Boston Herald - Inside the Patriots’ 2024 season, Jerod Mayo’s firing and a franchise’s continued fall

[Ross12]

Inside the Patriots’ 2024 season, Jerod Mayo’s firing and a franchise’s continued fall

The Patriots’ lost 2024 season was worse than most knew. Go inside Jerod Mayo’s first and only year as head coach, and the franchise’s continue fall from grace.

www.bostonherald.com

 

[Ross12]

I don't have full access because it's paywalled in such a way I haven't been able to get around, but I have found some snippets on Twitter I will share. If anyone has BH access and wants to share parts, let us know.

 

[Ross12]

(About the Cincinnati game) - “After we won, (Mayo) was the happiest guy, bouncing off the walls during the week. The happiest guy in the world,” one staffer remembered. “And after we lost, it was like someone shot his dog.”The source continued: “Meanwhile, most of us are in there watching the tape (of the Bengals game), and it’s like, ‘Oh s—.’ We were so lucky to win this game.’ I don’t know if he watched the tape before taking that victory lap. We really lucked out there and obviously the rest of the season bore that out.”

 

[Ross12]

(About Stevenson starting when he shouldn't) - "The reason that Rhamondre Stevenson started, after Jerod Mayo told the media he would be benched, is because of disorganization. Mayo relayed the information to AVP who forgot/didn’t relay the information to Stevenson/the running backs coach. This created an embarrassing situation where Mayo couldn’t explain why 20 minutes before the game he said Stevenson would be benched, and he started anyway. Points to much larger dysfunction."

 

[Grogan1980]

(About the Cincinnati game) - “After we won, (Mayo) was the happiest guy, bouncing off the walls during the week. The happiest guy in the world,” one staffer remembered. “And after we lost, it was like someone shot his dog.”The source continued: “Meanwhile, most of us are in there watching the tape (of the Bengals game), and it’s like, ‘Oh s—.’ We were so lucky to win this game.’ I don’t know if he watched the tape before taking that victory lap. We really lucked out there and obviously the rest of the season bore that out.”

That’s apparently what Gronk wanted Bill to be like after a win, but Bill never got too up or down…

Gronk's whining about "no-fun Patriots" is wearing thin

Absolutely loved this guy as a player, he was an all-time great. But someone needs to tell him life doesn't necessarily revolve around always "having fun." Maybe coming back to Foxboro for that red jacket would be a chore too...

www.patsfans.com

 

[203Pat]

(About Stevenson starting when he shouldn't) - "The reason that Rhamondre Stevenson started, after Jerod Mayo told the media he would be benched, is because of disorganization. Mayo relayed the information to AVP who forgot/didn’t relay the information to Stevenson/the running backs coach. This created an embarrassing situation where Mayo couldn’t explain why 20 minutes before the game he said Stevenson would be benched, and he started anyway. Points to much larger dysfunction."

This is just flat out embarrassing.

 

[Ross12]

This is just flat out embarrassing.

This actually does not make sense to me.

If Stevenson was not starting then he would not have been part of the game opening script. This would have been determined during the week. AVP would have known and Stevenson would have known then. There is no way to say "AVP forgot" because it would've gone into the game plan.

The only way this can be true is if:
A) Mayo told AVP during the week, AVP forgot and never remembered all week and made a whole game opening script featuring Stevenson, and Mayo just somehow never noticed this also then also forgot himself, but then blamed AVP
or
B) Mayo just made up that Stevenson would be benched 30 minutes before the game was starting and "told AVP" to bench Stevenson after it was too late. AVP could have run around to Stevenson and Gibson and told them the change, and then educated Gibson on the plan, but... that's stupid, and AVP probably had a lot of other better things to do like prep Milton.

 

[KCSVEN]

I don't have full access because it's paywalled in such a way I haven't been able to get around, but I have found some snippets on Twitter I will share. If anyone has BH access and wants to share parts, let us know.

I thought the article would have more detail that would be interesting, so I paid $1 for a full year access, I mean it was $1 so why not, just need to set a reminder to cancel next year LOL.

