TRANSCRIPT: Jerod Mayo’s Appearance on WEEI on Monday
(PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 10 minutes
Posted Under: Patriots Transcripts
(PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 10 minutes
New England Patriots > Patriots Blog
(PHOTO: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports) Patriots coach Jerod Mayo appeared on the Greg Hill Show on Monday on WEEI and discussed a variety of topics, and here’s a transcript from the interview:
On the fact he gets to do this interview each week win or lose:
“Perfect. I’ve been in tougher situations.”
On the fact the last guy [Belichick] didn’t necessarily love it after a loss:
“It’s all good. It’s a responsibility.”
On the fact he looks like he just came from a workout:
“I was working out. You know, you’ve got to stay in shape. The head coaching schedule is crazy, so you’ve just to go run when you can.”
On if he’s an early guy:
“I’m an early guy.”
On if he took Bill’s office:
“I’ve not moved. Honestly, I’ve just been trying to get the staff together. That’s the biggest lift right now. I’ll get there at some point.”
On how it will work with Robert Kraft and Jonathan and when it comes to hiring and if it’s all him:
“Yeah, it’s all me at this point. I would say, not all me… also Matt Groh, Elliott [Wolf], they’re really helping out, so that’s good.”
On if he can confirm Nick Caley coming in for an interview:
“Absolutely. Confirmed. Next.”
Wes Welker …
“Not confirming that one. Come on, keep them going…”
On if he has an interview question, ‘Where do you see yourself in 10-years?’
“No. Honestly, these interviews … we’re just starting the process, so they’ve all been Zooms so far. We’re going to bring in people this week. At the same time, you want to hire people that you like and that are good at their job. The Zoom interviews are more philosophical questions, not really X’s and O’s. Then when they come in here, that’s when the X’s and O’s can go on.”
On the status of Steve and Brian Belichick and if they’ve been offered the opportunity to stay:
“Confirmed. Or unconfirmed … I’m not sure … (Laughs).”
On the fact he hasn’t used the word collaboration or evaluation yet:
“There you go. Just trying to collaborate. That was the word.”
On if he’d like them to stay:
“You know what? We have a great relationship. They have the option to stay. They have the option also to go with their father if they would want to. Still kind of going through it. I have a good relationship with both of them. They’re great coaches. We’ll see what happens.”
On how it was the last year between he and Bill:
“Honestly, it was fine. In my opinion, it was fine. Just was focusing on the defense. A lot of the defensive players also played special teams, so we always tried to talk together. But it is what it is. Coach and I have a good relationship, but right now, I’m just focused on this staff.”
On where he sees the offense going and what philosophy he has:
“You always want to have a quarterback that can extend plays. Now in saying that, you could be fast, but you also could have great pocket awareness. Look at a guy like Tom [Brady]. He wasn’t fast, but he had great pocket awareness. When it’s all said and done, it’s about the players. And one thing I took away from coach Belichick, is players win games and coaches lose games. So we can talk all we want to about scheme, what we want to do, but if you don’t have players that are out there that have a shared vision that are on the same page, then it’s going to be hard to score points. And that’s what it really comes down to. Look, everyone gets up here, they say, ‘Oh, I want to throw 10 deep balls,” or, ‘I want to run the ball every single …’ Like, that’s unrealistic. We will remain a game plan team. Whatever we have to do to make the other team play left-handed, offensive, defensive, or even special teams-wise, that’s always been the goal.”
On who he feels is the biggest leader:
“We have a lot of guys. I would say, for a long time – I’m not sure what [Matthew] Slater’s going to do – but for a long time, he’s been a great leader in that locker room. We have leaders defensively. We have [Deatrich] Wise. We have [Ja’Whaun] Bentley. You look at the offensive side of the ball. You know, how ever you want to slice it, look, whoever the quarterback is, and you know this too, being a coach (to Jermaine Wiggins), the quarterback has to have some type of leadership ability. And hopefully, we can get to that point where … David Andrews, great leader on the offensive side of the ball as well, Hunter Henry, great leader on the offensive side of the ball. But what I will say is, it’s hard to lead through tough times and that’s when you really start to see people change, you really start to see the attitudes change, people getting in small huddles and things like that. And that’s when people are looking for a leader. When everything is not going right, they’re looking for a leader. When you’re winning games, it’s easy. ‘Like, come on guys, family on three … 1 , 2, 3 family.’ Then when you go on a six-game losing streak, you’re like, ‘forget it.'”
A dysfunctional family:
“Exactly.”
