Long before the quarterbacks and receivers arrive at Patriots practice, spirals can be seen soaring through the air on the back fields at Gillette Stadium.
It’s not a couple of rookies looking for extra reps. Instead, it’s a couple of guys looking to decompress between the end of meetings and the start of on-field preparations.
Steve Belichick and Jerod Mayo, the central decision-makers for a Patriots defense that is rolling, make use of the pre-practice calm to clear their heads and stretch their arms.
“Honestly, we like to get outside of the building and just clear our heads,” Mayo said.
It starts with a walk through the stadium tunnels up to the fields, where the conversations run the gamut from football to family to all points in between.
“We talk about everything, talk about life, talk about families,” said Belichick. “He’s got kids, I’ve got kids. His kids are a little bit older than mine. What he’s going through and what I’m going through.
“We talk about football, we talk about scheme, we talk about everything, and I’d say there’s really no limit to those conversations. Once you become so close with somebody, then there’s a lot to talk about.”
Their friendship was forged during Mayo’s playing days, but the closeness was born out of hours and hours spent together watching film in what Belichick affectionately calls the Dungeon.
It was a relationship that formed organically. The final seasons of Mayo’s Pro Bowl career ended prematurely because of injuries, and that coincided with Belichick’s time as a quality-control guy in the scouting department.
As Belichick would break down film and prepare reports on upcoming opponents behind the scenes, Mayo would be working on returning to the field, also behind the scenes. Though neither remembers specifically when their worlds collided, both point to that time as an important point in their development as confidants and coaches.
“Obviously I was kind of down and out for a while with the injuries,” Mayo said. “But one thing that kept me up, besides my family, was watching film and really studying film in a different way, and Steve was definitely helpful in my development early on.”
The time spent together turned out to be mutually beneficial tutorial sessions.
“He would help me break down film,” said Belichick. “I think he was interested in the type of roles, the type of things that I did. He kind of got the final product of those scouting reports.
“But the work that I put in, and then from my perspective, I got to ask him, would you run these type of plays against our defense? Or would these type of plays be a problem against our defense? Or why is this defense not handling this play well, even though it’s an easy play? Or was this defense doing a good job on this play, even though it’s a hard play?
“And we went back and forth a lot. And honestly it turned into kind of a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday thing. We’d sit in there for hours and just kind of go back and forth. And I learned from an elite player’s perspective. And I think hopefully I taught him a couple things from what I saw as a coach.”
The seeds of a coaching career had been planted in Mayo’s head, but following his retirement after the 2015 season, he acknowledged he needed a break from the game and initially turned down Bill Belichick’s offer to join his staff. After three years in the corporate world, however, the pull was too strong when Bill called again.
“He’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to coach? I’ll show you and teach you everything,’ ” said Mayo. “And I was like, ‘Absolutely. I’m in, I’m in.’ ”
Mayo added that the people skills he developed working outside of football at Optum benefited him as a coach.
Steve Belichick said Mayo’s leadership skills in all areas of his life help set the tone.
“How he’s able to deal with people is very impressive,” said Belichick. “Going from being captain of an NFL championship-winning football team to working in corporate to coming back and being a coach.
“He relates to pretty much everybody in the building, offense, defense, cafeteria ladies, security workers. He’s just a person I’ve learned a lot from and I’m happy that we’re able to have the relationship we do.”
Mayo joined the staff as a linebackers coach in 2019, when Belichick was the secondary/safeties coach. They joined forces coaching the linebackers in 2020.
For the last two seasons, they’ve shared a ton of responsibilities on defense, from running meetings and drills to calling plays on game days.
It’s those game-day stages when Belichick and Mayo rely on all of their behind-the-scenes preparations to find success.
The Patriots were top five in sacks (32) and takeaways (17) heading into their bye week.
“Most of the time we’re on the same page,” said Mayo. “We talk through various situations that are happening currently and then what could happen. And most of the time we’re on the same page as far as calls, as far as personnel groupings, and things like that.”
In a world where egos can sometimes get in the way, that has never been the case in this relationship.
“There are zero egos,” said Mayo. “Look, there are no titles. What are we talking about? In all honesty, the staff is great. We just want to win football games. And we feel like if we put the best darn defense on the field, then we’ll give our team a good chance to win the football game.”
Bill Belichick has enjoyed watching the two join forces to spearhead the defensive preparations.
“It’s been great,” he said. “They both have a lot of strengths and they’re able to utilize those and play off each other without any ego and with a good mutual respect and working relationship.
“It’s kind of unique. I wouldn’t say this is the run-of-the-mill type of situation and they definitely make it work.”
The older Belichick notices those pre-practices games of catch between his defensive collaborators, and it pleases him.
“Those are fun to see,” he said. “It’s fun and it’s good to see coaches hang out with each other where it’s not all work. They can laugh, talk. Just hang out.”
So, who has the better arm?
“Oh, Steve definitely,” said Mayo. “You’ve got to remember, there’s a lot of tackles on these shoulders.”
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.