach’s good graces.

When Mayo suffered a season-ending injury toward the end of his playing career, he came into the facility and spent long days breaking down games with Belichick’s son, Steve, then a defensive coaching assistant. The two grew close and now serve as de facto co-defensive coordinators even though neither holds the official title.

Perhaps all of that helps explain why Mayo might be the perfect candidate to fill the massive shoes the elder Belichick will one day leave vacant in New England.

Ownership could feel secure handing the reins over to someone they know so well and respect so much. Belichick could feel proud handing over all he’s built to someone he drafted, developed and taught how to coach.

“He’s Bill Belichick 2.0,” Spikes said. “They speak the same language.”

Nothing has been promised. Belichick could continue chalking up wins and coaching for many more years. Mayo could get an offer elsewhere that he can’t turn down. Maybe opinions change. But for now, it’s clear the Krafts want to keep him close.

“They know what they have,” Ninkovich said. “So why let that leave if you can keep that within the organization?”

Teammates used to give Mayo a hard time because of how often he’d want to be home with his wife, Chantel, and four kids. The players would organize nights out for the whole linebacker crew, and Mayo often pushed to have small-scale events so he could get home earlier.

They were amazed at how he handled the responsibilities of being a professional athlete. His home life was thriving. He dominated on the football field. And coaches loved him.

“He could just manage everything,” Spikes said. “I was like, ‘You’ve just got this life thing figured out.’”

After Mayo retired in 2016, Belichick started planting the seeds of a coaching career with Chantel. He told her Mayo was meant to coach. But Mayo needed some time to recharge before diving back into football. He became an executive at Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. He invested and explored other interests.

But most of all, he spent time with his family. He stayed near Foxboro so his kids could be near their friends and attend the same schools.

In 2019, Mayo relented to Belichick’s frequent overtures, joining the staff as the inside linebackers coach. Within four years he was interviewing for head-coaching openings. Now, he’s tied to New England long-term.

Mayo celebrated his 37th birthday last month, a low-key affair at the family’s house near Gillette Stadium. One of his children played the piano. Another sat on his lap. They sang “Happy Birthday,” placed a cake before him and told him to make a wish.

He took a second to think.

It’s been a busy few years for him. The foray into coaching. The rapid rise up the ladder. The interest from other owners and his recent loyalty pledge to the only franchise he’s ever worked for. And there’s more to come.

Mayo took a deep breath and blew out the candles.
 
BO'B is another possibility too...




Girl Door GIF



Loved to read it by the way.

Mayo looks like he's gonna step into a Tomlin-type situation, except with the GOAT grooming him.
 
So what is the over under on the Patriots winning 60% of their regular season games over the next two years? (Actually is the record regular season, or all games?)
 
Would Mayo be GM and HC?

One thing that seems odd, If Mayo is so great why is he sharing DC responsibilities with Stevie?
 
Would Mayo be GM and HC?

One thing that seems odd, If Mayo is so great why is he sharing DC responsibilities with Stevie?


The defense played at a great level despite not getting a breather, so I think it's working out.

Also we don't know what other assignments he has behind the scenes.
 
The defense played at a great level despite not getting a breather, so I think it's working out.

Also we don't know what other assignments he has behind the scenes.
I like Mayo but really know very little about him because the Pats never say anything. If he is the successor it seems risky to me to give him the reigns when he has never been a HC and has never even run a unit by himself as a DC?
 
I like Mayo but really know very little about him because the Pats never say anything. If he is the successor it seems risky to me to give him the reigns when he has never been a HC and has never even run a unit by himself as a DC?
From what I have read Mayo does most of the heavy lifting to design the D but likes to let SB make the calls it in the games. It seems to be a good balance so long as SB continues to listen.
 
From what I have read Mayo does most of the heavy lifting to design the D but likes to let SB make the calls it in the games. It seems to be a good balance so long as SB continues to listen.
Do you have a link to support this?
 
Hopefully there's a succession plan across the board.
Say Mayo does become HC, does BOB stay or leave?
For example, Klemm is the OC for the future along with a coach to follow in the footsteps of Klemm as the Oline coach, potentially.

In this day and age we need capable coordinators on both sides and the offensive side is more critical. Miami and KC have excellent setups in that regard.
 
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