Jerod Mayo Provides Interesting First Evaluation Of Mac Jones

Over the last year, getting Bill Belichick to say anything about Mac Jones was like pulling teeth. Toward the end of his Patriots tenure, Belichick rarely even mentioned Jones by name.

But Jerod Mayo is a different story. During his Monday appearance on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show," Mayo offered extended thoughts on Jones and his standing in New England.

"When I think about Mac, he obviously has talent," the Patriots head coach said. "We’re in the evaluation phase. I will say, with that, the confidence of a player is very fragile. Especially these players now -- like I’m an old man or something like that -- but confidence goes a long way. But as we continue to evaluate as a coaching staff, we’ll see."

Jones didn't see game action after being benched midway through the Patriots' Week 12 loss to the New York Giants. Bailey Zappe started the remaining six games at quarterback and led New England to wins over the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos.

Some believe Jones deserves all the credit for his downfall; others believe the Patriots ruined the 2021 first-round pick. Mayo believes everyone shares in the blame.

"If you were to ask Mac Jones, he made mistakes along the way as well,” Mayo said. "The coaching staff, we made mistakes along the way as well. And I’m not just talking about the offensive coaching staff. One thing about Mac, everybody talks to Mac. Special teams, defensive players, offensive players, and we were trying to help him with that confidence. But I think everyone has -- there’s enough blame to go around."

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Mayo also pushed back against the notion that the locker room turned against Jones during his tumultuous third season.

"All those guys love Bailey, they love Mac," he said. "It's just, who’s going to give us the best chance to win the game? That’s what it came down to. And it's hard to get a whole locker room to say, ‘This is the guy.’ We’re not talking about Tom Brady here, greatest of all time. Like, easy. All right, 99 or 100% of the locker room is like, ‘Yeah, that’s the guy.’ Then you start losing games and we have two guys who are still trying to find out who they are.

"What kind of player are they? Look, I’m not going to confirm that the locker room was split, but there were people that had different opinions."

Jones' future in New England remains unclear. But with the franchise potentially in line to use a top-three pick on a quarterback, Jones might've played his final game in a Patriots uniform.