Bill Belichick’s potential heir makes too much sense for Patriots

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick may hand the flaming torch to this former New England player when it comes time for Belichick to step down.

Unlike Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Bill Belichick hasn’t scattered pieces of his soul around the league and will not live forever like Voldemort.

His long and storied reign on the New England Patriots will end at some point, and when it does, linebackers coach Jerod Mayo will be waiting for the opportunity of a lifetime.

Mayo has served under Belichick since 2019 as the inside linebackers coach; he spent nearly a decade playing that position for the Patriots, winning a DROY award as well as the Super Bowl in his third season.

He’s earned the respect of both Belichick and Robert Kraft as a long-time member of the Pats franchise, so it’s no surprise that he’s in the running for the future head coach position.

In a recent interview, Kraft had nothing but praise for Mayo and refused to put a ceiling on the young coach’s career.

Jerod Mayo is rumored to succeed Bill Belichick as Pats head coach

Mayo was rumored to be a future Pats head coach candidate earlier this week when he re-upped his deal with the Patriots. Some saw that as Mayo and the Pats brass making a closed-door pact in which New England was promising him a future head coaching job if he stuck around and waited it out.

With several vacant head coaching gigs this offseason, why else wouldn’t Mayo have left the Patriots to take the next step in his career? The most logical explanation is that he is waiting in the wings for Belichick’s retirement and the ensuing sizable promotion.

Mayo’s coaching career started off with a bang, after all:  in Mayo’s first season as linebackers coach, he oversaw Dont’a Hightower’s thriving success, and the Pats defense ranked first in yards per game and points allowed.

Much of that has to do with Bill Belichick’s defensive genius, but Mayo deserves credit, too. For the Patriots, it may not be a matter of who steps up to be Belichick’s successor, but when. As of now, Belichick has no plans of retiring anytime soon, and barring any calamitous seasons, his resume and his name will cement him as the captain of the ship for the foreseeable future.