Patriots HC Jerod Mayo
PATRIOTS HEAD COACH JEROD MAYO
PRESS CONFERENCE
November 13, 2024
JM: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Just to wrap up last week, practice players of the week, Keshawn Banks, D.J. James, John Jiles, Joe Milton [III], and Lecitus Smith. Those guys did a great job for us. They deserve to be recognized. We give them the black jerseys, but oftentimes those guys get forgotten, the guys on the practice squad. There’s nothing more important during the week that we do than practice. Some of those guys, look, they’re not out there on Sunday, but I think they definitely deserve to be recognized. Looking forward to another good week of practice this week. Wednesday, look, as always, we always turn the page. All of our focus is on the Rams. It’s a good football team. It’s a good football team. I know maybe their record doesn’t really reflect the talent that they have on the roster, the coaching that they have, but this is a good football team. I’m going to continue to stress to the players, to the team, to the coaches, it’s having a sense of urgency and really learning how to win. We haven’t had a back-to-back win this year. We’ve lost multiple games in a row, so we know that side of it. Now we’ve got to figure out how to turn the page after a win and get a victory. When I look at this team, especially offensively, it starts with the quarterback, a guy like Matt Stafford who’s done it at a high level for a very long time. I don’t think he gets the credit that he deserves, but he is a very accurate passer, can make all the throws, and just because he’s older, doesn’t mean that he can’t move around in the pocket a little bit. Now, not the same as some of these other quarterbacks, but as you study the film, which I know all you guys study a lot of film, he definitely makes people miss in the pocket, and those extended plays are definitely a huge problem. I would also say the receiver position, those guys are definitely good competitors. [Cooper] Kupp’s been doing it for a long time, multiple hundred reception seasons. He’s just an all-around good player, but it’s not just him, the other guys. Turned the Seattle game on, the plays they made at the end of the game where they just refused to be denied as far as catching the ball, and obviously they pulled that one out. I would say Kyren [Williams] does a good job. He’s in there the majority of the time. Anytime a back is in there over 80 percent of the time, you look at this guy as a three-down back and really can do it all. He can do it all. Up front, look, they’re getting healthy up front. They’ll have some guys back that they haven’t had over the past few weeks. They’re getting healthy up front, and again, just a huge shoutout to [Sean] McVay and his staff. That scheme is hard to defend. The run game looks just like the play-action game. The run game looks just like the boot game, and they do a good job with those fakes and all of that stuff. Defensively, for the Rams’ defense, I think it starts up front. To me, I think the coaching staff has done a good job. It’s almost like a philosophical change in my mind because you don’t have the big-name guy up there. At the same time, I would argue to say this is one of the best fronts that we have seen all year. It’s a young group, and they do it the right way. They play the right way. They play together. They hustle. They’re all over the place. Our offensive line, they’ve got to step up. They’ve got to step up. Really, a lot of people say it’s a challenge, but it’s an opportunity for them to, again, shut up the naysayers about not being able to establish the line of scrimmage. That’s my challenge to them. If we handle those guys, they have guys at the second and third level, obviously, but I think it just starts up front. Special teams-wise, look, I try to put a lot of stress on our special teams to go out there and win every single week. I would say the majority of the year they’ve done a good job, whether we’re talking about Marcus [Jones] in the return game and those hidden yards or close to blocking punts, close to blocking field goals. We just have to continue to try to make plays and try to get the ball back into our offense’s hands. With the guys, they’re excited. We turned the page this morning, and they’re ready to go. Look, we need a good week of practice. It can’t just be one day. It can’t be up and down. We need a good week of practice to go out here and give ourselves a chance to win this game. Fire away.
Q: I know you talked about challenging your offensive line. It’s only Wednesday that we sit here, but is there a sense of optimism about, ‘hey, you can get the same five guys out there again for the second straight game,’ I think, for the first time all year?
JM: That would be fantastic, and that is my expectation with the realization that you can get to Friday and lose one of those guys. I have my fingers crossed that we can roll the same group out there.
Q: This offseason was a long process to find the right O.C. You guys obviously landed on Alex [Van Pelt]. How grateful are you that he’s here? How much has he helped you, but how important has he been to Drake’s [Maye] development?
JM: Yeah, he’s been huge. I say, look, there’s no one in this organization that deserves more credit as far as what Drake has been able to do on the football field than Alex Van Pelt. When we interviewed Alex, I would say when we interviewed all of the coaches that are here, one of the prerequisites or requirements was a guy who was level-headed, a guy who believes in working together, and a guy who doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low. That’s Alex, and I appreciate that.
Q: You mentioned the receivers for the Rams and two of the prime ones, [Puka] Nacua and Cooper Kupp, are fifth and third-round picks, respectively. What has allowed them to develop? Is it the scheme? Is it the player? Is it Sean McVay? Is it the receivers coach?