On if Mac struggled when it came to that leadership role:
“I’m not saying that. What I will say is, when I think about Mac, he obviously has talent, and once again, we’re in the evaluation phase. I will say, with that, the confidence of a player is very fragile, especially these players now. Like I’m an old man or something like that. But confidence goes a long way and honestly, as we continue to evaluate as a coaching staff, like, we’ll see. But you know these guys can play football. Like, they’re here for a reason. It’s not like we went over to Brockton High School and just pulled some people over here, right?”
“These guys are players, and at the end of the day, there has to be a shared vision. There has to be … the players have to really feel like they’re being heard. They have to feel like they have some stake in the game plan. So, if it doesn’t go right, the accountability piece starts to show up. If you just throw some pages at … ‘Here, this is what we’re doing this week…,’ not saying that’s what we’ve done, but defensively we’ve always tried to take the input of the players. They’re on the field. I always tell those guys, ‘Hey, once you cross the white line, like, it’s yours. Here are the keys to the defense. And I say every week, there’s a canvas, a blank canvas. I’m like, ‘I don’t care what picture you paint, just don’t paint off the canvas. That’s when we’ll have a problem – if you get off the canvas.’ And so many times, I would say, whether it’s fans or media, they just think it’s so pre-planned out that things don’t change on the field. And my thing is, ‘Look, this is what they’re trying to do.’ Everyone’s like, ‘scouting reports, scouting reports, scouting reports,’ but they’re also self-scouting. So when you think about it that way …”
“Look, we’re using retrospective film to sit here and try to predict what they’re going to do. Now, do those plays start to show up? Absolutely, but my thing is, it’s about awareness. What’s the down and distance? Where’s the quarterback? Who’s the running back in the game? What’s the score? Those things are more important for a football player, right? So he can anticipate what’s going on. It’s not, ‘All right, when they get in this formation, it’s 67% pass.” Like, good luck. Good luck trying to think about that. If you can use those numbers, go play blackjack. Start counting cards. But it’s more about awareness, and those guys having accountability, and the shared vision of the team.”
On if looking back at last season if he feels like from a coaching staff perspective if he let Mac Jones down in terms of building his confidence:
“The thing I would say is, if you were to ask Mac Jones, he made mistakes along the way as well. Coaching staff, we made mistakes along the way as well, and I’m not just talking about the offensive coaching staff. One thing about Mac, you know, everybody talks to Mac. Special teams, defensive players, offensive players, we were trying to help him with that confidence. But I think everyone has … there’s enough blame to go around.”
On his thoughts on Todd Bowles going for two against Detroit on Sunday:
“What I would say is you never turn down points. And honestly, when teams, they go for two and all that stuff, it’s the analytics part of it. You’re saying, ‘Well, if we miss it, then we go for two again on the second time and stuff like that.”
“Honestly, what we talked about earlier, [Chris] Scheim, is that we’re a game-plan team. So it depends how the game’s going.”
On Jermaine Wiggins saying he would have kicked the extra point:
“That’s what I just said.”
On how much attention he’ll pay to analytics:
“I think there’s a place for analytics, for sure. At the same time, you would like the analytics to confirm your gut, and sometimes it goes both ways. So if the analytics don’t go with my gut, then I have to go …”
“They always say, don’t trust your gut, though right?”
Always trust …
“No, there’s a book, ‘don’t trust your gut.'”
But I always think they say you should have went with your gut from the beginning:
“Yeah, they always get into that stuff … ”
On how he ensures the entire organization agrees on the person to take over the most important position on the field, being quarterback:
“Honestly, I don’t think you could get the entire organization to see it the same. They may see the position that we need as like, ‘we need a quarterback,’ or ‘we need a running back’ or ‘we need a receiver,’ but at the same time, there’s a lot that goes into those picks. You know, coaches, we’ll evaluate those players but we also have a scouting department who is paid to do a lot of that stuff as well. But at the end of the day, we have to make a decision, and honestly, we’re responsible for it.”
On the if he knows where he’s leaning toward with that third pick:
“I would say we’re going to take the best available player for the biggest need on the team. That’s what we’re going to do.”
On if that biggest need is quarterback:
“I mean, offensive line, receiver, quarterback, pick your …
Now you’re sounding like Bill:
“You’re turning me into Bill, (Laughs).”
On the fact there were more leaks coming out of the organization than we’ve ever seen:
“Who’s the leak? I’m not on the leak list.”
On the fact it was about him in one case:
“Oh, I know, which is crazy.”
