Jerod Mayo Sort of Implies He Inherited a Terrible Roster, but Stops Short of Naming Names

Anthony Nesmith. Shutterstock Images.

Getting the dream job you've been dreaming of all your life isn't always what it's cracked up to be. Especially when it involves you being the person in charge. There's always parts of the job you never anticipated when you were dealing with your own area of responsibility. Decisions to be made you never knew you'd have to make. And the mistakes you inevitably make have consequences you couldn't possibly have seen coming. That's why every US President looks like they've been on the job 20 years at the end of their first term. 

There's no doubt that's the case with Jerod Mayo right now. To be clear, I'm not saying he's in over his head after just six games. What I am saying is that, having never even been a coordinator before, there's simply no way he could have taken his promotion fully understanding everything he's dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Especially when his team is 1-5 and breaking in a future franchise quarterback. You can watch all the "So You're a Head Coach Now" training videos the HR Department can throw at you, but you can't know until you know, you know? 

So when he's asked an awkward question on his contractually obligated weekly radio spot, it should come as a shock to no one when he gives an awkward answer. Or to be more accurate, a non-answer that speaks volumes more than a direct answer would have:

Q: "Why was the roster in such bad shape entering this offseason?"

Mayo: "You tell me." [laughter]

Q: "He almost said what he …" 

Mayo: "No. I'm not doing that one. I'm not doing that one."

He then went on to mention the guys they re-signed, using Michael Onwenu as an example. And that's all well and good. It's just that I don't know how you read that to mean anything other than Mayo is implying the roster Bill Belichick left in his wake was trash, just without calling his old boss out by name.

And if that is what he's thinking, it's hard to argue his point. This was, after all, a 4-13 team despite having a Top 10 defense. One without a starting caliber quarterback, no viable X-receiver, and it's best O-lineman (Onwenu) and tight end (Hunter Henry) heading for free agency. Even if you're the hardest core Belichickian on the planet (I'll raise my hand to that), good luck trying to polish the turd Mayo inherited. 

But some questions just don't need to be answered. Or non-answered. True or not, you reject the premise, turn the question around, talk about what you're trying to do in the here and now to beat Jacksonville Sunday. You send a message to your players, coaches and front office that they have to find a solution to the problem, not re-litigate the past. 

Because what purpose does it serve to talk about where you were at 10 months ago? I say this as someone who used to sit across that desk from Belichick. And he had a 7th degree black belt in verbally roundhouse kicking such questions right out of your mouth. Because they served no purpose when it comes to the only thing that matters. He didn't owe me anything other than winning. Which he did. 

Besides, putting the blame on the guy that's no longer here - even giving the suggestion it's all on him - lets the current braintrust off the hook. For all that lack of talent, Mayo and Eliot Wolf also inherited the best salary cap situation in the league. And failed to put it to use beyond all those re-signs he alluded to. Which begs the question why so many of Belichick's former players were so desirable to keep around if "the roster was in bad shape." But more importantly, why they ignored a position that was as blatantly obvious an area of need as the offensive line was. 

The timing of this is especially curious. Because like I mentioned in the Knee Jerk, at one point yesterday the Pats O-line consisted of Onwenu and four essentially waiver wire guys. The backup center they had to replace David Andrews when he went on IR gave up a record number of pressures last week just got released:

Advertisement

… in favor of Ben Brown, who had been with the team for three days. 

Sunday they played seven different offensive lineman, bringing their season total to 12. Through roughly one-third of the season. Some of that is due to injury, for sure. But most of it is due to neglect. Never forget that the starting left tackle this season was Chuks Okorafor. And after seeing the first 14 snaps of his career, they marooned Demontrey Jacobs on Nick Bosa Island for an entire game. And right now, every Patriots fan would be OK with pouring a circle of salt around Drake Maye and saying an incantation to ward off bad juju. 

No one can know how this is playing inside the Pats locker room or the offices. Maybe everyone agrees or just doesn't care. But it doesn't inspire confidence when the Message Sender in Chief is laughing with some radio hosts about whose fault his crummy roster is, when he should be giving these people nothing and telling them to like it.