Mike Giardi, Boston Sports Journal

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Appreciate you. So we learned the news today. We also learned that he had a succession clause Gerard Mayo did in his contract. No surprises, no shocks to anybody in New England, right? Well, the succession clause, I think, caught some people by surprise just because I think people didn't necessarily know you could do that.

And come to find out, you know, there have only been a few times that it's actually been enacted. We go back to Tony Dungy. We have Eric DaCosta. We have Jim Ward Jr.

But generally, this is not something that gets done very often. But when they when they decided to keep Gerard and they go back to last year, they did some things that we've never really seen in the offseason. They had press releases about an offensive coordinator search and hiring Bill O'Brien.

We'd never seen that before. And when they decided to chase Gerard Mayo, it was the same sort of thing. Like we're going to do our best to keep Gerard Mayo here. And apparently, part of doing that was to put that clause in there and have them as the successor. I just think what happened was, it was supposed to be a two year plan.

But when you go forward 13, it became a this year plan. The sentiment in the region, are fans overall happy, okay with this? Did they want to explore Mike Vrabel as well?

What is the sentiment that you're seeing from online and what you hear from folks? So I think Mayo has a good bit of support here because he was next player here and has done a nice job as being one of the defensive gurus. He has a weird title. He's only the linebacker coach, but he really runs the defensive meetings and helps craft a game plan with Stephen Belichick. So there is that part of it, if people have been paying attention, they realize he's done a nice job.

But there is the sense that you had Bill for 24 years. And this is the first time in 24 years, you had an opportunity to go out and interview all these different people, the Ben Johnsons, the Mike Vrabels of the world. Pick their brain, get ideas, and maybe somebody blows you away, like say Mike Tomlin did with Pittsburgh all those years ago when it was going to be Ken Wisenhunt's job. And Mike Tomlin got the interview. And after they met with Mike Tomlin, they're like, No, no, no, it's not Ken Wisenhunt, it's Mike Tomlin. And I'd say that's worked out pretty well for Pittsburgh. So I think there was a little bit of that trepidation here, like, wait, yet you finally had a chance to do this.

And are you being negligent in not talking to all the candidates and maybe seeing what's out there? And maybe, again, maybe somebody blows you away and you say, Well, we love Gerard, but this guy is ready to run our program right now. Mike Giardi is joining us from the Boston Sports Journal.

It's the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. You know, I think most of the country has seen Gerard standing in the middle of the field, knocking the living hell out of people, something he was very, very good at. What has he done? I mean, he's been an assistant since 2019. What has he done to enamor the staff?

How the hell did he get here? Yeah, it's really an interesting question, because he was in the business world. And Bill Belichick, the man he replaces was the one who begged him to come back, that you're born to be a coach, you got to come back here.

So he left his corporate job, after a few years of retirement and came back to coach the Patriots. And one of the things that anybody who's come in contact with Gerard will tell you, he's a leader of people, a leader of men, and that draws so many different types to him. He's able to connect with, you know, not just the defensive guys, but the offensive guys.

And we were talking to Gerard a couple weeks ago. And, you know, he said, like, I feel like I can relate to anybody, you know, black, white, old, young men, women doesn't matter to me, I feel like I can make connections with all those people. And I think in talking to people today, even just as I wrote my story today about him, and why the people that know him best think he's, you know, as well equipped to succeed Bill Belichick as anybody could be. That's one of the things they point to that he's just a different kind of dude that he's able to command a room. And as one of the coaches, defensive coaches, DeMarcus Covington told me a few weeks back, he said, like, he speaks things into truth. He can tell a player, this is what you're doing.

And this is what you need to do. And or he can criticize them. And but yet, say, if you do it this way, it's going to work. And guys just buy into it and attack that.

And more often than not, it works out. Yeah, well, thank you for the insight. Certainly.

It's like one of the questions. It's like he poof came out of nowhere. And you have certainly respected him as a player that doesn't have the laundry list of coaching that we typically see from a lot of individuals. 15 coach in Patriots history, first black head coach in their history, now that he is in charge, what the hell happens from above him when it comes down to, you know, player personnel? We know Bill Belichick had a huge role in that that needs to be filled as well, correct?

Yeah, so I think that that's already I don't want to say it's done, but I kind of think it's done. I think Elliott Wolf has been in the front office for several years now. Of course, his dad, famous GM for for a million years.

I think he is the odds on favorite to ascend to the throne. Matt grow has sort of been in that position. I don't even know what his title is exactly. You know, we just call him the defacto GM here.

I don't think Matt Matt survives. I think it's Elliot Wolf's job. I think Elliot's been a nice bridge to the to ownership. And, you know, he knows to rod I think there is a connection there.

So it feels like this to like to draw mail thing isn't is an inside job, if you will. Mike Giardi here with us the JR sport re show on CBS Sports Radio. When we think about the actual personnel on the field, what's going on with quarterback? What are they going to do with the draft? How do they improve this team? Yeah, so I think that ownership might still have a thing for Mac Jones, which should be concerning if you're a Patriot fan, because I think we've seen the sort of the feeling of what that player could be. But I think that the coach who will be announced on Wednesday, I think he knows that that's not a quarterback that you can win with going forward.

