Patriots’ Jerod Mayo speaks about criticism from Bill Belichick

Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick criticized first-year New England coach Jerod Mayo multiple times last week after Mayo said following his club’s 32-16 Week 7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that he had “a soft football team.”

Coming off New England’s surprising 25-22 win over the New York Jets that improved the Patriots to 2-6 on the season, Mayo spoke about Belichick’s reactions to the “soft” comment during a Monday appearance on Boston sports radio station WEEI. 

“Look, I learned a lot from coach,” Mayo said about Belichick, as shared by Karen Guregian of MassLive. “I learned a lot on the field, off the field, all those things. In saying that, I have to do what I believe in. And that’s what it comes down to.” 

Mayo played under Belichick with New England from 2008 through 2015, and the 38-year-old later joined Belichick’s staff as an inside linebackers coach in 2019. Team owner Robert Kraft reportedly chose Mayo to serve as Belichick’s successor long before Kraft parted ways with the legendary figure this past winter. More recently, Mayo and Belichick seemed to get into somewhat of a war of words amid New England’s six-game losing streak that ended on Sunday. 

To his credit, Mayo attempted to clarify his original “soft” comment several times last week. While it was subsequently suggested Kraft could make another coaching change this coming January if the Patriots became “a complete dumpster fire,” multiple players defended Mayo before they helped their current coach earn the second victory of his tenure. 

“The guys went out there and played well,” Mayo said Monday about the win over the Jets, according to Nick O’Malley of MassLive. “I tried to walk it back last week as far as calling them soft. We played soft the last two games and that’s what I meant, and I would say those guys answered the challenge. I don’t think we have soft guys in the locker room. That’s just the way we played the last two weeks and I thought they came out and played well [Sunday].” 

As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Patriots as three-point underdogs for this coming Sunday’s game at the 1-6 Tennessee Titans. New England’s performance against the Jets could cause some to temporarily forget the Patriots are still responsible for one of the league’s most unimpressive rosters, but Mayo insisted on Monday that he and his club can improve before Week 18. 

“Just like I expect from our team to get better each and every week, I expect me as a head coach to get better every single week. I demand that from our assistant coaches as well,” Mayo told WEEI host Greg Hill. “You guys got to get better every single week. It doesn’t matter who the players are out on the field. We expect to go out there and win and play winning football.”