The Stevensen part was really the only interesting tidbit I thought. It kind of alternates between, "he never had a chance with this roster" quotes to "lack of accountability and preventable issues stemming from poor culture and coaching" type stuff.

“If you don’t have talent, then there’s really nothing else,” one source said.

However, most sources felt the Patriots’ problems also multiplied by mid-December due to a lack of accountability and preventable issues stemming from poor culture and coaching.
“Discipline is mandatory when you have a young team, so we don’t try to cut corners or slip through the cracks and stuff like that,” a veteran player said. “And I feel like that’s really what happened (with Mayo).”

It was Meh article, I'm sure there will be enough articles to make my $1 worth it by next year, not there yet.

 

[Ross12]

I thought the article would have more detail that would be interesting, so I paid $1 for a full year access, I mean it was $1 so why not, just need to set a reminder to cancel next year LOL.

The Stevensen part was really the only interesting tidbit I thought. It kind of alternates between, "he never had a chance with this roster" quotes to "lack of accountability and preventable issues stemming from poor culture and coaching" type stuff.

“If you don’t have talent, then there’s really nothing else,” one source said.

However, most sources felt the Patriots’ problems also multiplied by mid-December due to a lack of accountability and preventable issues stemming from poor culture and coaching.
“Discipline is mandatory when you have a young team, so we don’t try to cut corners or slip through the cracks and stuff like that,” a veteran player said. “And I feel like that’s really what happened (with Mayo).”

Thanks for doing that.

I am really sick of hearing about "talent" - yes, the roster was bad. However, the defense was the same roster that Bill and Steve worked with the prior year (plus Gonzo on top) and it regressed badly. The offense was largely as good as what BOB worked with the prior year but with Maye added. So overall IMO it was at least 10% better. The team should have looked 10% better, but they looked and played far worse, record aside. It's such a flimsy excuse - "well the team had a bad roster so what can we do?" Okay, so why do you have a job then? We may as well have no coaches because with a bad roster what's the point? May as well forfeit, save ourselves the cash paying you. You can still show you're building something even with less talent. And the gulf in talent between the worst NFL team and best NFL team is not as wide as they want to make you believe.

 

[turkeyneck]

This actually does not make sense to me.

If Stevenson was not starting then he would not have been part of the game opening script. This would have been determined during the week. AVP would have known and Stevenson would have known then. There is no way to say "AVP forgot" because it would've gone into the game plan.

The only way this can be true is if:
A) Mayo told AVP during the week, AVP forgot and never remembered all week and made a whole game opening script featuring Stevenson, and Mayo just somehow never noticed this also then also forgot himself, but then blamed AVP
or
B) Mayo just made up that Stevenson would be benched 30 minutes before the game was starting and "told AVP" to bench Stevenson after it was too late. AVP could have run around to Stevenson and Gibson and told them the change, and then educated Gibson on the plan, but... that's stupid, and AVP probably had a lot of other better things to do like prep Milton.

Mayo had no plan one way or another re Rham ... until a reporter asked about it. Mayo then blurted out what he thought a coach-y thing to say might sound like. As soon as the interview was done Mayo's memory garbage-collector freed up the relevant brain cells. There was never any communication to AVP. There were several instances where Mayo was caught clearly unprepared by reporters questions and just made stuff up on the spot.

 

[Ross12]

Mayo had no plan one way or another re Rham ... until a reporter asked about it. Mayo then blurted out what he thought a coach-y thing to say might sound like. As soon as the interview was done Mayo's memory garbage-collector freed up the relevant brain cells. There was never any communication to AVP. There were several instances where Mayo was caught clearly unprepared by reporters questions and just made stuff up on the spot.

Yeah I am pretty sure this is all it was. Reporter asked the question, Mayo made something up on the spot that sounded good like a coach would say. Then he said "oh, I guess I should actually do that..." and went and told AVP 15 min before the game "hey bro so I know you made the game open script to feature Stevenson but I actually want to sit him now, can you just like redo the whole script real fast in the next few minutes?" AVP was like "wtf, uh, sure dude whatever, I'm getting fired in a week anyway" and filed it under his "Don't Give A ****" folder and didn't do it.

