Jerod Mayo Offers Scenario In Which Patriots Could Trade No. 3 Pick

These new Patriots will take some getting used to, with new head coach Jerod Mayo bringing a very different media approach compared to his predecessor.

Bill Belichick famously kept the cards close to his vest, but it’s already clear Mayo will be more forthright when discussing the organization’s business. The new coach was, relatively speaking, an open book Monday morning at the annual AFC coaches breakfast where the media interrogated him over orange juice and coffee.

Mayo touched on a variety of things, but one thing he was especially open and honest about was how the team is approaching the No. 3 pick in next month’s draft. Obviously, New England will consider any options with that position, but it’s still relatively jarring to hear one of the organization’s leaders be so open about the team’s process or plans.

“We are open, we’re open to trading the pick, (and) we’re open to taking a guy there,” Mayo told reporters Monday morning.

The Patriots need a quarterback, a position Mayo acknowledged Monday as the most important in sports. There’s a consensus top three QBs in this draft, and reports indicate New England is still most likely to take whoever’s standing among Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye at No. 3. However, the Patriots have needs elsewhere, specifically the uber-important positions of left tackle and wide receiver. As Mayo noted, this draft is rich for all three of those positions which could give New England some options.

“Those three positions that you spoke of, I would say that this draft has quite a few guys that can fill those roles,” he said. “We sit in a very enviable spot at three where we could take someone at three, or, if someone offers a ‘bag,’ as we would say, a lot of first-round picks, we’d definitely have to talk about those things as we put together this team.”

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Mayo wouldn’t get into specifics, but he noted there are probably five quarterbacks the Patriots would feel confident with moving forward. He and de facto general manager Eliot Wolf will work through evaluating those players in the lead-up to the draft, and if trading down while using that “bag” to address other needs — while still getting a top-five QB — makes most sense, that sounds like a good plan for Mayo.

“I know everyone likes to think they have the special formula when it comes to picking players, but the guaranteed way to win is to accumulate more picks. So if we don’t feel convicted at No. 3, we are willing to do that as well.”

Certainly, this could be posturing from Mayo and the Patriots. For all we know, they could be locked into a specific signal-caller at No. 3 already. However, given where New England is in the rebuild, if the Pats don’t feel good about the landscape at No. 3, they should think long and hard about moving the pick in an attempt to accelerate the process.