Former Bradwell Institute and Georgia Tech football player Gary Guyton stepped up to cover for injured New England Patriots teammate Jerod Mayo in Sunday’s 31-19 win against the
Raiders.
According to news reports, Mayo suffered a sprained MCL in his left knee in the second quarter of Sunday’s game.
Mayo, the NFL’s leading tackler in 2010, had three tackles against the Raiders before his injury. With Mayo off the field, Guyton filled in and recorded four tackles over the remainder of the game.
“When your number is called, you got to be ready,” Guyton told the Boston Globe.
According to the Providence Journal, Guyton was allowed to communicate with the coaches and make the defensive signals.
In 2009, Guyton was tapped to start in weeks 2-5 when Mayo sustained a similar injury to his right MCL. That year Guyton finished the season with 91 tackles.
This season, Guyton has played in three games, starting one, and has  10 tackles. But with Mayo out for an unspecified amount of time, Guyton is likely to have more playing time.
“Gary and Jerod came in together,” Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick told the Boston Herald. “They’re very close personally, and (they) play well next to each other. They have great communication and both guys kind of can do what the other one does. They flip assignments and positions regularly on the defense, just to change up the looks, just to have a different guy doing it — within the structure of the defense, having different guys doing it to make the offense read it differently and so forth. I think Gary has good experience and he knows all the positions — any inside linebacker part of the defense, regardless of what our front is and so forth. He’s pretty adept, and he’s a real sharp guy.”
The Patriots take on the New York Jets on Sunday in Foxoboro. Guyton is in his fourth season after signing as a free agent in 2008.