Newly installed New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo is making a lot of changes in terms of how the organization does things, but he is assuring everyone that it is no slight to former coach Bill Belichick.

“Look, it’s going to be different,” Mayo said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. “At the same time, I would say Bill did a great job for a long period of time. I don’t want you guys to take this as, because we’re changing, (these are) shots at the previous regime. In saying that, we will do it differently. It’ll feel different, but at the end of the day, we would like to replicate the success that the prior regime had. I learned a lot from Bill and also his staff. But now we’ll see what this chapter looks like in the franchise.”

Belichick coached the Patriots for 24 years and also held the title of general manager, so essentially, all of the team’s roster moves went through him.

But now, with Belichick gone and Mayo at the helm, things will obviously be altered.

“It’s been done a certain way at a high level for what, 20-plus years?” added Mayo. “But I would also say there’s more than one way to skin a cat. It worked for coach (Belichick). We’ll see what works for Eliot [Wolf] and myself.”

Mayo played as a linebacker for Belichick for eight seasons between 2008 and 2015, making a couple of trips to the Pro Bowl and earning a First-Team All-Pro selection after leading the NFL with 174 tackles back in 2010.

Then, in 2019, Mayo was named New England’s linebackers coach and held that title through this past season before being elevated to the role of head coach after Belichick’s departure.

While Mayo will obviously be doing things differently from Belichick, it would certainly be silly to knock the legendary coach considering he won six Super Bowl championships in Foxborough.

However, it also became clear that Bill Belichick was beginning to lose a bit of his luster, as the Pats failed to make the playoffs in three of his last four seasons.

We’ll see if Mayo can rejuvenate the franchise in 2024 and beyond.

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