On the leak that Mac Jones lost half the locker room, and whether or not that was the case:
“I would say, offensively, I mean, everyone was frustrated. Coaches were frustrated, players were frustrated. I would say on the defensive side of the ball, those guys did a good job just continuing to go out there and play. It’s hard to do things like that, right? You feel like you’re trying to make an adjustment real quick, and then it’s like, ‘Punt team,’ and it’s like, ‘Oh, no, not again.’ But at the same time, look, all those guys love Bailey [Zappe], they love Mac, it’s just who’s going to give us the best chance to win the game? And that’s what it came down to.”
“And once again, it’s hard to get a whole locker room to say like, ‘this is the guy.” We’re not talking about Tom Brady here, the greatest of all time. [That’s] easy, alright? 99-100% of the locker room is like, ‘Yeah, that’s the guy.’ And then you start losing games and we have two guys who are still trying to find out who they are. What kind of player are they? Look, I’m not going to confirm that the locker room was split, but there were people who had different opinions.”
On the fact that short of Tom Brady, that’s kind of always the case:
“It is. Look, we’ve been spoiled for so long around here. We’ve been spoiled. I look at my kids, and I’m just like, ‘You guys are spoiled.’ Right? Every team has won something in the last 10 years, every single team in Boston. The Red Sox, the Bruins, the Celtics, the Patriots, they’re so spoiled. But this is what happens in normal football towns on a yearly basis.”
We were split between Tom and Drew [Bledsoe]:
“There you go. There you go.”
On how much he’s going to tap into being a former player and being relatable:
“Honestly, I’m going to be Jerod. I’m just going to be me. It’s worked for me this far. One thing I’ll say about Detroit, once again, they have good players on that team. They have good players. Now, if Detroit was still trash, what would we be saying? ‘Oh, former player doesn’t know anything. He doesn’t know anything.’ Right? So it’s so easy to look at that and say that he relates to everyone because he was a player but at the same time, I’m just going to be me and honestly, the word I use, ‘develop’, ‘collaborative’ …
Collaborative, evaluate … On the fact he said during his introductory press conference that the game is different …
“That game is different.”
On if he felt that it was hard for today’s player to relate to Bill Belichick:
“No, I wouldn’t go that far. Look, we just didn’t play well. I think Bill … I think coach, feels weird calling him Bill … I feel like coach still has a lot left in the tank, and I wish him nothing but the best.”
On if it worries him looking around the division and the conference and the talent teams have at quarterback:
“I wouldn’t say it worries me. I would say, first and foremost, we’re going to put a good defense out there. We’re going to play these teams, twice a year, whatever it is, but I feel fairly confident that we’ll be better next year.”
On the fact he hasn’t mentioned ‘Thunder’ yet …
“Young Thundercat. Honestly…’
On if he can clear up where that came from:
“Yeah, it was the ‘Young Thundercat’ – I forgot the ‘Young’ – so everybody was like, ‘Oh, Thundercat, Oh, wow.’ So, you know, Young Thunder would wear the sneakers with the suits and stuff like that, and I always thought it was funny, and I was like, ‘You know, you have a young soul.’ And then one day, he sat me down and he said, ‘Do you know the reason why I wear these sneakers?’ And I was like, ‘No.’ He was like, ‘So I can relate to the younger generation.’ I thought that was special. It’s easy to walk up to a guy with a suit and tie and sneakers on than it is a guy with some penny loafers on, whatever, some church shoes.”
Air Force Ones …
“Air Force ones, it’s like a conversation starter for … what do you have on your…?(talking to Greg Hill)”
I have a pair of Kraft Force Ones, I should have worn them:
“Kraft Force Ones (laughs).”
On the fact the cash spending was 31st last year, 27th the three years prior, if he’s been given assurances by Kraft or others that he’ll have the freedom to spend this offseason to bring in talent:
“We’re bringing in talent, 1000% percent. [We] have a lot of cap space and cash. Ready to burn some cash.”
All right guys …”
Tee Higgins would be nice…
“(Laughs)”
You have to go?
“I’m trying to put this coaching staff to put together. Scroll through your phone, what do you want to ask me?”
The Lions have Eminem, Bill had Bon Jovi, who do you have?
“Man, that’s a great question…the Clipse. Yeah. Missy Elliott, Timbaland, The Clipse.”
On the fact he’s a breath of fresh air and we’re very excited:
“I’m excited as well, but we need to win games, though, because if we don’t win, it’s not going to be a nice interview.”
On how he’s going to be after a loss:
“If you ask any of the players that work with me, win, lose or draw, it’s time to change the page.”
[inaudible]
“You just can’t get too high or get too low, honestly. Peaks and valleys.”
On if he feels like they’ll win more games in 2024:
“I do feel that way.”
On whether or not he’s on record:
“You’ve got me on record? That we’re going to win more than four games? I’m on record. Absolutely.”
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