Mayo begins the task of replacing key staff pieces
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Jerod Mayo is moving fast.
According to the NFL Network, the Patriots will interview Broncos defensive backs coach Christian Parker and Saints linebackers coach Michael Hodges for their new defensive coordinator position. Mayo has already been in contact with Panthers linebackers coach and ex-boston College defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu about the job. It’s unknown when these interviews will take place or Mayo intends to name his defensive coordinator.
Mayo is also focusing on his special teams, which have ranked among the NFL’S worst each of the past two seasons.
The Patriots are expected to interview Rams assistant special teams coach Jeremy Springer for their special teams coordinator job, per the NFL Network. Springer is a second-year NFL assistant who previously spent eight years at the college level. He is the second coach Mayo has requested to interview for the position after Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams.
Meanwhile, among the DC candidates, Parker, 32, just completed his third season coaching Denver’s secondary. He’s spent most of his career working with defensive backs, starting at Virginia State in 2013, then with the Packers as a defensive quality control coach in 2019-20 before jumping to the Broncos the following year. Under his tutelage, Denver cornerback Patrick Surtain II made the 2022 All-pro team and reached back-to-back Pro Bowls after being drafted in 2021.
Hodges, 37, served as the Saints’ lead linebackers coach the past four years. He started in New Orleans as a low-level defensive assistant in 2017 and received a promotion to assistant linebackers coach in 2019. Earlier in his career, Hodges worked as a co-defensive coordinator with Patriots defensive line coach Demarcus Covington at Eastern Illinois in 2016.
Like Lukabu and Parker, Hodges does not have any experience as an NFL defensive coordinator or coaching the Patriots’ defensive system.
Internally, Covington and defensive play-caller Steve Belichick remain the top candidates to become Mayo’s first defensive coordinator. Covington, 34, has coached linebackers and defensive linemen since joining the Patriots as a defensive assistant in 2017. He took an interview with the Cardinals last year for their defensive coordinator position and has been hailed by Patriots players as a future head coach.
In December, Covington confirmed he aspires to be a head coach one day.
“Obviously that’s on the horizon for me of what I want to do,” Covington said. “I got in this profession to, one, try to impact men. That’s what I try to do. So as we go through this, the steps of being a position coach, coordinator to head coach, obviously wanting to lead a team. That is definitely one of my goals.
“And when that might be, I don’t know. I don’t have my own plan. God has the plans for me. What those plans are, I don’t know.”
Word also came down late Thursday that the Patriots will need a new offensive coordinator in 2024.
Bill O’brien is leaving to become the new offensive coordinator at Ohio State, according to an ESPN report. Under O’brien, the Patriots averaged 13.9 points per game last season, second-worst in the league. O’brien also served as the quarterbacks coach and oversaw Mac Jones’ fall from third-year starting quarterback to getting benched for the final six games of the season.
Upon being hired last January, O’brien was expected to fix an offense that fell apart under former lead offensive coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge in 2022, but instead fell further under his watch. O’brien’s offensive staff also dealt with significant dysfunction, while one assistant left for Syracuse midseason and firstyear offensive line coach Adrian Klemm to a medical issue that sidelined him for most fo the year.