 

[turkeyneck]

Yeah I am pretty sure this is all it was. Reporter asked the question, Mayo made something up on the spot that sounded good like a coach would say. Then he said "oh, I guess I should actually do that..." and went and told AVP 15 min before the game "hey bro so I know you made the game open script to feature Stevenson but I actually want to sit him now, can you just like redo the whole script real fast in the next few minutes?" AVP was like "wtf, uh, sure dude whatever, I'm getting fired in a week anyway" and filed it under his "Don't Give A ****" folder and didn't do it.

I'm not even sure AVP got the 15 mins heads up. I think he found out Rham was "benched" when Gibson wasn't sent out on the first play and said "Coach, what's up? I thought I was starting." AVP said "What?"...

 

[XLIX]

That’s apparently what Gronk wanted Bill to be like after a win, but Bill never got too up or down…

Gronk's whining about "no-fun Patriots" is wearing thin

Absolutely loved this guy as a player, he was an all-time great. But someone needs to tell him life doesn't necessarily revolve around always "having fun." Maybe coming back to Foxboro for that red jacket would be a chore too...

www.patsfans.com

That is very much from the Parcells book of coaching, so it is no surprise we saw it from Belichick. Don't get too high after a win, don't get too low after a loss.

When they won was when Parcells was hardest on the team. When they lost was when he would try to talk up the good things that happened.

 

[Ross12]

I'm not even sure AVP got the 15 mins heads up. I think he found out Rham was "benched" when Gibson wasn't sent out on the first play and said "Coach, what's up? I thought I was starting." AVP said "What?"...

Gibson didn't know he was starting either. Reporters asked him about it after the game and he said that was the first he had heard of it. So supposedly Mayo "told AVP" at some point in space and time but did not speak to either Stevenson or Gibson about it and also did not bother to check the game script.

 

[Triumph]

When does Curran come out with his tales from the Patriots sidelines Mayo 2024 -2025?

 

[Ross12]

That is very much from the Parcells book of coaching, so it is no surprise we saw it from Belichick. Don't get too high after a win, don't get too low after a loss.

When they won was when Parcells was hardest on the team. When they lost was when he would try to talk up the good things that happened.

Compare that to the Arizona game where Mayo said afterward that there "was nothing to be learned" from it, and they would not study it, then they proceeded to get blown out even worse 2 weeks later.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Gibson didn't know he was starting either. Reporters asked him about it after the game and he said that was the first he had heard of it. So supposedly Mayo "told AVP" at some point in space and time but did not speak to either Stevenson or Gibson about it and also did not bother to check the game script.

While not frequent, Bill - via his coach would tell a player the day of they are starting/sitting. During the week the players would take reps as if they were preparing to start.

I'm really not sure what happened here. Like you hypothesized in another post either Mayo is lying about telling AVP or AVP forgot. OR AVP intentionally ignored Mayo's directive.

At any rate, it's dysfunction.

 

[turkeyneck]

Gibson didn't know he was starting either. Reporters asked him about it after the game and he said that was the first he had heard of it. So supposedly Mayo "told AVP" at some point in space and time but did not speak to either Stevenson or Gibson about it and also did not bother to check the game script.

Goes to show that the whole arrangement existed only in Mayo's head and only for the duration of from when the reporter asked until, maybe, the end of the interview.

 

[Steve102]

Compare that to the Arizona game where Mayo said afterward that there "was nothing to be learned" from it, and they would not study it, then they proceeded to get blown out even worse 2 weeks later.

Did he really say that? There's always something to be learned. I bet the decision to move on was from this moment.

 

[Clonamery]

Did he really say that? There's always something to be learned. I bet the decision to move on was from this moment.

Hmm, Kraft said the high of the season was Cincinnati and that after that they "regressed."