Jerod Mayo aims to ‘surround himself with good people’ as Patriots head coach

Mayo will look to put together his coaching staff and personnel department.

Jerod Mayo was officially introduced as the New England Patriots head coach Wednesday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.

As the new head coach now gets to work — an evaluation process in which he hopes to “plant the seeds” of the next dynasty — he will start the process of putting together his coaching staff.

The main criteria: collecting a group of good people.

“One thing I learned from Coach [Bill Belichick] and from [Robert Kraft] is about just surrounding yourself with good people, surrounding yourself with good people,” Mayo said. “As far as our staff and things like that, we’re going to be good. We’re going to be a lot better.”

Much of the focus will be centered on Mayo’s choices along the offensive side of the ball — as the Patriots’ 13.9 points per game in the 2023 season was tied for last in the league. While offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien remains under contract, Mayo noted that everything remains under consideration.

“Obviously, the staff that I’ve been working with isn’t the staff that I have chosen, but everything is under evaluation,” he explained. “One thing I would say with all of my coaches, the number one thing is developing people, and with this generation — back when I first started playing, most of the time Coach would say something and guys would do it. I think with this generation, you have to show them that you care about them before you get into competency as far as Xs and Os are concerned.

“That’s one thing I feel like with all my coaches, they should know the players. They should know their room better than I do. They’re closer. They’re closer to those guys, and they have that day-to-day interaction. But to me, whether we’re talking offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, all that stuff is under eval, and my number one thing is I want to bring in developers.”

Since being named New England’s head coach last week, Mayo has been busy starting to interview potential coaching candidates. That included an interview with Temu Lukabu for the defensive coordinator role, while a request was put out to Marquice Williams for a special teams position.

One thing the coach did confirm was that there will be clear cut titles for his staff moving forward — although collaboration will remain key.

“I think it’s important. I think titles are important, and I know — no knock to Coach Belichick who has been a huge mentor to me over the years as a player and as a colleague, what I would say is I believe titles are important outward-looking, but as far as in the building, I don’t care what your title is,” Mayo, who worked under the title of assistant linebackers coach of late, explained.

“It’s what’s your job, what value do you bring to the organization. I think that’s the most important thing. Sometimes I think in business, in sports, people get caught up in titles, but I also understand the other side. If you want to continue to get promoted, people have to know exactly what you do. But like I said earlier, inside, it’s all about collaboration. That’s what [Robert Kraft] talked about, and that’s what I’m about, as well.”

Beyond the coaching staff, Mayo and Kraft will also evaluate the football operations department — as Bill Belichick additionally served as the team’s general manager. While external options are still in play, that search will begin internally with individuals such as Director of Player Personnel Matt Groh, Director of Scouting Eliot Wolf, Director of College Scouting Camren Williams, and Pro Scouting Director Steve Cargile — all who were in attendance on Wednesday.

“This is the first time in a quarter of a century we had to make major changes, and we want to see what we have in-house, look what’s out there in the marketplace, and then do what we think is right,” Kraft explained.

“I know people have ideas, but I can just assure you, any decision we make at this time will be to try to give the support to Jerod and put the organization in the best position it can to win games. We don’t have a fixed formula. We’re going to do — we know what’s worked for us in the past, and that’s what we’re going to do here in the future.”

This offseason marks a strong starting point to help turn the organization around, as the Patriots are projected to be strapped with nearly $70 million in cap space while also holding the No. 3 pick in the NFL Draft.

As Mayo will be coaching the team off the field, he and Kraft will look to find who will be leading the process of using those resources to put the team together off of it.

“Our team has a tremendous opportunity to position itself right, given our salary cap space, and we’ve never drafted — in my 30 years of ownership, we’ve never been drafting as low as we’re drafting,” Kraft said.

“We’re counting on our internal people whom we’re still learning and evaluating. So, we’re going to let that evolve and develop, and before the key decisions have to be made, we will appoint someone. At the same time, we’ll probably start doing interviews and looking at people from the outside. But my bias has always been, in all our family companies, to try to develop a culture from within where we understand one another.”