I don’t think so, he probably fits more of a Will linebacker prototype, so if he’s redundant to anyone it’s probably Mayo.
My love/hate relationship with Mayo has been well-chronicled here. Despite his elite athleticism, I’ve just always felt he lacks that special something in coverage that the less-athletic Bruschi had. We’re entering year seven with him and there’s no question he’s the brains of the defense, but really how much worse off were they without him for most of last year? Hard to say for sure, but there weren’t many “man, if only we had Mayo” sentiments out there.
So the short answer is that I’ll take any defensive front seven player BB deems worthy in the first round, be it a defensive tackle, end or linebacker. And I don’t think it’s out of the question to take a player who could potentially back-up, and eventually maybe replace, Mayo.
