Patriots Football Daily: Will Different be Better in New England?

Yesterday the New England Patriots had head coach Jerod Mayo and their three new coordinators meet the press. There will be separate coverage of what those men had to say. They also had a “happy hour” for media members to chat with the entire Patriots coaching staff after those four had spoken. To say the absolute least, things are different in Foxboro.

While it is refreshing in many ways to have significantly more open communication in New England (especially as a member of the media) will this new approach be better for New England? This is the million-dollar question.

The New England Patriots haven’t made the playoffs in two seasons and haven’t won a postseason game in five. But before those five seasons was the 2018 Super Bowl season. And there were five Super Bowl championship seasons in Foxboro before that, in addition to nine AFC Championships under former head coach Bill Belichick. Post being, the “old way” in New England worked very well for a very long time.

But part of the reason for the “Belichick coaching tree” not having more success (in this scribe’s opinion at least) is because too many of Belichick’s assistants tried to emulate their former boss when they landed head coaching jobs elsewhere. It’s a copycat league in many ways, but coaches are only going to earn and keep credibility by being themselves. Trying to copy Bill Belichick’s success does not mean needing to copy every aspect of how he went about his business.

Jerod Mayo doing what works best for him and his staff is what is most important now. Mayo is his own man and seems comfortable doing things his way. That is good. It does not mean the way Bill Belichick did things was bad though, just different. Very, very different.

Also in today’s Patriots Football Daily…

New England Patriots

Patriots Football Now – End of an era: Matthew Slater announces retirement

Patriots Football Now – New England parts ways with two veteran leaders

“The Dynasty”

Patriots Football Now – Review of Episode 1: Backup Plan

Patriots Football Now – Review of Episode 2: The Snow Bowl

NFL Draft

Patriots Football Now – NFL Draft: History of the No. 3 pick

Patriots Football Now – NFL Mock Draft 2.0

NFL News

Patriots Football Now – Key dates on the 2024 NFL calendar

NFL.com – Each team’s WR outlook ahead of free agency, draft

Pro Football Network – Insider details Eagles late season collapse

Yardbarker – Adrian Peterson responds after his trophies, including MVP, go up for sale

ESPN – Justin Fields tired of trade talk

Boston Bruins

Go over to our sibling site Boston Hockey Now to check out the great Boston Bruins coverage from Jimmy Murphy and the BHN team. The NHL season is underway and plenty is happening in the Bruins 100 Anniversary season.

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Football Fun Fact of the Day

The New England Patriots now have two players from their 2014 Super Bowl championship team on the coaching staff, but zero are still on the roster.

Post of the Day

Post of the Day comes from Matt Chatham with help from Gus, the kicking mule…

What’s the most unrealistic thing you can recall happening in a sports movie?

Mule kickers ftw https://t.co/3nrNeExLed pic.twitter.com/csljr2s9mF

— Matt Chatham (@chatham58) February 22, 2024