Speculation has rose about Mayo’s future as head coach.
Jerod Mayo’s focus was on the Buffalo Bills on Wednesday.
With speculation circling about the New England Patriots head coach’s job security, Mayo stated he did not know where reports came from that owner Robert Kraft privately assured him his job security next year.
“I have multiple conversations on a daily basis with ownership, and they’ve always been supportive,” Mayo said Wednesday morning. “For me this week, my focus is on this game, the Bills here, today. Things that happen at the end of the season, I can’t control those things, so it’s all about the Bills.”
A Week 16 trip to Buffalo to take on MVP favorite Josh Allen and a red-hot Bills offense has the makings of another tough game for Mayo and his team. It could mark a 12th loss in a rocky first season in charge that has featured plenty of learning curves from Mayo.
Despite the challenges of the season, Mayo’s players continue to have his back.
“It’s his first year. His first year coaching, being a head coach, it’s a tough challenge,” Drake Maye said Wednesday. “For the New England Patriots, like I said, it’s a lot of responsibility being the quarterback, same as head coach. It’s a lot of responsibility. He’s figuring it out, and I think our players, we’re behind him.
“We’re backing him. We trust the plan he’s got for us, and we trust what he says in the team meeting rooms and all those little sayings that he has. We believe in it, and we’re bought into it.”
Mayo’s first season in charge has drawn comparisons to other successful coaches who had turbulent first seasons. Detroit’s Dan Campbell has been a popular one after his Lions team went 3-13-1 in his first year and then struggled to begin year two starting 1-6, which included a 29-0 loss to the Bailey Zappe-led Patriots.
Campbell’s Lions finished that season winning eight of their last 10 to narrowly miss the playoffs, spring boarding them into becoming one of the league’s top teams posting a 12-5 record in 2023 and now sitting atop the NFC at 12-2.
“This is his first year. I feel like there’s a lot of coaches — first year isn’t that that good, and they go on, do great things,” defensive captain Deatrich Wise said. “Just to give you an example, the guy from the Lions, his first year wasn’t that that good and look where he is now. So it’s [Mayo’s] first year. You have those type of things, we’ll look to see how he improves year after year.
“He’s doing a great job, always brings high energy, always does a good job of coaching guys while critiquing them and motivating them at the same time. So he always does a wonderful job with players. I think he doing a solid job.”
Throughout the ups and downs of the season, players have appreciated how Mayo’s message and personality has stayed the same. They’ve also enjoyed his player-coach style, as Maye noted how he knows how to manage workloads and for bringing him aside as a quarterback — what he called as “pretty cool” for a defensive head coach.
On that side of the ball, Wise has noticed Mayo’s ability to relate to players in the locker room as a former linebacker while his leadership ability stands among the rest.
“This coach is fantastic. He has the ability, like I said before, to relate to the guys in the locker room, lead the guys in the locker room, be the same person,” Wise said. “He’s relatable because he’s played the game, so he’s coaching from a point of view of ‘I played this game, I know what I’ve seen before’ it’s the same thing.
“With all that being said, I think his leadership is, in my opinion, is one of the best I’ve seen. One of the best I’ve seen because of the situations that we’re in now, he still has the ability to raise his leadership even higher. So, it’s pretty impressive.”
Mayo’s ability to retain buy-in is noticeable as the team has been eliminated from playoff contention for several weeks. Running back Antonio Gibson has been on the other side of that after missing the playoff the past three years with the Washington Commanders.
Now in a losing season in Foxboro, Gibson has yet to see his fellow teammates check-out.
“That’s our head coach. We’re rocking with him. When things go bad, you don’t want to just bail,” he explained. “I had a rough start and those guys didn’t give up on me. So I wouldn’t want anybody to give up on him as well. It takes time.”
With more time, Mayo’s players believes the wins will come.
“Yes, we wanna have more wins, that’s obvious,” said Wise. “But at the same time what he is doing, I think will work out in the future.”
“I just think the results are coming. I think they’re coming,” Mayo added. “I think everybody wishes they were now, and I think we’re kind of striving for that. But sometimes, it doesn’t work out that way. But I think we’re overcoming, and the winning is coming in the near future.”