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Patriots veteran: Team ‘lost faith’ in Jerod Mayo, coaches before season started
"Felt like he — they — were making it up as they went along."
Several Patriots players expressed shock and sadness on Monday when asked about the team’s decision to fire Jerod Mayo after just one season as head coach.
But a few veterans in New England’s locker room apparently didn’t think too highly of Mayo and the team’s revamped coaching staff in 2024.
“I lost faith we were headed in the right direction,” one anonymous veteran told Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi. “When? ‘In the spring.’ Why? ‘Felt like he — they — were making it up as they went along. It was amazing how one day it would be this and then the next, something completely different.’”
Another veteran concurred with that blunt assessment of New England’s coaching personnel.
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“It became more about looking myself in the mirror and the guys in my room and huddle and saying ‘I’m leaving it out here for you.’ Because I never believed we had an edge (in coaching),” another player told Giardi.
While the players themselves seemingly weren’t on the same page as Mayo and his coaches, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported on Sunday that there were also fractures on Mayo’s staff as the season started to go downhill.
“I think if you’ve talked to enough people in the organization — I hate to put it this way, but I think there was starting to be some dissension, and some people pointing fingers in different directions,” Breer said on NBC Sports Boston. “I don’t think coaching and scouting were quite on the same page. I think there were factions on the coaching staff. There’s a lot of this stuff that you saw in 2023.
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“I think it was pretty clear people there knew something was going to happen. Whether it was a single pound of flesh or the whole operation being blown up, someone was going to have to pay for what happened this year. I think you see what you see inside a lot of bad organizations as the season circles the drain, which is people kinda retreating to their corners and trying to figure out if there are ways to save their jobs.”
Despite those harsh comments, veteran defensive lineman Deatrich Wise spoke highly of Mayo during his scrum with the media on Monday.
“He was a great leader, great coach, a great friend,” Wise said. “Pretty much consistent every single day, brought great energy, motivated everybody, inspired everybody in the building to do better. I felt like every time he came into the room, he brought a light and good energy. I thought he held us together throughout the whole season.”
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