JM: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think it’s a combination of everything you just said. Look, everyone had a chance to pick those guys at some point in time, and now, look, they’re Pro Bowl players, so their scouting department has done a good job. The coaches have done a good job. I would say, ultimately, those players seem like they’ve taken accountability of their careers. I would also throw the defensive line in there, where you have a lot of young guys up there that just play with relentless effort, and they’re going to be a very good team going forward.
Q: The forever question is, though, would Puka Nacua be Puka Nacua if he was here? Would Tyquan Thornton be somebody else if he was there? I’m just using those guys. I’m not asking you to—
JM: Yeah, it’s tough to get into those hypotheticals. I do think sometimes the scheme does create superstars, and sometimes it makes people look like a flop, even though when you draft these players, you see something in college that they have done that’s encouraging. It’s our jobs as coaches to put them in positions to continue to be the player that we saw before.
Q: Jerod, early in the year, when you were talking about the offense, you pointed to the scheme. ‘We need to scheme it up better. We need to do some different things.’ How have you seen the scheme develop since Drake’s been in there, and are you happy with the trajectory that the scheme and the offense is on?
JM: I am happy with the trajectory. I hate to do this, but let’s look back at the last game. We were one for five in the red area, but before that, the previous four games, we had nine drives in the red zone. Eight of them were touchdowns, and one of them a field goal. There’s a balance, right? There’s a balance in giving Drake and the rest of the offense… I know everyone wants to focus on the quarterback because he touches the ball every snap, but you have to remember, we just had a conversation about hopefully having the same offensive line out there. It’s not just Drake. It’s not just the receivers. It’s not just any one person. It’s a combination of things.
Q: Some of your personnel that has a chance to potentially practice or play, any update on [Christian] Barmore, [Cole] Strange, those two guys particularly?
JM: Yeah, I would say Barmore is ahead of Strange, and look, there is a chance that he would be able to practice this week or next week, so there is a chance that we’ll get him back soon.
Q: Is there a challenge in game-planning for a team like the Rams that you just don’t have a ton of familiarity with?
JM: Well, I would push back on that a little bit. There are a lot of coaches, head coaches, offensive coordinators that have fallen from that tree. I’m not saying that they’re exactly the same. All of those coaches kind of put their own spin on it, but at the same time, there are a lot of repeat concepts that you can see through multiple teams, whether you’re talking San Fran or Miami or any of those other teams. In saying that, he does a good job putting in wrinkles, and there’s a lot of pre-snap and post-snap communication that has to happen. Their whole thing is, look, ‘we’ll use our motions to out-leverage, to out-man people,’ and we have to be on our P’s and Q’s to handle that.
Q: This franchise played the Rams in the Super Bowl six years ago. How similar is McVay’s offense then to now?
JM: It’s definitely evolved. In saying that, he has his staples of what he wants to do, and he’s a good play caller, and they’ve got a good team.
Q: Jerod, scheme aside, what have you studied or taken away from Sean’s success as a fellow young head coach in this league, and what have you noticed about his program?
JM: You can see his evolution. I’ve been a fan for a long time from afar. The evolution of starting out, ‘let’s spend all this money in free agency, let’s make a run for it,’ to now looking at they actually have some draft picks now, that they develop these guys and go out there and play. He’s one of those guys going back to the mental agility of being able to change. I think he’s one of those guys.
Q: Jerod, what’s the challenge? As a player, you did it many, many times, but getting your team to repeat and win back-to-back games that you haven’t been able to do?
JM: Yeah, it’s just the sense of urgency, and I think part of that has to do with turning the page. I would also say it’s the same thing during the game, where it doesn’t matter what the score is at halftime. When we come out in the second half, it’s 0-0, and that mentality hopefully will get us going. I just try to give them, if we hit these targets offensively, defensively, and special teams, in conjunction with the coaches. If we hit these targets, it gives us a good chance to win the game. Now, will it be nine out of nine targets hit? Probably not. If we can hit seven or eight out of nine, we have a good chance.
Q: Jerod, on Javon Baker, I think he’s only got four offensive snaps over the last couple of weeks. Obviously, he’s doing enough in practice to get on the field, but do you think you’re seeing him enough in games to get a full evaluation of him?
JM: Look, this is still a work in progress, and that’s any rookie. I will also say, we’ve been going for a long time now, and there has to be a point in time, at least for the rookies, that they can take a breather. Unfortunately, we don’t have that time right now, and he’s going to continue to get better. He’s been great in the meeting rooms and hopefully shows up on the field.
Q: I wanted to ask about Drake Maye. Going back and watching the film, is sliding going to be more of an emphasis going forward with him? I feel like I saw a few headfirst dives and things like that.
JM: We have a sliding period today in practice.
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