Getting to know a Denver Broncos coaching candidate: Jerod Mayo

FIRST IN A SERIES

“I don’t think leaders are born. But I have seen people evolve into leaders.”

Jerod Mayo, inside linebackers coach of the New England Patriots, shared those words in a Patriots-produced video feature posted on Jan. 6. The title: “Do Your Life: Jerod Mayo’s Journey and Leadership.”

The timing couldn’t be more perfect for pulling back the curtain to understand why Mayo has popped onto the radar in coaching searches, including that of the Broncos, who requested permission Monday to interview Mayo.

New England is preparing for its postseason opener against Buffalo next Sunday, so the Broncos would not be able to interview him until next week. But what they will find is a young, 35-year-old coach whose leadership gravitas far outstrips his relatively thin resume — the most slender of any of the coaching candidates currently known to be in the Broncos’ sights.

Mayo has only been on the Pats’ staff since 2019, joining the team barely three years after his final game in an eight-season playing career spent entirely with the Patriots. A two-time Pro Bowler and an All-Pro, Mayo was one of the league’s best inside linebackers until injuries caught up to him during the final three seasons of his career, forcing him to the sideline for 26 of the final 49 possible games of his career, including postseason.

In seven of Mayo’s eight seasons as a player, he was a team captain. What Tom Brady was to leading the Pats offense, Mayo was on the defensive side.

“A lot of people say, ‘Don’t talk about leadership.’ I don’t believe that you shouldn’t talk about leadership,” Mayo said on the afore-mentioned video. “You can’t evolve into a leader unless you talk to other leaders.”

That proved valuable after he retired from playing. He left football to join the corporate world, taking a position with Optum, a health-insurance company. He quickly advanced to become a vice-president of business development.

Mayo’s leadership attributes translated to the business world, as his supervisor at Optum, Mike Mateo, noted in that Patriots-produced video.

“When I think about leadership, it’s not about telling people what to do. It’s about inspiring people to really do things they thought they could never do,” Mateo explained.

“And I think that’s a gift that he has: not just in football, but in life.”

This could be significant. The Broncos aren’t just looking for a coach who can diagram a play. After five consecutive losing seasons, they’re looking for a coach who can lead not just the players and assistant coaches, but who can be a leader looked to by the entire organization.

Mayo’s unique blend of experience in football and the business world is well-suited to where NFL organizations are headed; they are businesses for whom football and the on-field product is the driving thrust and the focal point, but is not the entire equation.

Many NFL teams have canyons separating football from non-football operations. Mayo’s experience could allow him to bridge those gaps, creating a stronger organization in the process.

He’s not simply a leader of men. He’s a leader of people.

“The best leaders that I’ve been around have been able to command a room,” Mayo explained in the video, “and really just get a group of people going after a common goal.”

One other aspect worth considering on Mayo is this: His resume shares many common threads with that of the most successful branch of the Belichick tree: Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.

Both were the same type of players under Patriots linebacker coach Bill Belichick: intelligent, tough, tenacious and outstanding as huddle and locker-room leaders. Like Mayo, Vrabel played eight seasons under Belichick; the two were teammates for one campaign (2008).

Although Vrabel never coached under Belichick, he spent four years on Belchick acolyte Bill O’Brien’s staff in Houston, working the 2014-16 seasons as the team’s linebackers coach before moving to the coordinator spot.

Vrabel has never had a losing season as a head coach. His Tennessee Titans are the No. 1 seed in this year’s postseason, have advanced to the AFC Championship Game once and have back-to-back division titles to their credit.

But it’s what Vrabel learned from the NFL’s winningest active coach that stands out. As was witnessed in the 2019 wild-card round, Vrabel’s skillful use of the play clock was effectively out-Belichicking the master himself. And that is the type of leadership, attention to detail and next-level thinking that a team would be hoping to get from Mayo.

Learning from Belichick was a key factor in his taking the coaching job in 2019.

“I honestly just wanted to come and learn from Bill,” he said in the Patriots-produced video, and it wasn’t even really about the Xs and Os, it was just about leadership and building a culture.”

At some point, Mayo should get a chance to demonstrate those attributes as a head coach. It might not happen in Denver, but an interview would be a significant step in that process.