Unsurprisingly, Jerod Mayo's first season as an NFL head coach hasn't been smooth-sailing.
The former New England Patriots linebacker faced an uphill battle when he took over a rebuilding team that just bid farewell to legendary coach Bill Belichick. With his team at 3-10 and cruising toward a top-five draft pick, he has faced no shortage of scrutiny as the six-time Super Bowl champion's successor.
How has Mayo handled the criticism in Year 1? He opened up about dealing with media and fan scrutiny during an exclusive interview on Tom E. Curran's Patriots Talk Podcast.
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🔊 Patriots Talk Podcast: Exclusive interview: Jerod Mayo sits down to discuss first season as Patriots head coach | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
"I appreciate true journalism. I always have. As long as these are truthful or there's some backing behind it, some reason," Mayo told Curran. "If you have a question, I'll answer it as much as I can. And in saying that, this is what I tell my coaches: It's a big difference between noise and signals, right? Noise and signals.
"Noise is just all the chatter. People are trying to figure out different things. But there are times that you see signals in articles. And once again, I ignore it. But there are certain times that -- there are signals that come through the players' voices when they talk to you guys.
"When I talk to you guys, I know for a fact that the players are reading all that stuff. So I use that platform as another mechanism really to get the message across. As a coach, you are pretty much -- you're a teacher and really you're a professional reminder. And I just use that as another way of getting the message across."
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Mayo cited the discourse surrounding rookie quarterback Drake Maye as an example of ignoring the noise. While many clamored for the Patriots to start their third-overall draft pick, the coaching staff stuck to their guns and let their young signal-caller develop behind veteran Jacoby Brissett.
"I understand media and I understand the frustration of the fans," Mayo said. "Even at the beginning of the season when we didn't start Drake (Maye). Everyone was up in arms. 'They should've (done) this, they should've (done) that.' You know, 'Jayden Daniels is starting, Caleb Williams is starting. All these rookie quarterbacks, first-round rookie quarterbacks are playing.' And it would have been very easy if I heard all of the noise to really go against the plan that we talked about in a time of peace. And when I say in a time of peace, that's when you don't have all these people in your ear telling you what to do.
"And look, I think right now everyone's like, 'Well, maybe that was the right move,' because he's playing at a high level. He still has a lot of room to grow. But at the same time, we felt like this is the developmental plan for the starting quarterback, the most important piece on the team, and we feel like we're in a good place."
Also in the episode:
- Has the job been harder than Mayo expected it to be?
- What conversations with ownership have been like for Mayo
- Rapid fire questions for Mayo