FOXBORO — Welcome to Camp Foxboro.

You might have heard already.

There’s a new counselor in charge.

Jerod Mayo redecorated the Patriots’ building. He shuffled the staff. He changed the activity schedule, pushing summer practices back an extra 90 minutes from past years.

Even his training camp mantra is new.

Do your job? Try love they neighbor, and master your playbook.

“It’s about competition, building camaraderie, and knowing what to do,” Mayo said Tuesday about his message to players.

For Mayo’s fellow counselors, the Patriots’ assistants and front-office folk, their mantra comes down to one word: foundation.

Finding pieces for the future. Players who can push the Patriots back into contention in 2025 and beyond, but not this year. Asked Tuesday what would define a successful season for the Patriots, Mayo didn’t utter the word “win,” or “winning” or “playoffs” once.

“A successful season, in my eyes, is really about the foundation. Have we put together a good foundation of a combination of young and older players to really start competing? It would be great to get up here and say we’re going to win a Super Bowl, but once again, it’s about the process,” he said Tuesday. “I tell the guys all the time, it’s about process and progress and moving forward.”

Patriots training camp: Drake Maye and the 5 biggest position battles in Foxboro

Because while the present may be a gift, that gift for these Patriots is clarity and patience. A top-down organizational understanding of where they are with one of the NFL’s least threatening rosters, and how long it will take them to return to the championship performance that defined the franchise for two decades.

(*Spoiler alert: kick your feet up. It’s going to be a while.)

Mayo simply wants to move forward, which would be new for the Pats. Over Bill Belichick’s last three years, they tumbled from 10-7 to 8-9 and finally 4-13, prompting an offseason of overhaul. That offseason has now led to a summer promising fresh faces and self-discovery.

A summer of Mayo, Drake Maye and rookie receivers. Of new offensive coaches and fact-finding missions. Of hopeful buildup to what could be one of the NFL’s most lopsided season openers against Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

Vegas oddsmakers have handed the Pats an over-under win total of 4.5 this season, lowest in the AFC. It’s not that Vegas knows all — but that the Patriots seem to agree that this season’s road likely leads to significant pain. But that’s if you’re measuring by wins in losses.

If you’re measuring by development, as Mayo suggests, pain may only mean growing pains. How fast Maye, Ja’Lynn Polk, Christian Gonzalez can assert themselves as foundational pieces. More than most, Maye will personify this progress, the Patriots’ move forward.

As their quarterback of the future, Maye will be the largest brick of any foundation. Mayo left the door open for Maye to start Week 1, provided he “lights it up” in training camp. That’s no doubt significant, but also hard to envision given Maye will be surrounded by one of the league’s worst offensive lines and receiving corps.

Jerod Mayo confirms Jacoby Brissett as Patriots current QB, leaves door open for Drake Maye

Few players — let alone rookies — can overcome such circumstances. While we often spend time opining that quarterback is most powerful position in football — and maybe all of sports — we omit it’s also the most dependent. No quarterback catches his own passes or provides his own protection. He is beholden to his teammates.

If chained to the Patriots’ current pass-catchers and pass-protectors for a full season, Maye just might sink.

So, for now, the plan is to bring him along slowly; just like the rest of the program.

A couple of the Patriots’ longest-tenured veterans, two-time Super Bowl champions David Andrews and Jonathan Jones, have found a new joy in this plan. Both spoke Tuesday, smiling and slightly aglow; the dawn of a new era cast on their faces.

“You take on a different responsibility,” Jones said, “and I’ve embraced that.”

Because of the influx of young defensive backs around him — 2023 first-round pick Christian Gonzalez, 2022 third-rounder Marcus Jones and upstarts Alex Austin, Isaiah Bolden and Marco Wilson, among others — Jones isn’t even sure where he’ll play this season. The story, he said, will write itself, provided he does his best and passes on what wisdom he has.

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Ideally, the Patriots’ story would be the first chapter of many to come. By the end, if Mayo succeeds, it will read of a tough, smart and dependable football team; all adjectives he used to describe what he wants the Patriots’ foundation to look like.

If those words sound familiar, it’s because they were hallmarks of Bill Belichick’s best teams and program. Of the greatest dynasty in football history.

But the Belichick-era championships?

Just like his slogans, practice times and season aspirations, those are long gone.

It’s all back to square one in Year 1 of the Mayo era.

Happy camping.