Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones stood facing his locker Thursday and stared at the ceiling.

He stayed silent for a few seconds, scanning his memory for all of the defensive coordinators he’s played under in New England. The list was longer than you might think.

In 2016, there was Matt Patricia. Two years later, Brian Flores did the job without the title. Then Bill Belichick took over in 2019, after Flores left for Miami and took several assistants with him. Finally, in 2020, Belichick handed the keys back to his defensive staff; namely Jerod Mayo, who led the unit for the next four years.

To the outside world, it was always Belichick’s defense. A group organized, led and defined by him, the same as it’s been for decades. Inside the building, however, players knew better.

“With each coordinator, you started to see tendencies of how the coach sees it, the calls they leaned into and how they wanted to attack offenses,” Jones said. “So it’s always been different.”

Nowadays, the defense belongs to another new coordinator: DeMarcus Covington. The 35-year-old introduces the game plans. He runs the meetings. In fact, this week, Mayo was hardly in the defensive meeting room, after conveying to his coordinators in staff meetings how he wanted the game to be coached and played.

“No, not really,” linebacker Jahlani Tavai said of Mayo’s presence in meetings. “And it’s good to know Mayo trusts him.”

Starting Sunday, Covington will also call the plays. So what will his stamp be?

“I think he wants to be aggressive,” Jones said. “He doesn’t want to sit back all day. I get that feeling that he definitely wants to put some aggression into his play-calling.”

Now, “aggressive” is the buzz word all new defensive coordinators use upon arrival. It’s the center square on the introductory press conference bingo card. New coordinators want to be physical, multiple and punishing; not passive, simple or content with yielding anything.

Except, Covington isn’t the one broadcasting these changes. After a full offseason of installations and practices, Jones is. So is Kyle Dugger.

“He’s going to be pretty aggressive as far as how he wants to play; what kind of style we want to have and he’s going to spin it up front,” Dugger said. “Spin the dial.”

In New England, spinning the dial is Patriot for cycling through different coverages, blitzes, simulated pressures drive to drive and snap to snap. The idea is to eliminate comfort, forcing quarterbacks to make clean reads every play or risk a mistake. The way Belichick used to scheme against Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers.

New England Patriots assistant coach DeMarcus Covington works along the sideline in the first half of a Dec. 29, 2019 game against the Miami Dolphins in Foxboro. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

And, in their only head-to-head meeting two years ago, Joe Burrow.

But how does Dugger know Covington intends to spin the dial before he’s called a single play yet in the regular season?

“Camp installs have been different. I’ll say that,” Dugger said. “A lot of different things and changeups, which go a long way.”

Like any coach worth his weight in playbooks, Covington is bringing more than Xs and Os to the table. Unlike Jones, he doesn’t need a minute to scan through his memory bank for answers. According to new outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins, a 10-year NFL coaching veteran, Covington has a Belichickian recall for different game situations and play-calls.

“We’re talking about maybe a pressure we can run, or a coverage that complements it. And he’ll go back and say, ‘Well, there was one from Oct. 9, 2022; this one from 2023,’” Wilkins explained. “His level of studying the game and being able to reference so much and put it together, this is a guy – he’s smart enough to coach every position on the team, it feels like.”

More than Dugger, Jones or any single defender, Covington might key the Patriots’ path to victory Sunday, just as Belichick did.

In their last five season openers, armed with varying levels of defensive talent and experience, the Patriots never allowed more than 18 offensive points. Opponents averaged 12.4 offensive points against them, a reflection of Belichick’s ability to drill fundamentals in the summer, anticipate Week 1 wrinkles and adjust. It’s unknown how Covington will adjust mid-game, though the collaborative process that birthed the team’s game plan for Cincinnati should allow his defensive staff to see the game through the same eyes.

How DeMarcus Covington practiced for new Patriots job in his backyard

That process, by the way, is not new.

Once Flores left in February 2019, Belichick reorganized his game-planning process, sitting all of the defensive assistants at the same table to build the plan. Together, they debated and identified their best play-calls for third down, red-zone plays and other situations. Typically, those areas are divided among the position coaches, who each own a small piece of the game plan that the coordinator assembles and finalizes over the course of the week.

But not this season. Not under Covington, whose fingerprints have been on Patriot game plans dating back to that 2019 season, when their defense ranked No. 1 in the league. That year, the Pats pressured opponents relentlessly, trusting a secondary anchored by star corner Stephon Gilmore, the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year, and the collective talents of one of the most experienced and versatile defensive rosters in the NFL.

This year, having returned nine defensive starters, Patriots veterans indicate Covington may return to those blitz-happy roots. But more than that, players know their defense will build its own identity, separate from the recent past and even the last coordinator.

A process that will start as soon as Sunday.

“You’ll definitely be able to tell in the games. So, that’s all I’ll say,” Dugger teased. “It’ll be very obvious, I feel like, for anyone who’s followed us that closely.”

Peppers questionable

The Patriots added safety Jabrill Peppers to their injury report Saturday. He is officially questionable for the season opener with a hip injury.

Peppers’ potential absence would be a big blow to the Pats’ secondary. Last year, Peppers was one of their best players on either side of the ball, racking up 78 tackles, two interceptions, a forced fumble and one sack. Behind him, the Pats could turn to free-agent addition Jaylinn Hawkins or undrafted rookie Dell Pettus.

Pettus forced his way onto the roster with a solid training camp, while Hawkins regularly repped with the first and second-team defenses. Hawkins played for the Falcons and Chargers last season, primarily in a special teams role. He flashed some in training camp and would project to start next to Kyle Dugger in the team’s top defense.

Player podcasts sound off

New England Patriots center David Andrews #60 before the NFL pre-season game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Gillette Stadium. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

Patriots center David Andrews is teaming up with ex-Pats quarterback Brian Hoyer in a new podcast called “The Quick Snap.”

Each week, Andrews and Hoyer will recap the team’s last game and take fans inside the season. They also plan to introduce new guests, including starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who joined for their second episode.

In their debut podcast, Andrews and Hoyer dove deep into the Patriots’ new offense under Alex Van Pelt. Hoyer, who played in similar systems outside New England, lended his understanding of the system and marveled at Andrews’ ability to master the offense already and understand past systems at a level of detail not heard from most O-linemen.

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“To hear a center talk about this … that just speaks to your knowledge of offense and what you’ve learned over a 10-year career,” Hoyer told Andrews. “That’s pretty impressive for me to hear you say that.”

On defense, nose tackle Davon Godchaux welcomed Mayo to his podcast, “ChauxTalk.” Among other topics, Godchaux endorsed Mayo for the buy-in his cultivated in the locker room.

“No doubt in my mind, me just being in the locker room, all those guys trust you,” Godchaux said. “All those guys will run into a brick wall behind you, including myself. Just having the culture of you playing football, knowing how it’s done, and then coming out to mentoring us each and every day,” Godchaux said.

Quote of the Week

“I feel like I’m built for this.” – Mayo on making his regular-season coaching debut