Two of Jerod Mayo’s former Patriots teammates believe he showed signs of his head coaching future when he was still a player for the team.
Rob Gronkowski joined Julian Edelman on a recent episode of the podcast Games With Names and Edelman asked him about his rookie memories of Mayo. Gronkowski explained how Mayo “showed his coaching abilities” by being aware of where everyone on the field was supposed to be and what opposing teams were going to try to do on every play.
“Jerod Mayo was just a phenomenon on the football field with lining every one up and then also in the meeting rooms as well,” Gronkowski said. “He knew where every player needed to be during any situation that occurred on the defensive side of the ball. He knew how to read offenses. He knew when to call out plays and he was always correct when he was calling the play out or else he was just making the whole defense aware when that play was going to be called that they were looking out for or what type of run was going to be run at the offensive side of the ball. He was just always alert. You could always tell that was going to translate into the next phase of his life.”
Edelman was a wide receiver, but he also saw time on defense while Mayo was in New England and said he would “always ask to get the approval from Jerod” about what he was supposed to do because he knew he was doing the right thing if Mayo signed off on it. Mayo will now be doing that for the entire organization and the Patriots hope it will turn out as successfully as it did when he was on the field.
