The heir apparent to Bill Belichick in New England is here, and he's a 37-year-old former first-round pick by the Patriots that was a two-time Pro Bowl linebacker for the franchise during an eight-year run between 2008 and 2015.
Jerod Mayo, who has served as an inside linebackers coach for the Pats since 2019, will be the first head coach not to don a cut-off sweatshirt and grim face on the sidelines since the turn of the millennium, taking over for a man that won 266 games with the franchise over 24 years. Safe to say, Mayo is no stranger to Pats fans across sportsbooks in Massachusetts.
Mayo’s task now is to get the Patriots back in fighting shape on the heels of consecutive losing seasons in Foxborough, including this year's 4-13 clunker that resulted in New England landing the No. 3 pick in April’s 2024 NFL Draft.
Mayo is now the third current NFL head coach to coach a team they played for, joining Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions and DeMeco Ryans of the Houston Texans, while recently fired coach Frank Reich also played for the team that canned him (the Carolina Panthers). To get a sense of how Mayo stacks up versus Campbell and Ryans, BetMassachusetts.com broke down the duo’s stats during their runs in Detroit and Houston to see where the new Pats coach may go in 2024 and beyond.
And while the Patriots moved fast to hire Mayo, BetMassachusetts.com also has the latest Bill Belichick Next Head Coaching Job Odds.
Can Mayo Follow In Campbell & Ryans’ Footsteps?
While Campbell’s tenure in Detroit hasn’t been smooth sailing the whole way through, it’s hard to argue with the coaching job the former NFL tight end turned in during 2023. Campbell led Detroit to the franchise’s first division title since 1993, while posting the team’s highest year-end win total (12) since 1991, all while turning quarterback Jared Goff loose on NFL secondaries all year long. He did so after going 3-13-1 in his first year with the club, before flipping the script slightly and getting the Lions back above .500 in 2022, going 9-8 (though still missing the playoffs).
Ryans, on the other hand, found success out of the gate with a dreary Texans squad that hadn't posted a winning record since 2019, riding rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud’s playmaking capabilities to a 10-7 campaign and the franchise’s first AFC South title since that 2019 season. Ryans in less than a year has made the Texans a darkhorse Super Bowl contender on Massachusetts betting apps.
Like Mayo, Ryans was a distinguished linebacker in the NFL, making two Pro Bowl appearances and being named to the NFL’s first-team All-Pro list in 2007, before serving as an assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers between 2017 and 2022.
Mayo can only hope to find a quarterback in this year’s draft class that’s capable of performing the way Stroud did for Ryans in 2023, with the former Ohio State signal-caller throwing for 4,108 yards and 23 touchdowns (to five interceptions).
With that in mind, make sure to check out the latest Massachusetts sportsbook promos while betting on the upcoming season.
Will Mayo Avoid Pratfalls That Tanked Reich’s Tenure?
On the other end of the NFL coaching success cycle, there’s former Panthers and Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich, who managed to get fired in successive seasons by both clubs after going 4-15-1 combined.
Reich took No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young and turned the Panthers into the laughingstock of the NFL this season, with the rookie out of Alabama throwing nearly as many interceptions (10) as touchdowns (11), while posting a 2-14 mark as the starter under center.
Ultimately, what might well help Mayo in New England is the fact he’s not a former NFL quarterback, a la Campbell (tight end) and Ryans (linebacker), which may help him thrive as the coach of the team that drafted him way back in 2008.
