FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Robert Kraft remembers the day he knew Jerod Mayo would be Bill Belichick’s successor as New England Patriots head coach. Kraft was waiting in a private lounge at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, joined by past and present Patriots players at the end of a six-day trip in June 2019.
Kraft had regularly sponsored spiritual visits to Israel, bringing Pro Football Hall of Famers who have described being baptized in the Jordan River and visiting holy sites in Jerusalem as transformative.
This trip was different. Dedicated solely to Patriots players from all eras of his ownership tenure, it transformed Kraft’s future vision for the franchise.
There was a delay returning home. The airport lounge was like a locker room. And Mayo was in the middle, surrounded by players from the 1990s such as quarterback Drew Bledsoe and cornerback and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ty Law, players from the early and mid-2000s including running back Kevin Faulk and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, and players from the 2010s with cornerback Stephon Gilmore and offensive linemen David Andrews and Joe Thuney.
Kraft observed how Mayo, who had been working for the healthcare company Optum since his NFL retirement following the 2015 season, connected with the diverse group.
“What especially got my attention was how he organized some meetings, a dialogue. … It was with veterans and current Patriots. He had been out of the organization, but that showed me a skill of being able to get along,” Kraft said.
“A bell went off, and I said, ‘That’s my next head coach.'”
When the Patriots take the field at the New York Jets on Thursday night (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), Mayo will be on the sideline making his prime-time head-coaching debut. It will be the first time in 25 years Belichick won’t be coaching the Patriots against an AFC East rival.
It’s the beginning of the new Patriot Way.
The differences in leadership between Belichick and Mayo are striking. Belichick was rigid and intimidating to approach, with relentless attention to detail that included challenging players with pop quizzes about the upcoming opponent. Mayo believes in empowering players and investing in them personally before demanding more on the field.
“It’s about developing people,” Mayo said. “I want those guys to play well each and every snap and win a bunch of games. But I also want them to be resilient when times are tough. That leads to the post-football career.”
The change in culture was intentional. Kraft believes players entering the NFL respond better to a different style of coaching than they did a decade ago. At the same time, he knew that moving away from the old-school Belichick for a first-time head coach was a gamble — especially for a team in the middle of a rebuild.
The early returns have been promising as the Patriots are 1-1, something that wasn’t expected from a team ESPN’s Football Power Index projected would have the least amount of wins this season.
The season-opening victory over the Cincinnati Bengals was the biggest Week 1 upset across the NFL since 2018, according to ESPN Research, with the Patriots entering as a 7.5-point underdog.
It’s a potential sign that Mayo’s way is working.
Outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins, who is in his first year in New England after spending a decade with the Baltimore Ravens under John Harbaugh and the past two seasons on Brian Daboll’s New York Giants staff, described Mayo as “a great North Star to look up to.”
“The details he coaches with, the enthusiasm he brings to the room, a guy who collaborates and brings positive energy into the building every day, you can’t ask for anything more than that,” Wilkins said.
MAYO, 38, is younger than Belichick’s decorated 49-year coaching career.
He was Belichick’s first-round draft pick in 2008 out of Tennessee as the 10th selection. Mayo played linebacker for the Patriots from 2008 to 2015 — a seven-time captain who totaled 905 tackles — then coached on Belichick’s staff from 2019 to 2023.
Some teammates called Mayo “Mini Bill” because they believed he saw the game through a coach’s lens. Mayo lived minutes away from the team facility because he spent so much time there — like Belichick. When players wanted to sway Belichick on things like changing the team’s itinerary, they would ask Mayo to speak to him.
To Mayo, those were moments he could prove to his teammates that he had their backs. He points to that relationship building as a foundational part of his coaching style now.
Such an approach appealed to Kraft, who said at Mayo’s introductory news conference in January: “I think we’ve got someone very special who understands how to manage young people today. The world is different than 20 years ago, even 10 years ago.”
This is why Law, a former Patriot who became close with Mayo in Israel, believes Kraft made a shrewd choice.
“You have to have someone in tune with that, and he understands these players,” Law said of Mayo. “Think about second- and third-round draft picks; that used to be a huge deal. Now with NIL, some of those guys are taking a pay cut from college, they’re already coming in as millionaires. It’s a different mentality, and [Mayo is] young enough to understand it.”