The New England Patriots have undergone a great deal of change this offseason. They've parted ways with legendary coach Bill Belichick and brought in Jerod Mayo and Drake Maye as the future of the franchise. Now they've handed a contract extension to one of their key defensive starters.
According to ESPN's Mike Reiss and Adam Schefter, the Patriots have signed linebacker Jahlani Tavai to a three-year contract extension. The base value of the contract is $15 million with a maximum value of $21 million.
Tavai has been an awesome reclamation story in the NFL. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft. The Lions were still in the Matt Patricia era, and the idea was that Tavai would become a top inside linebacker in the mold of other large Patriots linebackers. Things did not work out for Patricia in Detroit and many of his defensive players have since been flushed from the Lions defense. Jahlani Tavai is the only one of those players to rebound to have success with another team.
Tavai started off in a rotational role in New England and eventually played his way into the starting lineup. In 2023, he had a breakout season with 110 total tackles, two forced fumbles, and two interceptions. The Patriots decided to reward his hard work with a reasonable contract extension. It should keep Tavai in New England through his best years of his career.
Tavai and Ja'Whaun Bentley hold down the middle of a Patriots defense that has endured little change in the first offseason of the Mayo era. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo makes training camp change from Belichick era
Bill Belichick's reign as head coach of the New England Patriots is a tough act to follow.
New head coach Jerod Mayo is doing his best to put his own stamp on the team. We recently learned of one change coming to Patriots' training camp this year that is much different than in the Belichick years.
Mayo has adjusted the time of day that players actually hit the practice field.
“One example of how Mayo is putting his own stamp on the Patriots is what time they plan to practice in training camp — 11 a.m. ET. Under Belichick in his final stretch of seasons, the team practiced at 9:30 a.m,” said Mike Reiss of ESPN. “Perhaps now there is a little more time for meetings before practice, and temperatures will rise a bit and test the team's conditioning.”
Ultimately, this is a small change. However, it does signal that things are changing in New England.
Asking players to endure hot temperatures is not something that every coach can pull off. Luckily, Mayo has a lot of clout with the Patriots and more importantly, the credibility of being a former NFL player. This should give him more latitude to ask more from his players because they know he's been there before.
Don't worry coach, we won't start expecting you to do up-downs with the team like Dan Campbell did with the Lions on Hard Knocks.
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