First, the New England Patriots had to adjust to no longer having Tom Brady. Now, the Patriots don’t have Bill Belichick either. Times are very different in New England compared to a few years ago, and Jerod Mayo is now the new head coach of the Patriots. The fan base demands excellence, and that is what he will have to bring.
The past few seasons haven’t been great for the Patriots, especially because of what the team was used to doing when they had Tom Brady. Jerod Mayo is here to bring them back, and former New England wide receiver Matthew Slater thinks that he needs to play to his strengths, but only to an extent.
“I don’t think the Patriot way changes philosophically, maybe the way it’s applied and executed changes, but all those things in terms of like doing your job, working hard, putting the team first I think those are principles that you can apply in almost any arena, right, and certainly it would be smart of Jerod to continue to try to work towards those principles,” Matthew Slater said during a recent appearance on Green Light with Chris Long. “Now you and I both know Jerod, like he’s gonna be different. I mean he’s going to be laughing, joking, having a good time and that’s fine. I think he needs to operate within his strengths. I do think, like look, the last 24 years that place had a lot of success and I don’t think you just want to burn it to the ground and forget what was done there. So he’s got to find his kind of middle ground and go from there, and then you know in terms of bringing guys back I love that he hired (Dont’a) Hightower. I think that’s a great hire. I mean the guys will love High and I hope that he continues to engage guys from the past, not live in the past, but just, you know, have those guys around and show the young guys what it looks like.”
Things are clearly going to look much different for the Patriots next year, and it will be weird to see Mayo leading the charge instead of Belichick. The team will be run differently, but it seemed like it was certainly time for a change.
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