Patriots Rumors: What Jerod Mayo’s Like When Interviewing Coaches

When Jerod Mayo interviews Patriots coaching candidates, he, in a way, is being interviewed himself.

Some candidates will take any job they’re offered. But others want to learn more about who they’d be working for before accepting a new job. And as New England enters its post-Bill Belichick era, there’s no guarantee that every assistant will love the idea of coaching for Mayo and the Patriots.

To that end, there’s both good and bad news on Mayo in a piece published Sunday by Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal. Bedard spoke with one candidate who didn’t like what he saw from Mayo, and another who left his interview impressed with the rookie head coach.

Here’s the full excerpt from Bedard’s column:

There’s been some warranted criticism of the Patirots’ process and the interviews conducted by Mayo — one candidate ranked his Patriots interview well below the rest — but I did speak to another coach who was extremely impressed by the Patriots’ rookie head coach.

“He was very sharp,” said the coach. “There were a lot of people in there (including Robyn Glaser, who didn’t ask any questions) and you could see a lot of note-taking going on, but Jerod was fully engaged. His questions were really good and he asked great follow-ups where you could tell he was engaged. He wasn’t just reading them off a piece of paper.

“That really impressed me. That’s the type of thing that can indicate that he’s going to very good at game management on the fly. Seems to be a big-picture guy, but he knew what he was talking about. I think he’s going to do a good job.”

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Mayo’s made a slew of hires since replacing Belichick.

As of Tuesday morning, New England had filled 11 vacancies, including all three coordinator jobs. And with Will Lawing (tight ends) and Vinnie Sunseri (running backs) both bolting for college, there are at least two assistant roles still unfilled.