New England Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo has been wearing a headset on the sideline at training camp. But don’t be fooled. He’s technically not calling plays for the team.
“We’re not calling anything at camp yet,” Belichick said during a press conference at Gillette Stadium on Monday night. “The plays are all scripted.”
Say what?
Belichick explained that, for the time being, the Patriots organize a set of plays that they will call during practice. Nothing is much of a surprise for these first few days of training camp — and that’s so they can work on specific concepts. So Mayo may be relaying plays, but he’s not really calling them.
“There’s a whole planning structure to training camp and everything that we do,” Belichick said. “We do drills offensively that benefit us, that benefit the offense. Each side has a chance to know what the other side is doing so that one side’s not unprepared, if something happens, then we might not get anything out of it because we haven’t covered it. So that’s not very beneficial.
“We want to try to match things up that are competitive and that we, realistically, are going to see from either direction, and build that going forward. There will be a point where we’re not doing that. But for now, we’re going to get it installed and see what we need to see.”
Belichick didn’t seem to say this to undercut Mayo’s contributions in his rookie season as the team’s linebacker coach. Belichick showed Mayo some love for his immediate impact on defense.
“Jerod’s great,” Belichick said. “He brings a lot of value to our football team and our defense.”
