Patriots LB discusses transition from Bill Belichick to Jerod Mayo

Linebacker Matthew Judon signed a four-year contract with the New England Patriots following the 2020 season and had only Bill Belichick as a head coach over the last three campaigns. 

Judon suggested during a Wednesday appearance on the NFL Network "Good Morning Football" program that he backed Patriots owner Robert Kraft choosing to move on from Belichick after the 2023 Patriots finished with a 4-13 record. 

"I think with him leaving, it’s just new energy and new life in the building," Judon said about Belichick's departure, according to Adam London of NESN. "Sometimes it’s just time. I think it was just one of those times." 

After quarterback Tom Brady left the Patriots as a free agent following the 2019 season, Belichick's squads recorded just one playoff appearance and zero postseason victories across four years. 

New England hasn't won a playoff game since the club defeated the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII back in February 2019. 

Patriots cornerback and punt returner Marcus Jones previously mentioned how new head coach Jerod Mayo makes things "fun" and "has an excitement to him." 

Mayo played under Belichick from 2008 through the 2015 season and originally joined the living legend's staff as inside linebackers coach in 2019.

While the Patriots were repeatedly linked in stories with former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, Judon indicated an outside hire wouldn't have been the best way to start the franchise's next chapter. Vrabel played for New England from 2001 through the 2008 season. 

"I think with the hire of Mayo and bringing in somebody that’s been there for those years that kind of understands player perspective and coaching and how coach Belichick ran the system — bringing in somebody like that instead of someone outside that didn’t know at all kind of helped us," Judon explained. "It kind of helped because I think Mayo’s seen it go one way and he’s kind of trying to get it going a different way. So, we got new life. We got new expectations." 

NESN's Keagan Stiefel mentioned in a different piece how Judon used the television segment to recruit pending free agents to New England. 

As much as Judon thinks a different team should've hired Belichick as a head coach this winter, the 31-year-old sounds excited to, in his words, "run through a brick wall" for Mayo this coming fall.