Jerod Mayo Stonewalls Question On Patriots Quarterback Separation

The New England Patriots have lost four straight games and sit at the bottom of the AFC East at 1-4. With the offense struggling to produce under quarterback Jacoby Brissett, making a change under center could come sooner than later, but that doesn't mean Jerod Mayo is ready to talk about any type of gap between Brissett and rookie first-round pick Drake Maye.

"I don't want to get into the separation talk," Mayo told reporters following the Patriots' heartbreaking loss to the Dolphins on Sunday. "I will say, look, Jacoby is out there trying to do what we've asked him to do from the start. He's taking some big hits, and his toughness continues to show up. Execution from the entire offense has to be better going forward."

The veteran QB completed 18 passes for 160 yards and was sacked twice in the loss. On the season, Brissett has thrown 79 completions for 696 yards with just two touchdowns. Mayo doesn't believe the Patriots' offensive production is down simply because Brissett is not making plays.

"It's a combination of things," he said. "It's not just one person. It's everyone just going out there and executing. It's not even knowing what to do. It's all right, a piece moves; we've got to be able to identify that and go out there and execute."

Brissett was a bit more blunt in his response regarding the Patriots' offensive woes, including mental mistakes that cost production.

"We're making plays. We're just shooting ourselves in the foot," Brissett said. "We're going one step forward to go 20 steps back. It's like we can't do that. ... This league is so hard already. The margin of error is so slim, and to not be able to do that because of lack of focus and lack of things like that we all have control over, we're not good enough for that yet."