Jerod Mayo addresses rumors of the locker room being split between Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe
"It's hard to get a locker room to say this is the guy. We're not talking about Tom Brady here, the greatest of all time. "
Jerod Mayo is evaluating whether Mac Jones will be a fit with the Patriots going forward.
Jones appeared to be heading in the right direction during his rookie season in 2021, when he helped guide the Patriots to a playoff appearance and made the Pro Bowl as an alternate.
But, by the end of this past season, his confidence looked shot. The Patriots tied for the lowest-scoring offense in the NFL, and Jones lost his starting spot to Bailey Zappe after throwing more interceptions than touchdowns.
“When I think about Mac, he obviously has talent,” Mayo said during an appearance on WEEI’s Greg Hill Show. “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. But, confidence goes a long way. As we continue to evaluate a coaching staff, we’ll see.”
“But, you know these guys can play football,” Mayo added. “They’re here for a reason. It’s not like we went over to Brockton High and just pulled some people over here. These guys are players and at the end of the day, there has to be a shared vision. The players have to feel like they’re being heard. They have to feel like they have some stake in the gameplan so if things go wrong the accountability piece starts to show up.”
As Jones’s struggles intensified last season, reports of his teammates losing faith in him began to leak out. The Boston Herald reported that “at least 80 percent” of the locker room was out on Jones. Former Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty said some players preferred Bailey Zappe over Jones.
Mayo was asked about the leaks, and if they were true.
“I would say offensively, everyone was frustrated,” Mayo said. “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. You feel like you’re trying to make an adjustment real quick and then it’s like ‘punt team, oh no not again.'”
“At the same time, all those guys love Bailey. They love Mac,” Mayo continued. “It’s just, who is 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 locker room to say this is the guy. We’re not talking about Tom Brady here, the greatest of all time. Like that’s easy, 99-100 percent of the locker room is like that’s the guy. And then you start losing games and you have two guys who are still trying to find out who they are.”
Mayo said that there were “differing opinions” in the locker room on which quarterback gave New England the best shot to win games. He said that’s fairly common amongst other teams who didn’t have Brady as the starting quarterback for two decades.
“We’ve been spoiled for so long around here, Mayo said. “We’ve been spoiled. I look at my kids and I’m like you guys are spoiled. Every team has won something in the last 10 years, like 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.”
Mayo said that Jones isn’t the only person who deserves blame for the offense’s struggles.
“If you were to ask Mac Jones, he made mistakes along the way as well,” Mayo said. “The 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, everybody talks to Mac. Special teams, defensive players, offensive players, and we were trying to help him with that confidence. But I think everyone has — there’s enough blame to go around.”
Mayo said that quarterback is among the team’s biggest positional needs, along with wide receiver and offensive line. New England holds the No. 3 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.
“We’re going to take the best available player for the biggest need on the team,” Mayo said. “That’s what we’re going to do.”
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