Patriots
“I think we got to take ownership of that as players. But he’s a tremendous coach.”
Jerod Mayo might have clarified his comments about labeling the Patriots as a “soft team” on Monday.
But the damage might have already been done, at least when it comes to the media cycle.
Bill Belichick already called out the Patriots’ new head coach on Monday, saying he was “hurt” that some of his former players were criticized by Mayo. Even Mayo’s former teammate in Devin McCourty had questions over Mayo’s choice of words during NBC’s NFL coverage on Sunday.
Speaking on Monday afternoon, Hunter Henry was one of several Patriots asked on WEEI about Mayo’s initial insinuation that New England has a “soft” team in place.
“I wouldn’t say that, no,” Henry said on WEEI’s “Jones And Keefe” Monday. “I just felt like yesterday we didn’t, obviously. I can speak offensively. Obviously we want to run the football.
“We weren’t able to establish the run like we wanted to. But I don’t think we’re a soft team at all. Just yesterday, we did not establish the identity that I feel like we can be running the ball. You got to give credit to the Jaguars too. They did a good job. So we’ve just got to be better.”
Even though Henry pushed back against the label that Mayo initially declared on Sunday, he also defended his coach. When asked if Mayo was the “right guy” for the job as New England’s head coach, the veteran tight end responded with an emphatic, “Yes”.
“I mean, I love how he is with us,” Henry said when asked to elaborate on his vote of confidence for Mayo. “He demands a lot out of us. Obviously, it’s not coming out on the field, and we need to do a lot better. And I think that starts with us as players, but the care that he has for us as players, as people, as everything — I think he’s a tremendous coach.
“Obviously, it’s not showing up right now, and I think we’ve got to take ownership of that as players. But he’s a tremendous coach. He’s been in our shoes. He knows the game super well. He’s able to translate that to us. We just got to be better as players and bring that to the field on game day.”
Fellow veteran Jonathan Jones also offered up some support for Mayo when asked about his “soft” comments.
“That’s his opinion, and I always take the opinions of what our coaches say to heart,” Jones said of Mayo’s comments on WEEI’s “Afternoon Show”. “And the opposite of a soft team is a tough team, and we pride ourselves around here on being able to stop the run, run the ball and cover kicks.
“And if you look at our last game, we didn’t do any of those. So I don’t think we have any space to call ourselves a tough team, based on our last performance.”
While Mayo fielded questions on Monday about “frustrated” social-media posts sent out by wideouts KJ Osborn and rookie Ja’Lynn Polk, another rookie in QB Drake Maye also defended the messaging doled out by his head coach.
“Coach Mayo always preaches, ‘hard work, works.’ Working hard and dropping your ego at the door,” Maye said on WEEI. “I think we’re learning that. There’s been some times where guys are having to figure that out. We got a really young team so guys are starting to figure that out and buy into the process… “[Mayo’s] starting to challenge us: What is the identity of this football team?
‘What do we want to be this year as the season goes on? He said today in the meeting we’re a 1-6 football team, we are what we put out there.’ So I think we got some guys who are going to make some shifts in the way they approach things and hopefully get back on track.”
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