Mayo’s rebuild includes a new culture
Different vibe in Foxboro — but will it be a success?
He’s a tall Texan, fit and bursting with confidence. He slicks his brown hair backward atop a long face and tight beard. He’s fluent in football clichés, but doesn’t fit the overly serious, old-school coach archetype.
To wit: on Wednesday, Springer introduced himself to New England by making a crack about how he’s already lost his tan in the three weeks that passed since he was hired as the Patriots’ special teams coordinator. Because of his resume, Springer’s hiring met fans like the clouds that greeted him in Foxboro: as an unpleasant shock.
Springer has just two years of NFL coaching experience. Last season, he assisted the league’s worst special teams; a stinky Rams group that struggled to make field goals, return punts and cover kicks. His only prior stops as a coordinator came at the University of Arizona and Marshall.
So why in the world is a coach like him good enough for the Patriots?
“I care about people. I think it’s all about the people. I love working with people. I want to show them that I love them,” he said. “I think if you show people that you love them and care about them, you serve them, and you put them first, that it doesn’t matter how old you are.”
That, apparently, was music to Jerod Mayo’s ears.
At the end of last season, Mayo explained his philosophy is to “coach out of love.” Springer fits that philosophy, and so do Mayo’s other coordinators: Alex Van Pelt and DeMarcus Covington. Before Springer met with reporters Wednesday, Mayo explained, in his own press conference, why he promoted Covington from defensive line coach.
“This is one of those guys as well — I’ve already talked about this being a relationship business — where (Covington) has a great relationship with the players,” Mayo said. “Mind, body, and spirit.”
As for Van Pelt: “Obviously, he understands the X’s and O’s of the game, but also developing talent. Really, he is a relationship guy, which I fundamentally believe is very important,” Mayo explained. “Before you really get into X’s and O’s with the guys on the field, they’ve got to know that you care about them.”
There you have it. Win or lose, the 2024 Patriots will at least have a slogan: kumbaya.
Now, Mayo is not wrong for seeking assistants who connect personally with today’s generation of players, something Bill Belichick hardly, if ever, did. Coaching methods, just like coaching tools, must be updated to compete. The sport is football, but the name of the game is adapt or die.
Mayo’s insistence on hiring coaches who build players up through love instead of tearing them down speaks to something more: he’s triggered a rebuild of the Patriots’ roster and their culture. The Patriots might continue to run Belichick’s schemes and drills, but his fingerprints are being wiped off everything else. The harsh, militaristic misery (remember Julian Edelman’s “happily miserable” quote from 2020?) that permeated the facility is being replaced with a lighter, friendlier atmosphere.
The degree to which the old culture grated on the locker room is unclear — Belichick signed and drafted players he knew could take his style of coaching — but the effect it had on his assistants and select players was painfully obvious.
The Patriots’ offensive coaching staff fractured each of the past two seasons under the pressure of Belichick’s unforgiving, ever tightening grip. His machiavellian climate spawned dysfunction, infighting and finger-pointing. That inevitably trickled down.
Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe were allowed to all but ignore each other in meetings and practice last season. Veterans in the offensive line group grumbled about the lack of talent around them, plus changing schemes and drills. And defensive leaders publicly laid blame at the offense’s feet after two straight midseason losses.
On Wednesday, Mayo made a subtle reference to Belichick not allowing Bill O’Brien more control over the coaching staff after hiring him as offensive coordinator; a significant error in retrospect. O’Brien was only allowed to bring one assistant with him, and by the end of the season ran most meetings himself, a clear sign of distrust in his other coaches.
“I think one important thing for offensive coordinators is really to have the ability to have major input in hiring their own staff,” Mayo said. “You don’t want to have to teach your coaches, as well as now these (players) you’re going to teach.”
That won’t happen under Van Pelt, who filled out the new offensive staff with help from Mayo and front-office executives Eliot Wolf and Matt Groh. In all, the Patriots now have 11 coaches on offense. That offensive staff almost matches their entire coaching ensemble last year. Why the change?
“It’s hard to get things done that way in today’s NFL,” Mayo said.
The Patriots’ supersized staff also includes Springer, who, like Covington, had a say in hiring his own assistants. He’s also someone who used the word “love” three times in explaining why he deserved the job. Imagine giving that answer in an interview with Belichick? Ha.
Of course, the only answer that truly matters now is this: will this player-friendly coaching style, this love, this culture lead to more winning?
Who knows. It’ll be a while.
Wake me up when September ends.