FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots introduced Jerod Mayo as their new head coach at a press conference at Gillette Stadium today. He becomes the 15th head coach in franchise history.
Mayo was drafted by the Patriots in the first round (10th overall) of the 2008 draft out of Tennessee and spent his entire NFL career in New England before retiring following the 2015 season. Mayo played linebacker and appeared in 103 games during his career, racking up 905 total tackles. He was named captain for seven consecutive seasons (2009-15) and is a 2014 Super Bowl Champion. Mayo made the Pro Bowl after the 2010 and 2012 seasons after leading the league in tackles each season. In 2010, he earned Associated Press first-team All-Pro honors. He led the Patriots in total tackles in each of his first five seasons and became just the second Patriots player to win the Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year award. Mayo played collegiately at Tennessee from 2005-07 and appeared in 32 games, registering 236 total tackles.
Mayo becomes the fourth person to be named head coach after playing for the previous coach with the same team since the 1970 merger. The others are Mike Tice of Minnesota (under Dennis Green), Jack Pardee of Washington (under George Allen) and Bart Starr of Green Bay (under Dan Devine).
Following his retirement, Mayo served as an executive in finance at Optum as vice president of business development before returning to the Patriots to start his coaching career as inside linebackers coach in 2019. While at Optum from 2016 through 2019, Mayo took the skills and understanding that he mastered in football and transformed himself into a business executive. While at Optum, he worked on consumer solutions with clients and consulted on mergers and acquisitions.
Since joining the Patriots coaching staff, the Patriots have finished in the top-10 in total defense in four of his five seasons, including in each of the last three…
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