PATRIOTS HEAD COACH JEROD MAYO
PRESS CONFERENCE
November 29, 2024
JM: Good morning. Big crowd. Hopefully all of you guys got a chance to spend some time with your families yesterday. Hopefully it was a lot of good food, a lot of good conversation, just a lot of fun for everyone. My Thanksgiving was great. It was a small group. My brother flew up in town and we just played some games, watched a lot of football, and talked about a lot of football. It was a good time. My family, we all have a lot to be thankful for. I would say health is one of those things that oftentimes goes by the wayside, but I'm thankful for my family being healthy and the ones around me being healthy at this time.
Q: When you're watching football on Thursday, on Thanksgiving, are you watching it as a coach, as a fan? Are you having a reaction as a critical perspective?
JM: Yeah, when I watch those games, especially yesterday, I was watching it as a coach, just going through the different situations. I always think it's good to learn from different philosophies and different things that happen throughout the game, so that's how I kind of watch it. I started as a huge football fan, and I still remember watching Bo Jackson and Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders on Thanksgiving was one of those things everyone was always ready for. Look, the Lions, they don't have Barry Sanders, but they have a good team.
Q: So, do you take plays that happen around the league and show them to your players?
JM: We do.
Q: I was thinking yesterday, obviously, everyone talking about the way the Bears managed the end of that game. Do you do the same thing for yourself as a coach? What does that look like?
JM: Yeah, 100%. As that game went on, I actually called Evan [Rothstein], and we were just talking through that situation. It was great. Great conversation. Oftentimes it's easy to second guess and look back on those decisions that are made and say, 'Well, that's crazy.' For me, it's just another opportunity to be a better head football coach.
Q: So you called him after the game?
JM: It was like right after the situation that happened. Yeah. I called him right after that. I'm not going to get into that whole world. I probably would have handled it a little bit differently. Again, easy for me to say just sitting right here.
Q: Is Evan your Ernie Adams?
JM: I don't want to get into comparisons, but we spend a lot of time talking about situational football and things like that. As a head coach on the field, there's a lot going on, whether it's people talking to you through your headset and all that stuff. I think it's good that you have a separate channel where it's just the two of us on there really discussing, staying ahead of the game, talking about different situations and how to approach those.
Q: Are you thinking Cole [Strange] is available to play on Sunday? Or do you think it is too early to know on that?
JM: No, Cole won't play this Sunday. I will say one thing. I think I said this last time. Look, he's done a great job. Every day in here rehabbing and every day in here in all the meetings. The mental aspect when he's ready to go shouldn't be too big of a hurdle for him. Excited to get him out there, but not this week.
Q: Do you anticipate Cole being activated at the end of the 21-day window?
JM: I anticipate Cole playing football for us this year.
Q: Sticking on the offensive line with Sidy [Sow], given your situation at tackle, is it just better to rep him at tackle right now and give him time there?
JM: Yeah, 100%. When you rep him at tackle, hopefully he doesn't forget how to play guard as well because we need that versatility. You only carry eight, maybe nine offensive linemen to the game. Everyone has to be versatile enough to slide inside the outside or outside the inside.
Q: How's Jabrill's [Peppers] work been over the course of the week? Is he trending toward playing on Sunday?
JM: Yeah, the thing I'll say, it's probably too early to tell about Sunday. Today's a big day for him. It's a big day for all of us, but he looks good.
Q: What have you seen from Layden Robinson in his transition over to left guard?
JM: Yeah, Layden, we started to put him in there on the show team at different spots just to become an overall better football player. With that being said, he's doing a good job for us. Look, this guy is strong, and he just has to see the same picture that everyone else sees and go out there and execute. He definitely has talent to be a starter in his league.
Q: Jerod, you guys released Michael Jordan this week. I saw you brought him back today. Would you start a different left guard on Sunday, because obviously you still could elevate him?
JM: That's right, yeah. Michael Jordan still has that one elevation left, and we'll get through today and make that decision tomorrow. The one thing I would say, going back to versatility with a guy like Michael Jordan, he can play multiple positions, which is definitely valuable.
Q: Jerod, is this a GTFB game with [Anthony] Richardson and his arm strength?
JM: 100%. Does everyone even know what that means? Okay, I just want to make sure. I didn't want to have to explain that one. Yeah, 100%. I would say Joe's [Milton III] done a phenomenal job being the show team quarterback this week. He's another one, GTFB, when he has the ball in his hands, and it's been good practice. I will say this. The quarterback design runs is just a different element with this quarterback. Look, we all have to be on the same page.
Q: Coach, Alex Van Pelt mentioned that last week a penalty problem that showed up in the game kind of popped up during practice. I was curious, how did you feel about this week of practice, and did the guys see more locked in?
