Jerod Mayo was named the defensive captain this season and was given the green dot on his helmet. The green dot is the radio transmitter that would have left Mayo responsible for calling the defensive plays in the huddle. After suffering a grade three MCL sprain, Jerod Mayo will be out approximately 6-8 weeks, but will not need surgery to repair the tear in his ligament.
Jerod Mayo was one of the newer faces on the rebuilding New England Patriots defense. The second year linebacker was expected to be our leading tackler and voice of the defense, not to mention role model for other new faces coming in to play defense for the Patriots. Without Mayo, Gary Guyton, Pierre Woods, Eric Alexander, Tully Banta-Cain and Derrick Burgess are the 'backers available to make the attempt to fill the void. At this time, Gary Guyton is taking the lead as middle linebacker and defensive playcaller, getting the green dot in the huddle.
After the losses of Vrabel, Harrsion, Bruschi, Samuel and Hobbs, the New England Patriots have begun to rebuild their defense with younger and faster players to give them a defense that was just as strong as the 2004-2007 teams. Remember in 2004 when Asante Samuel, Mike Vrabel and Ellis Hobbs were nobodies, the players that we have on defense have to start somewhere. As long as they are system players, our defense will be fine after enough practice and game situations. The players that were on our defense in SuperBowl's past will always be loved and remembered, but it is now time to prepare for the future.
On defense, speed is everything. You can teach coverage, you can teach tackling, you can't teach a 24 year old kid to run a 4.3 forty. Gary Guyton would not have been selected by Bill Belichick to run the defense if he did not think Guyton is capable of doing so. Let's see what we can get out of Guyton and the rest of the linebacking core while we wait for Jerod Mayo to return from his injury.
Thanks to patriotworld for the picture of the 2007 New England Patriots Defense.
