Get to know the Browns defensive coordinator candidates
By Joel W. Cade
Jerod Mayo – The Innovator
The Ivy League-educated front office likes new ideas. They also like diversity in the workplace and on the football field. The Browns like players who can do more than one thing. The more one can do, the more one is valuable to the front office.
The most diverse defense in the NFL belongs to the New England Patriots. The Patriots have the personnel to line up in a 3-4 base and run various packages out of that. Then, the next week they can line up in a 4-3 base defense with all the personnel to handle that. The Patriots’ defense has truly become, as Bruce Lee suggests, like water bending to the needs of the opponent.
There’s no doubt that such an approach intrigues the front office. Such versatility and how it is coached, created, and formed to each occasion is a piece of knowledge the Browns front office would love to acquire.
The #Browns have requested permission to interview #Patriots defensive assistant Jerod Mayo for their vacant DC job, source said. He's considered a top candidate there.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 9, 2023
The problem for Mayo is his lack of experience. After a distinguished career as a linebacker, Mayo was hired on as the linebackers coach for the Patriots in 2019.
Mayo is known as a film junkie who shows up early and stays late. He is, in short, exactly the type of assistant Patriots head coach Bill Belichick loves. He is a young coach who has had success at the position coach level.
Again, the Browns would be nowhere near ready to implement his scheme. Their personnel is already established to run a 4-3 cover 3 scheme. Analytics favors this type of scheme. This is why the next candidate should be viewed as a serious candidate for the job.