With Bill Belichick not landing a head coaching job, it’s looking like his sons Steve and Brian will remain on Jerod Mayo’s coaching staff.
Steve was most recently the linebackers coach and defensive play caller on his father’s staff while Brian served as the safeties coach.
Their roles with Mayo should become clearer down the road, if they opt to stay with the Patriots.
On the latest “Eye on Foxborough” podcast, three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty provided some observations and offered his take on Steve and Brian as coaches.
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During his 13 seasons with the team, the former safety watched both of them grow.
“Me and Steve kind of grew together,” said McCourty. “When he came there in 2012, it was my third year, and he was quality control/defensive assistant doing all of that grunt work. Then the first year he took over as safeties coach, kind of coming in that spring, and being like, ‘I got thrown into the fire, guys. I’m still trying to get my footing into what we’re doing. I found out a couple weeks ahead I would be doing this.’ But you could tell for Steve, it was cool because it was always a dream of his.
“He grew up watching his dad coach safeties, and it was something he always wanted to do. And I think to see the evolution of where Steve was, to then being a competent guy and all of that, I think he turned the corner in 2021 when we played against Tampa Bay.”
McCourty pointed to the Patriots taking on Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in Foxboro. Brady, of course, was armed with a ton of weapons between Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Rob Gronkowski. Steve Belichick called the game for the defense and even in a 19-17 loss, McCourty came away impressed, especially given Brady new the defense so well.
“I thought the way Steve called the game against Brady, the way we competed as a defense, gave him that confidence, to me, that’s still kind of showed out throughout the years now that he’s super confident in everything he does,” said McCourty. “I’m excited for him if he does get the opportunity to coach now without his dad. People will now say, ‘That’s Steve Belichick calling the game” … because under Bill, no matter what he does, it’s always Bill Belichick’s defense, Bill Belichick’s calls even though him and Jerod had been doing all of this stuff for the defense. It was always going to be Bill.”
McCourty meanwhile, had Brian Belichick as his safeties coach his final three seasons. He also gave him a thumbs up as a coach.
“Brian is a little different (than Steve), more of an intellectual guy, was in the scouting department to start off, then went to defensive assistant, so he’s well-rounded in what he knows,” said McCourty, now an analyst with NBC Sports. “I remember having conversations with him, excited about taking the next step, excited about doing different things. It’ll be interesting to see how it works out.
“I think Brian has grown so much from coaching different players. From having a guy like me in the room, you’re coaching a guy who’s older than you, who’s been in the league a long time, and then the counterpart was Kyle Dugger, who was a young guy trying to find his way,” McCourty went on. “He did a good job of finding the balance between coaching us all, but finding how to each person differently, how to get the best out of them … they’re just two guys I think of very highly of that, for me, I know they’re Bill Belichick’s sons, but they’ve worked their butts off. They put in a lot of work to try and earn everything they’ve had in this league. So I’m excited for what’s next for both of them.”
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