TRANSCRIPT: Jerod Mayo Press Conference 8/23
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Here’s the full transcript of New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo’s press conference for Friday, August 23, 2024:
OPENING STATEMENT:
“Excited to be out here. We had a good week of preparation. This was really the first opportunity that we’ve had to really go through how it’s going to be during the regular season, a game week as far as preparation, as far as running cards out here with the scout team, and really just getting ready for an opposing team. So it’s been a great week. Secondly, I heard this is your last day that you guys would be able to be out here all practice. I’m going to miss you guys during practice, but I appreciate all you guys and the cooperation. Hopefully, it’s been smooth for you guys.”
On this being the third preseason game and how many roster spots do they still have open going into this:
“That’s a tough question. This game, we say it doesn’t count, but it matters. I think there are still a few positions where it’s a battle. We’ve been talking about competition all year, and that’s still my message right now.”
On how much of a learning curve it’s been for everyone in terms of the game plan aspect of things and working on the install:
“I wouldn’t say it’s so much of a learning curve. I would say, initially, we were focused on NEP, and whatever phase of the game we’re talking about, it was all about us. Now you start to focus on another team and their personnel. Once again, we don’t know who’s going to play over there, but it doesn’t matter. It’s more the exercise of going through who are their go-to players, offensively, defensively, and special teams, and how do we stop them? These are the things that we need to be careful of, and these are things we want to try to exploit. Most teams, they talk about post-mortem. They end up going and seeing what happened in the game. To me, it’s about the pre-mortem. How do we prevent ourselves from losing the game? And you can’t win until you stop from losing.”
On the fact that for some guys who might be perceived to be on the roster bubble and playing for their lives on Sunday night, how does he preface conversations with them? Camping down that anxiety, some concern:
“After you hit someone on the first snap, it just gets right back to football. I think sometimes it’s overblown as far as the anxiety and things. Look, anxiety is natural. It’s normal. We talk about that every week, but after you go out there and play a couple of plays, it’s just like when you were six years old out on the practice field. So I think the guys are ready to go. They understand this is professional football. There are more people in the locker room than there are jobs, and they’ve known that since day one.”
On both Mike Onwenu at right tackle and Layden Robinson at right guard, and what he saw from that group as well as if that’s something we’re going to see as we go on:
“I would say it was encouraging. It was encouraging to see that. And any time you can sandwich a rookie between two veteran players, that’s always going to be a benefit for the player and also the team. So we’re still trying to figure out that combination, but I feel like we’re getting pretty close.”
On the fact he’s talked a lot about developing men in addition to players, and when he thinks about some of the motivational messages that he’s decided to highlight, why is one of them about not taking what someone says that you wouldn’t solicit their advice?
“To me, I’m not going to take advice. I’m not going to take financial services advice from a barber. I’m just not going to do it. And it’s nothing against barbers because vice versa, I’m not going to take any type of haircut advice from a financial advisor. And I think it’s important for you to… The people that I take advice from are people that if I had to switch lives with that person right now, it wouldn’t be a big problem. And so that’s kind of how I look at it.”
On the fact that for players, he’s played, he’s been around the block, he’s a father, and has more life experience. But for the players that he’s sending this message to, they’re younger, and what is it about the world we live in or whatever that made that?
“Well, I think naturally, we try it from a staffing perspective, whether you’re talking about [Matthew] Slater or myself or [Dont’a] Hightower. I think all of those guys have instant credibility, especially with the young guys. And so they’re always going to ask them questions not only about Xs and Os, but how they deal with situations off the field. And it’s on me to make sure that our staff is on the same page on how we want to get that messaging across to the young guys. I hope that answers you. That is a good question, and it’s a longer answer. No, no, no. It was a really long question, but I could go for about 30 minutes on that question.”
On the fact this team had a long streak of having a drafted for agents to make the roster, and how important is it for the organization to restart that streak and have those players know that this is a team where they have a shot:
“It’s huge. I always tell those guys, they all were on teams in college where a five-star would come in or a four-star would come in, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, but they’re trash.’ So you have that one star player that actually makes the team. I think it’s important. And once again, going back to competition and going back to my job is to put the best player on the field no matter where you drafted him. So that’s kind of how I think about it.”
On speaking of the undrafted free agents, someone who we saw get his hands on in two plays, one that was intercepted, one that was almost, with Del Pettus yesterday and what’s it like seeing someone like that come in here and have this impact on the field:
“Yeah, he’s done a fantastic job. And there’s been a lot of conversation around him, but he’s done a fantastic job up until this point. But it is important that those guys go out here and realize, ‘I can play at this level.’ There’s always this imposter syndrome where, ‘Am I good enough? Am I not good enough?’ And for a guy like Del Pettus, for example, to go out and make those plays just continues to boost his confidence.”
