Will Patriots’ Jerod Mayo Be Bigger Free Agent Draw Than Bill Belichick?

The Patriots have a few questions to answer this offseason.

New England, in the process of spending that cash we've all been talking about, will partly look to retool its roster through free agency. It's expected that we'll have a better understanding of where things stand after the new league year begins March 13, but we'll also find the answer to a question some of us have been wondering.

Could Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo be a bigger free agent draw than Bill Belichick was?

The reasoning behind the question is relatively straightforward. Mayo is younger, he's a former player, he's made it clear that New England will be much more relaxed under his watch and... he's younger. Did we mention that part already?

Patriots star Matthew Judon already indirectly made a pretty good recruiting pitch on behalf of Mayo.

"I think there's a lot of excitement for a guy like Mayo to get that job and to see what he can do in the lead position and actually run his own ship," Judon said back in January. "Just from being a former player to a coach to (having) a business background, he left the game for a little bit but it called him back. That's homegrown talent in a coach.

"I think we're really excited to see what he can do this upcoming season and actually get to learn from him and get to see the game how he actually wants to portray it."

It would be silly to ignore the big-name free agents that Belichick secured across his tenure in New England, of course. Rodney Harrison joined the Patriots specifically to play for the legendary head coach. Mike Vrabel, Darrelle Revis, Danny Amendola and Rob Ninkovich all worked out damn well, though it can be argued most of those were great finds.

It already has been argued that the 71-year-old struggles to relate to this generation of players, though. It's not a shot at his abilities as a coach; it's just something that has been noticed by his own former players.

Mayo could swing and miss at any free agents he attempts to lure to One Patriot Place, so we're not speaking in definite. We might, however, be talking in absolutes in a week or two.