With the Patriots’ season seemingly going down the tubes after their latest loss to the Jaguars in London over the weekend, talks of head coach Jerod Mayo’s job security have already come up with one New England insider suggesting that a second season isn’t guaranteed.
During a Tuesday appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub, Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard revealed that some people inside the Patriots organization had wondered over the summer if Mayo had been the right choice to succeed coaching legend Bill Belichick.
“I think that there were some thoughts during the summer that there were questions going on around the building about whether this was the right thing for the program, there was some second thoughts about it,” Bedard said.
“I’ll tell you it’s my opinion from talking to people that I don’t think Jerod Mayo is assured of a second season if this is a complete dumpster fire. Now I don’t think that’s likely, but considering where we are in week seven, they are weeks away from even a bye week trying to reset, not that that’s going to do any good with this coaching staff, everybody’s probably just going to go on vacation and then come back and play out the string,.. If this is the way the rest of the season is going to go, a lot of people are going to get fired.”
The Patriots fell to the Jaguars, 32-16, and the Patriots head coach tore into his team, at one point calling them “a soft football team.”
The comment turned plenty of heads and drew reactions from both Belichick and Tom Brady, both of whom still carry plenty of weight.
And Bedard predicted that a disastrous season from the Patriots could result in more than just Mayo losing his job.
“If this continues on and look, it’s getting worse by the week, and you have a coach who just went to the podium and called his players soft and now you have Belichick, the deposed dictator, basically like asking for a mutiny to rise up with his comments and whistles that he’s blowing for his guys, and it get worse and worse every week?” Bedard said. “I do not think it’s assured that Jerod Mayo is back for a second season, along with a lot of other people in that building. Like the Kraft’s are not going to be embarrassed and Sunday was embarrassing and they still have 10 more games to go.”
Belichick defended the players Monday during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” while Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones didn’t seem to take too much offense to the comment, calling it Mayo’s “opinion.”
“The opposite of a soft team is a tough team and we pride ourselves around here on being able to stop the run, run the ball and cover kicks. If you look at our last game, we didn’t do any of those,” Jones told WEEI.