On someone like David Wallis as well, with the punt returns, and the fact we’ve seen him have a decent camp:
“Yeah, he’s had a decent camp. I would say he has definitely gotten better. He’s an explosive player. We have to find a role for him.”
On the rookies coming to the end of their first NFL training camp, how have they done as a group when it comes to responding to some of the challenges that have been put in front of them:
“I would say as a whole, they’ve done well. Whether we’re talking about the Slip & Slide or we’re talking about running up the hill after a two-and-a-half-hour practice, I think those guys have responded well. Now, the game is always going to be different, and that’s what I’m trying to really focus on this week is the game. And then an away game for those guys. This will be their first opportunity as a young player to go on the road and get their routine tightened down because the first game of the season will be on the road.”
On if every player is going to play, or are we talking one possession for the first team:
“No, we’re going to play. We’re going to play. Look, Jacoby [Brissett] is going to start the game off. Drake [Maye] will play as well. Joe [Milton] will play as well. There’s a nugget. Boom. You’re welcome. Thank you. Now you guys can sleep. [Bailey] Zappe will play.”
“But hold on one thing. Sorry, one thing. We do have some players dealing with small things that probably won’t play and get ready for the regular season. Some of our proven players… Yeah, there you go. All right? Fantastic. Now you guys can sleep in that.”
On the quarterback and how he values things when it comes to that position, with Alex Van Pelt saying yesterday how Jacoby Brissett has a lot of tools at this point in properly diagnosing defenses that Drake Maye just doesn’t have based on experience and if it’s more valuable than the ability to make some plays physically that Drake can make that other quarterbacks might not be able to and how he weighs those two things:
“To me, the top two things, mental toughness and just competitiveness. Those are two qualities that I really look at with quarterbacks. I can’t sit here and tell you, unless it’s a Philip Rivers release where, ‘Man, that release is weird.’ I don’t get into the technical stuff like that. But for me, evaluating a quarterback or any other player, but especially the quarterback, they have to be mentally tough, and they have to be able to just bounce back from all that, the adversity that they’re bound to see. ”
On what his thoughts are on that going into camp and coming out of camp with Drake since you knew Jacoby had those two things:
“Yeah, if you guys remember early on, he was throwing interceptions and he would get so down on himself. And I would say now as we exit camp, he’s done a lot better job being able to pull the nose up on the plane when it seems like it’s going down. I think that’s an important quality.”
On the fact it seems like he’s been in a lot of different places with positional players as goes about his day, and if that’s something he wanted to do or if it just naturally evolved there:
“No, that’s something that I wanted to do. I talk about it all the time. We brought in 17 new coaches. I have to have belief in my coaching staff to go out there and really get the things done. Now, we meet all the time inside the building, which you guys are never in there, but we meet all the time inside the building, and we’re all on the same page. One thing I would say from my perspective, the most important thing is fundamentals. The Xs and O’s, no matter what team you’re talking about, is really the same thing they’ve been running since college. It’s about linking that communication. But for me, when you look at a game that you just lost, a close game or something like that, you can always point back to fundamentals, whether they’re good or they’re bad: tackling, running, catching, throwing the ball, all the basic things that young kids are learning now. And those things, they still exist at this level.”
On what regular season practice is going look like. In the past, when talking to veteran players, they’ve been surprised that only veterans or only starters practice. They’ve said a lot of other guys are on the scout team and if he’s going to continue that or if there is going to be a little bit more competition:
“I think it’s always competition. I’ll take you back to a story. When I was a player here early on, the starters, they would run the first three scout team reps. And I think it’s important that the first-team offense gets to see what the first-team defense is doing, and then you get to show team players. Now, our philosophy, and when I say our, I’m talking about Eliot [Wolf] and myself, the way we look at the practice squad is a development type of way to look at it. It’s not a, ‘All right, this guy’s just out here to take snaps.’ We’re going to depend on these guys, whether it’s week one or at the end of the season. And so we look to develop those guys. So it’s definitely important.”
On when talking to Alex Van Pelt yesterday, he just talked about dissecting defenses, like Phil Perry asked earlier about Drake Maye, and how different, from a defensive perspective, is preseason defense compared to regular season defense:
“Yeah, it’s definitely different. I would say we have a very versatile and complex defense that he’s going against all training camp. So he has seen a lot of that stuff. Now, there are game plan things that you’ll see going into a game, but at the same time, we’ll pare down the playbook. So it balances itself out.”
(Editor’s Note: This transcript is done via the available footage and is subject to typos. If you spot something, please take a moment to let me know in the comments below.)
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