The New England Patriots are said to already have a replacement for Bill Belichick after deciding to part ways with the veteran head coach.
The team announced having mutually agreed to end their relationship this Thursday, and Belichick has since spoken to reporters at a press conference in which he expressed his gratitude.
“Robert [Kraft] and I, after a series of discussions, have mutually agreed to part ways. For me, this is a day of gratitude and celebration,” he said.
“It’s an amazing opportunity. Received tremendous support. We had a vision of building a winner, building a championship football team here. It’s exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations, the amount of success that we were able to achieve together through a lot of hard work and the contributions of so many people.”
The team will begin its search for a head coach this week. However, according to NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran, they will be going through the procedure for formality’s sake as they already have linebackers coach Jerod Mayo lined up to take over.
“The indications that I’ve gotten is that Jerod Mayo will be the successor to Bill,” Curran said. “That will be an interesting aspect of this press conference today. I don’t know if it’ll be mentioned or handled in a separate press conference.”
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport is also reporting that Mayo is the top in-house candidate.
Mayo has been part of the Patriots staff since 2019 and played for the team from 2008-2015. He would represent a sensible choice for the organization but would be walking into a pressure-filled situation should he land the job.
