Can Patriots’ Jerod Mayo re-create Bill Belichick’s success on his own terms?

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 at the core, I am a father, I am a husband, and I am a Christian. That’s my core, and so those things won’t change.

“Some of the philosophy things though … I am still kind of getting those in order. And I think it’s important that you talk to other coaches around the league. You guys know Tony Dungy was here. It was great having him here and just having those discussions outside of this silo, and it’s been good.”

Oh? Tony Dungy — like the Patriots’ longtime rival?

“I have always been a fan of Tony Dungy, even though the Patriots and the Colts have a little history,” Mayo said.

That’s putting it lightly.

“But from afar, [he’s] just a guy who has won games, like big games as a championship-level coach. He does it the right way,” Mayo said. “It’s not through cussing people out or anything like that — which works, I guess, with some teams as well — but it’s through developing men and women. I kind of want to mirror that.”

Mayo is happy-go-lucky. Belichick is … not that. So while Mayo might borrow some of Belichick’s tools, the new Patriots coach is wise to seek out mentorship from coaches who are decidedly unlike Belichick. Like Dungy.

And it’s important that Mayo succeeds right away.

The expectations for the Patriots offense might be grim, but for the defense? Well, folks are expecting New England to have one of the league’s best again. While Belichick’s offense ended up getting him fired, his defense almost never buckled. It was very, very good until the coach’s bitter end in New England. And it’s not exactly a defense of household names. Yes, there’s Matthew Judon. Past, him? Safety Kyle Dugger, linebackers Ja’Whaun Bentley and Josh Uche and defensive tackle Christian Barmore are the biggest talents.

It’ll take strong work from the staff to get the most out of this unit, which will rely heavily upon that core along with second-year players Christian Gonzalez, Keion White and Marte Mapu — and a few players who haven’t been studs in any defense other than Belichick’s (Jahlani Tavai, Jabrill Peppers).

New England’s staff lost not only Bill Belichick but also his son, Steve, who was the de-facto co-coordinator alongside Mayo. DeMarcus Covington has taken on the defensive coordinator role, a title he’s never held before. And he’s not the only guy trying out a new role. Former Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower is taking on coaching for the first time. He definitely seems like a natural, but he also has experienced some friction in the transition.

“[Hightower] came to me this morning asking for advice,” Mayo said. “And I was like, ‘Welcome to coaching.’ As much as you think it’s about X’s and O’s and getting guys to play hard for you, it’s also a leadership role. I’m a huge believer that you manage processes, you don’t manage people. You lead people. We bounced some ideas off of each other, but he has to come up with his own philosophy in the way he deals with things, so it’s been good for him.”

Mayo added: “He should apologize to me. When I coached him, he kind of gave me those same headaches.”

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Mayo is shaping the new vision of the Patriots. It’s not just on the field and in the meeting rooms. It’s in the war room during the draft and it’s in the film room as the top brass assesses free agents. Mayo is integral to the decision-making process, as executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf has stated over and over again. Where Belichick ran the Patriots as the judge and jury, Mayo and Wolf have preached collaboration.

In the meantime, Mayo will have to keep mentoring his younger coaches — like Hightower.

“The first meeting that we kind of jumped into was like an hour and a half meeting. I was not prepared to lead a meeting an hour and a half,” Hightower said with a smile.

There’s a lot on Mayo’s plate. Much has been made of the transition on offense, where the Patriots drafted quarterback Drake Maye and signed Brissett after adding offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, who brought in 10 new assistant coaches. There’s a massive undertaking on offense. But that doesn’t mean Mayo won’t also have his work cut out for him on defense.

And it starts with who Mayo wants to be as a coach. He’s working to find that out.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.