JM: Yeah, I tell the guys there's nothing more important than practice, and especially Friday practice because you hit everything, especially the red area but also the early down stuff. He's 100% correct. He shows up in practice, you make those guys run and do all those things, and it just trickled over into the game. We can't play that way and expect a win football games.
Q: Jerod, did you guys do anything in-house Thanksgiving related? I know some assistants, when you were an assistant, would get together on Thursdays, but anything Wednesday night or yesterday?
JM: No, not so much. I know some of the coaches went to other coaches' homes. My door's always open for some of the coaches as well. It's also one of those times, especially with the bye week being so late, it's like, 'I just need a day to myself.' I hit the Irish goodbye a couple of times, but I came back.
Q: How have you managed that, understanding this wasn't new information, you knew it as soon as May? Anything built in this season, saying, 'Our bye's not until week 13.' How have you managed that?
JM: Yeah, some of those victory Mondays, they shouldn't have really been victory Mondays. Only had a few wins. That was a way to try to keep those guys fresh as well. You have to use different techniques and change the times of certain things to get these guys fresh. Especially at this point in the year, it's all about being healthy and being fresh out there.
Q: How important is it to preach to your team that it's important to get a win before your bye week and kind of go in with some momentum, or is that more like just another week?
JM: No, it's huge. It's not just another week. I would say every week, we're trying to go out there, put on a good performance and walk away with a win. But 100%; even in the past, as a player, you're like, 'Man, we better win this game' because that's the difference between maybe a four-day break and a three-day break or a five-day break. So, it's definitely important. Again, when you look over the last – it's easy to sit here and focus on the last game. But the four games prior to that, I thought we were going in the right direction. We had a hiccup, and hopefully we can get back on track this week.
Q: One of the things that struck me listening to Kendrick Bourne on Tuesday or whenever it was, he talked about the detail of his route on fourth down in the last game that he could have done better with the detail. Then listening to Alex Van Pelt talk about Pop [DeMario Douglas] on the third down play on the blitz, should have been at five steps, but he did it at three steps. It made me think sometimes we watch a play and see it's on – we might say, 'Oh, the quarterback was inaccurate,' in the past, but it was really more maybe about the detail of the route running. I guess my question, long-winded, how do you go through each game and evaluate that as you assess inefficiencies, I guess, in the past?
JM: I would say oftentimes – and this happens in my family as well – what are you doing here? What are you doing there? They put blame on a person who it really wasn't their fault, whether it's someone not getting lined up or snapping the ball too early. We'll sit here and say the tackle jumped, but maybe he was on the right cadence and someone else wasn't. In saying that, look, we're all a unit. All 11 of us on the field at the same time have to be on the same page to go out there and execute a play.
Q: Will you go up to a player in those instances when it's kind of gray for you and ask what they were thinking in that moment?
JM: Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes it's very easy to tell who's at fault. Then there are other times where whether it's a quarterback-center exchange or something like that, it's both of them that should get reprimanded for that. But at the same time, maybe the center didn't put the ball where it needed to be, or maybe the quarterback was out of there too fast. There are just so many different things that pop up.
Q: In some words, you said recently, 'Hey, these next five games, we need to figure out really who we can count on to kind of use moving forward.' Who are some players that you need to find out a little bit more than others?
JM: Look, I would say, not to get too specific, but I will. You need a guy like Layden Robinson to show what he can do. We need a guy like Cole Strange before the end of the season to see what he can do. You can use Caedan [Wallace] in that same bucket. We need to see what the receivers can do and what they're going to look like going forward, and that's the hard part for me. Look, you want to win right now, but at the same time, I think it would be a disservice to go to the end of the season and not know exactly what we have.
Q: You guys have released a handful of players who have either started or played a lot of snaps. How much of those decisions factor into what you just said in trying to give some of these younger guys a chance?
JM: I would say a few of them. I don't want to get into specifics, but definitely a few for sure.
Q: It's a little softer, but the My Cause My Cleats week. Any thoughts on that? I don't think you're doing anything specific.
JM: No, I think it's a great program. I think with our platform – win, lose, or draw – we always need to give back to the community. I appreciate all the guys that participate in that. I probably should have participated, but I was in my dungeon trying to put together some game plans. But I think it's a great cause, and that's been a staple of this organization for a very long time is giving back.
Q: When you mention that routine, I'm curious, when you are in the midst of losing streak or just when you don't perform quite the way you want, is there more time that you put in, or do you try to keep your pattern consistent so you're doing the same thing again?
JM: Any time you lose a football game, you try to put more into it. At the same time, the process is the process. You go into a season, especially during a time of peace, what does my process look like as far as preparing for a game? I think we're on the right track. We want to win more games, but going forward, we have to lay the foundation down before we put the blinds up.
