1 – There were no pads, no hitting took place and no veteran players took part, but first-time Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo got his first real taste of his new job with New England holding its rookie mini-camp at Gillette Stadium this weekend.
The enormity of the task facing Mayo and his team – establishing a new culture and trying to win football games in the first year post-Bill Belichick in Foxborough – will grow in the comings months as veteran mini-camp, training camp, preseason and then, finally, regular season all action arrive.
Like the rookies he and his newly-hired coaching staff were coaching up on the practice fields, Mayo is certainly aware of the development process he’s undergoing. And if he wasn’t, he certainly realized it taking the field with his crop of draft picks, undrafted players and tryouts.
“It feels great. It feels great to get on, like the first day I was out on the field with the guys, that was like that ‘a-ha’ moment. Everyone was asking me, you know, ‘how does it feel?’ It felt regular to me to be inside, but as soon as I came out here and was able to talk to different positions, that was like that ‘a-ha’ moment.
A former All-Pro linebacker who’s spent recent years helping run the defense on Belichick’s staff, Mayo revealed as the man who’s now overseeing the entire operation he’s spent a lot of time this spring brushing up on his offense.
“I have been over with the offense more than I have been with the defense. And that just goes back to continuing to grow and continuing to learn, like I said in those offensive meetings as well. I am learning right alongside those guys,” Mayo said. “As far as practice is concerned, I am going to bounce around, offense, defense, special teams. I mean, they all play a huge part in winning football games, but that is the benefit of having a bigger staff, or a larger staff, so I am able to do that.
2 – Mayo realizes – or at least is learning – that everything he does and says as the head coach of the Patriots will be dissected and analyzed.
Including his practice field attire. That’s why he apparently opened rookie mini-camp in shorts and a t-shirt even though a hooded sweatshirt may have been more comfortable. Because in case anyone forgot, the guy he’s taking over for kinda built a personal coaching brand around wearing hooded sweatshirts.
So on a Saturday morning on the practice field Mayo’s shorts and t-shirt weren’t just him channeling his inner old-school, hardo football coach.
“Honestly, I thought it was going to be a little warmer out here. I like hoodies. At the same time, I’m trying to do my own thing without the hoodie and now I’m just going to freeze my butt off,” Mayo said, jokingly acknowledging Belichick’s famous look.
3 – Mayo obviously wasn’t the only one making a big first step in his career, as No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye was certainly the most notable player on the field for rookie mini-camp. The would-be franchise QB is hitting the ground running in New England, taking extra time trying to get up to speed on the playbook off the field while working on his footwork and under-center reps on it.
“I think kind of the first day, just feeling it out and just getting more and more reps. That’s all something new takes. Just getting more reps at it,” Maye told reporters. “There’s a lot I’m trying out new, two new stances that I’m getting used to. So, just working on it, repping it. And I’m starting … I felt pretty good out there today. So, just got to keep working.”
4 – Mayo made it clear that as much talent as Maye brings and as high as the expectations are for the young passer, he’s by no means a ready-made option at this point.
“Look, he has a lot to work on. A lot to work on. But I have no doubt that he will put the time in,” Mayo said, noting that young quarterback had been working “all night” to get up to speed for practice.
5 – After concluding post-draft interviews for the newly-created title/position, the Patriots somewhat quietly announced on a Saturday afternoon that the team had officially hired Eliot Wolf as the team’s Executive Vice President of Player Personnel. It’s the highest title for a personnel chief that New England has had in decades, Wolf getting the acknowledgment of the weight he carried in this year’s offseason process in terms of running free agency and a draft that included the critical No. 3 overall pick.
Regardless of the details of the process, it would have been surprising and strange had anyone other than Wolf been tasked with running the New England scouting department at this point.
“As I have started multiple times during the offseason, the plan was to observe the working relationship and involvement between Eliot and Jerod and see how they managed our offseason personnel decisions,” Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft said in a statement announcing the move. “Then, following the draft we would formally undertake a process for setting up the permanent structure of our personnel department. I have been impressed with Eliot’s management style and experience and I’m excited that he has agreed to take on this new position.”
6 – Watching Maye – and big-armed rookie teammate Joe Milton III – throw in the mini-camp environment is noteworthy. But so, too, are the guys catching the ball such as second-round pick Ja’Lynn Polk and fourth-rounder Javon Baker. For whatever it’s worth at this incredibly early point, Polk observed both tangible and intangibles that impressed him from his playmaking counterpart Maye.
“The guy can sling it, man,” Polk told reporters after practice. “He’s very confident. He’s a leader, very vocal and just trying to find ways to put this team in the best opportunity possible. “He’s setting the tone in practice, trying to get guys moving around and operating at a high level.”
7 – While coaches and teammates alike seem confident Maye will put in the required work to develop, he won’t go it alone. Mayo said quite definitively that the most critical member of the coaching staff in regards to Maye’s evolution in the coming months and years will be first-year New England offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
“Across the league, most offensive coordinators, they interact with the quarterback, the starting quarterback for the most part. We do have a group of coaches that have quarterback backgrounds, but I would say overall it would be AVP as far as that lead guy,” Mayo declared. “You don’t want Drake hearing too many voices. Once again, that’s why I’m saying that AVP will be the lead guy as far as that communication with Drake.”
That relationship between the young QB and the coach getting to run his own offense for essentially the first time in the NFL is apparently off to a good start.
“I think he is doing a great job of coaching me hard, and I want to be coached hard,” Maye said. “He knows there’s going to be a growing side, a mental side to it, so he’s understanding. But also, if you’re not doing your right job, he’s going to tell you. So it’s been awesome so far.”
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