Guyton gladly takes promotion

He excels in middle management

September 19, 2009|Julian Benbow, Globe Staff

FOXBOROUGH - Their paths couldn’t have been more different.

The road Jerod Mayo took to the NFL wasn’t necessarily smooth, but at least it was paved. He had the SEC pedigree, leading the conference in tackles in his last year at Tennessee. The buzz around him grew as the draft process played out. Word was that Mayo was “athletic’’ and “instinctive,’’ assets that meshed with his speed and explosiveness.

Gary Guyton is fast, but in his case it didn’t much matter. Of the 34 linebackers invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in 2008, which included Mayo, Guyton had the fastest 40-yard dash time. But the buzz just wasn’t there. He had flown under the radar at Georgia Tech. Even after the combine, the line on Guyton was “there are questions about his speed at the pro level.’’ Thirty linebackers heard their names called the weekend of the draft. Guyton wasn’t one of them.

To this day, he really can’t figure out the logic, other than accepting the idea that people see what they want to see. “Some people like BMWs,’’ he said. But disappointment was just a distraction. The goal was to find a way into the league, and in that sense, his road to the NFL was a back road.

“It’s always ‘What do I do now?’ mode,’’ Guyton said. “I’m not a dweller. It’s just, ‘What’s the next step? What do I have to do now?’ It does me no good to be sad. Just keep it going.’’

The 49ers were interested in talking to Guyton, but within days of the draft, Guyton was on the phone with Bill Belichick. The Patriots took linebackers Shawn Crable in the third round (who has yet to play an NFL game) and Bo Ruud in the sixth (who was on injured reserve last season and was waived in April).

Belichick asked Guyton a few questions while he had him on the line. By the end of the week, the Patriots had Guyton signed.

And there they were, Mayo and Guyton, at the intersection between the paved road and the back road. Mayo, the third linebacker taken in the draft, was a rookie just like Guyton. They might not have been in the same position on the Patriots’ totem pole, but their paths brought them to the same place.

In a year, Mayo transformed himself into one of the leaders on defense, but tomorrow the Patriots will play the Jets without him. A sprained medial collateral ligament has sidelined Mayo for 6-8 weeks. Guyton will play in his place, taking on every responsibility, right down to wearing the green dot on his helmet, marking him as the player relaying the calls from the coaches.

Will Guyton be able to fill Mayo’s role? From the team’s perspective, the answer is simple.