The New England Patriots’ rebuilding season has gone like many expected so far. The Patriots tried to ride it out with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback for a while before making the switch to Drake Maye, and they currently sit at 3-10 while they finish out the season in December.
Just like any young team, the Patriots are just hoping to see progress and signs of promise from some of their young players, and they have gotten that so far. Maye looks like a future franchise quarterback and is able to make plays to keep the Patriots in games almost every week despite playing with arguably the worst offensive supporting cast in the NFL. On the defensive side, cornerback Christian Gonzalez has been one of the top shutdown corners in the league this season.
Another one of those young centerpieces, defensive tackle Christian Barmore, made his season debut on Nov. 17 after he was diagnosed with blood clots before the season. In those three games, Barmore has recorded just six tackles and a sack.
Despite his subpar production so far this season, head coach Jerod Mayo isn’t ready to sound the alarms just yet.
“Yeah, that’s one of the frustrating things. When you have a guy and then all of a sudden, he plays his first game – which he’s been out for over a year – and we expect him to return back to the form where he left off,” Mayo said. “I would say that about other players as well. I mean, you could even use Pep [Jabrill Peppers] as an example, who for six or seven weeks was outside the building, then you expect him to come in and just be the Pep that he was at the start of the season. We have examples of that over and over again. As we continue to progress through the season, you just want those guys to continue to get better. I would say – going back to Barmore – his training camp started two weeks ago, realistically, and it’s just where we are.”
Should the Patriots keep Jerod Mayo for year two?
While Jerod Mayo hasn’t shown anything schematically or strategically that makes him stick out as a young head coach, it usually takes a lot of epic failures for a head coach to be fired after one season in the NFL. While Mayo has been unspectacular so far, he has gotten what he needs to out of the team to stick around.
When you consider the preseason expectations for the Patriots, this season has been a success. They have found a franchise quarterback in Drake Maye and a foundational piece on defense in Christian Gonzalez.
Next season, expectations will be higher for the Patriots after they hopefully are able to add a few free agents to bolster the offensive line and receiving core and have a new crop of draft picks to integrate into the team. After next year will be a more realistic time to evaluate Mayo, who has probably done enough to earn at least that long of a leash as the head coach.
