What Patriots players have said about Jerod Mayo becoming an NFL head coach
FOXBORO -- Jerod Mayo is now an NFL head coach. Ask any Patriots player, and this has been a long time coming for Mayo.
With Bill Belichick's job security in question for much of the 2023 season, there was a lot of focus on the future of the Patriots franchise as the loses continued to pile up. Mayo's name consistently came up as Belichick's successor, and next week, he'll be officially introduced as the 15th head coach of the New England Patriots.
Again, this isn't any surprise to Patriots players, especially those on the defensive side. Anyone who played for Mayo could see that he was a head coach in the making.
"He's a really great leader," defensive lineman Davon Godchaux told WBZ-TV during the season in an interview for Patriots GameDay. "Couldn't ask for a better guy to have in front of us and talk to us in the defensive room. Of course he's going to get his shot one day to be a head coach. He's well deserving. He's a great leader."
"Amazing coach and a good mentor to me," defensive tackle Christian Barmore said in an interview on GameDay. "He just knows the game. He knows the game. He's so smart. Anytime he speaks about something, we all listen on the defense. He's been through there and he played here. So he makes it easy for us because he's seen everything."
A Pro Bowl linebacker for the Patriots, Mayo spent eight seasons quarterbacking New England's defense. He was a team captain for seven of those seasons, and his leadership has only grown since joining the coaching staff in 2019.
Linebacker Mack Wilson is a pending free agent, but made it clear Friday that he wants to be back in New England with Mayo at the helm.
Wilson spoke about how much he has learned from Mayo in his two seasons with the Patriots.
"Coach Mayo is a great guy, first of all. I've learned a lot from him with him playing the position and all those accolades he has here as a Patriot," Wilson told WBZ-TV. "To have him as a coach is an honor, honestly. To be able to learn as much I can from him, a guy who went to Pro Bowls and a guy who went first round. It kind of sounds different coming from a guy who sat in the same seats, played the same position, and did it at a high level.
"He definitely has head coach characteristics," added Wilson.
The Patriots lost to the Bills in Week 17, and though Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen ran for a pair of short touchdowns in the game, he had one of his worst games as a passer that afternoon against the New England defense. Allen connected on just 15 of his 30 passes for a meager 169 yards, zero touchdowns, and an interception.
After the game, Pats captain Deatrich Wise credited Mayo for the team's game plan against Allen that day.
"That's a big testament to Mayo. He gets us ready every day." said Wise.
Allen was rattled for much of the afternoon and looked uncomfortable when he looked to pass.
"We knew what he was going to do," Wise said of the Buffalo QB. "We knew the formations that they were going to run during the game, a lot of counter plays. Our goal is to make him more one-dimensional. Some things didn't happen the way we planned it, but for the most part, I feel like we held him pretty good, for what it was."
On Friday, Wise and several other Patriots players took to Instagram to celebrate Mayo's promotion. There is little doubt that Mayo will continue to get the most out of his players as the youngest head coach in the NFL.
