Jerod Mayo named which Patriots players he wants to see more from in final 5 games of the season
"It would be a disservice to go to the end of the season and not know exactly what we have."
The Patriots will almost certainly miss the postseason in 2024, but that doesn’t make the final five games of the season useless.
New England will, seemingly, use the final handful of games to help shape its roster for the 2025 season. As the Patriots’ focus turns toward the future, Jerod Mayo was pretty blunt when asked which players he’d like to see more from in the season’s homestretch.
“I would say, not to get too specific, but I will,” Mayo began. “You need a guy like Layden Robinson to show what he can do. We need a guy like Cole Strange before the end of the season to see what he can do. You can use Caedan [Wallace] in that same bucket. We need to see what the receivers can do and what they’re going to look like going forward.
“That’s the hard part for me. Look, you want to win right now, but at the same time, I think it would be a disservice to go to the end of the season and not know exactly what we have.”
Each of the three offensive linemen Mayo named has either been injured for the majority of the season or been on the bench. Strange, the Patriots’ 2022 first-round pick, has been out since he tore a patellar tendon last December. While Strange returned to practice last week, Mayo said he wouldn’t play against the Colts on Sunday.
However, Mayo is expecting Strange to return at some point this season.
“He’s done a great job,” Mayo said of Strange. “Every day in here rehabbing and every day in here in all the meetings. The mental aspect when he’s ready to go shouldn’t be too big of a hurdle for him. Excited to get him out there, but not this week.”
Strange has mostly struggled to live up to the first-round billing in his first two seasons in the NFL. Playing left guard, Strange has allowed eight sacks and 45 pressures in 27 career games, per Pro Football Focus.
With the Patriots juggling injuries across the interior of their offensive line, they’ve already indicated that Strange is working to play center upon his return. He played center during his time in college.
Following Michael Jordan’s release this week and Strange’s likely placement at center, Robinson will probably start at left guard for the Patriots on Sunday. The fourth-round rookie took reps at left guard during practice this week after primarily playing right guard this season. He’s been on the bench, though, since the Patriots’ Week 9 loss to the Titans.
Mayo has liked what he’s seen from Robinson in practice since that benching over the last few weeks.
“We started to put him in there on the show team at different spots just to become an overall better football player,” Mayo said, explaining why the team moved Robinson to left guard. “With that being said, he’s doing a good job for us. Look, this guy is strong, and he just has to see the same picture that everyone else sees and go out there and execute. He definitely has talent to be a starter in his league.”
As for Wallace, he’s still on injured reserve after suffering an ankle injury in their Week 4 loss to the 49ers. Mayo said earlier in the week that Wallace is “close” to returning. The third-round rookie allowed a sack and three pressures while playing left tackle over the first three-plus games of the season, per PFF.
The Patriots’ wide receivers have also been of great focus this season. Second-round rookie Ja’Lynn Polk has had a difficult year, recording just 12 receptions for 87 yards and two touchdowns. Fourth-round rookie Javon Baker has only played 30 offensive snaps this season, but he’s seen his snap count slowly increase over the last couple of weeks.
Those two rookies aren’t the only ones who’ve struggled in the receiver room this season, though. DeMario Douglas’s 477 receiving yards are the most on the team among all wide receivers while no, other wide receiver has more than 300 receiving yards this season.
In the Patriots’ Week 10 win over the Bears, they sat Kendrick Bourne in order to give their younger wide receivers more opportunities. As Mayo would like to see younger players on the roster prove their worth, he also admitted that some of the team’s recent decisions to move on from veteran players has been with that in mind.
“I would say a few of them,” Mayo said when asked if the decision to release some veteran players who’ve started games was in order to play more younger players. “I don’t want to get into specifics, but definitely a few for sure.”
Of course, Mayo would also like to see the 3-9 Patriots get some wins, too. But he’s focused on development as well.
“Any time you lose a football game, you try to put more into it,” Mayo said. “At the same time, the process is the process. You go into a season, especially during a time of peace. What does my process look like as far as preparing for a game? I think we’re on the right track.
“We want to win more games, but going forward, we have to lay the foundation down before we put the blinds up.”
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