So maybe Mac Jones ends ups, which I wouldn't have guessed maybe a couple weeks ago. And the roster next year is maybe your bridge, or someone that can sort of the gap between, you know, if they go quarterback at three, or if they trade up, if they decide to do so, and get a Drake made Caleb Williams type or if they stay Jayden Daniels, that maybe he's the bridge for a little bit. If that's the case, if that guy can't beat him out earlier, if they want that, that player to sit for a little bit, because I think, you know, it's not just the quarterback, you look at their offensive line, there are a lot of issues and concerns there.

And at receiver, they're not very good there as well. So there's, there's certainly other parts of the roster that need attention. But I think they understand that, that at least I think the coach understands that the quarterback is not the long term fix here.

It doesn't doesn't seem like that at all. When you talk about length of time, a long term fix, you know, what is going to be the grace period for Jerrod Mayo, I don't think fans are going to expect him to turn things around, oh, we're going to the Super Bowl in years. People gonna, you know, start barking when things don't go right, it's bound to happen. Well, I think because there are a fair amount of people here that still want Bill Belichick to be the head coach, that I can see that faction being pretty loud pretty early. You know, I would remind them that they were four and 13 this year. They were eight, nine last year. And they haven't won a playoff game since they won the Super Bowl back in 2018 19 over the Rams, three losing seasons in the last four years. So the roster has shown that it is not where it needs to be.

Team speed is atrocious, especially on offense. If you're looking at it objectively, this is a couple years to get this into a position where you feel comfortable and then you can start thinking about, well, you know, can we actually contend? Can we actually do something here?

Because we've seen the Texans just proved here, you can you can turn it around pretty quickly with a good young quarterback and a good draft. But there's there's a lot of work to be done here. So I think that's going to be something I'll have to monitor.

I think a lot of people will, because I think there will be the faction that just says he's not Bill. And you know, he loses two or three in a row, I could see people getting a little agitated. But I think the the crafts are taking the long view and understand that there's work to be done here to get the roster back where it needs to be. At 37 years old, Jerrod Mayo is going to be the youngest head coach in the NFL. Mike Giardi is joining us here from the Boston Sports Journal.

It's the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. Just to kind of to wrap things up here, when we move towards next season, what are some of the values? We've heard that that Jerrod Mayo was a disciple of Bill Belichick. OK, I understand it's defense. His bread and butter was defense as a linebacker. What's going to be his team philosophy? How are the Patriots going to change moving forward? So I understand when you're because he played under Bill and he's only coached under Bill.

He's been nowhere else in terms of his football life, professional football life. But here, I think Jerrod is smart enough to have his own ideas. And while there will be, you know, they call them they call them Jerrod Belichick when he played because he was such a coach on the field and sort of could see how the coach wanted things done and helped the defense sort of adapt to that. But I also think he understands the way the league has morphed. I mean, the Patriots have been operating sort of in the Dark Ages offensively, even going back to Tom Brady's last couple of years. So I think he understands the league is sort of taking a different trend. And I'm curious to see how they operate the offense.

To me, that's a big part of this equation. Like, who's he going to turn the offense over to? Is it Bill O'Brien is going to stay? Is Josh McDaniels who's been around quite a bit lately? Is Josh going to come back for like the third or fourth time for the Patriots or is he going to go outside with a hire there?

I think that's that's fascinating to me because I think that'll tell you a little something about how Jerrod views the game. And especially from that side of the ball, which, again, it's the most important thing going like the league has been built to make it really difficult to play defense and to pile up offensive numbers. And the Patriots have sort of been stuck in this era where I will win 17 to 14. Well, it only works so often, especially in this league, with some of the quarterbacks that they have to go through. Mahomes, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers will be healthy next year. Two has had a really good year.

Like on and on it goes. It's a bunch of first round picks in the playoffs playing quarterback in the AFC. The Patriots got to figure out a way to be on their level. Yeah, I think ultimately a few more years of pain won't hurt, given all the success that has taken place over the better part of the last two decades. I think I think the fans will be OK, Mike.

I hope they will be. I hope they show a little bit of patience. But, hey, people get a little antsy around here.

They're they're awfully spoiled. Yeah, they will listen antsy already. So we'll see what happens. I appreciate you taking the time to hop on, Mike. Where can people follow you and all your great work with the Boston Sports Journal?

Yeah, Boston Sports Journal dot com. And I'm on Twitter at Mike Giardi. Easy peasy. Easy, easy, easy. Enjoy the weekend. Sit down and you got a game that you're going to enjoy watching over the weekend, Mike. I'm just I'm just excited about the weather. I just, you know, like having covered a million games in crappy weather. It's terrible when you're when you're a reporter and you're standing on the sidelines, freezing in the snow's blowing in your face. But when you get it, watch it from your house. Perfect.