Patriots Superstar Shuts Down Popular Jerod Mayo Theory

Jerod Mayo had a tough go of it in his first and only season as Patriots head coach, to say the least.

The on-field product was routinely poor for New England, which finished 4-13 for a second consecutive campaign. But Mayo often threw matches on the dumpster fire by putting his foot in his mouth and allowing the media and fans to run wild with his unnecessary remarks.

Mayo’s missteps behind microphones became such a regular occurrence that it was only fair to wonder if those comments were poorly received by players. But on a recent appearance on NBC Sports Boston’s “The Next Pats Podcast,” Christian Gonzalez insisted Mayo’s words didn’t cause any friction in the locker room.

“(The messaging) gets thrown onto Mayo, but I think that’s more so on the outside, there were a lot of people that don’t understand what he was saying,” Gonzalez said, as transcribed by Boston.com. “There’s a lot of things that he said that went viral for him being like — saying he can’t help us win on the field. I mean, he can’t. We’re on the field. We as players are on the field.

“So we understand what he’s saying. Nobody felt disrespected or like, ‘Oh why did he say that?’ So I don’t think it’s nothing that he did. What the coaches did. It comes down to the players. We just didn’t finish games. We didn’t win the games we needed to win. So I think that’s what that is.”

Mayo might not have irked Patriots players with his words, but he seemingly hampered the team with his actions. In a separate interview with Pro Football Talk, Gonzalez admitted a “lax” environment following Bill Belichick’s departure “hurt” New England in 2024.

Those problems likely will be nixed by Mike Vrabel, who rarely stumbles in media availabilities and famously runs a tight ship.