Patriots Shouldn’t Think Twice About Benching Offensive Playmaker

In the days of Bill Belichick at the helm of the New England Patriots, Rhamondre Stevenson would have been real familiar with the bench. He might have needed a pillow and blanket for his extended stay there, too.

Jerod Mayo didn’t go that route when it came to Stevenson’s costly fumbling issues, but he should take a page out of Belichick’s book.

Mayo appears to be trending in that direction after the first-year head coach said Wednesday sitting Stevenson and giving more reps to Antonio Gibson in Sunday’s matchup against the Miami Dolphins is an option on the table.

That surely wouldn’t be an easy decision for Mayo. The Patriots paid Stevenson this offseason — a four-year, $36 million contract extension with $17 million guaranteed — to be the workhorse feature back and New England centers its offense around Stevenson’s stout ability in the ground game.

Sticking Stevenson on the sideline would take a playmaker off the field for a Patriots offense in desperate need of them. It’s the wrong move on paper. But it’s the right message for Mayo to send.

Mayo and his coaching staff have preached fundamentals since the new regime took over and already gave Stevenson too much leeway. It’s understandable that they offered him a second chance after he fumbled in a season-opening win over the Bengals, in which he was New England’s top offensive performer by rushing for 120 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.

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When Stevenson fumbled again in an overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks — and this time down by the goal line — that should have raised red flags. But Stevenson kept his normal playing time and then coughed the ball over against the New York Jets and again this past week against San Francisco 49ers.

Four fumbles in four games. Inexcusable. Belichick would have never stood for it.

Mayo is trying in some ways to be the opposite of Belichick and serve as a more prototypical players coach. That has its advantages and in this case disadvantages.

He showed his inexperience and made a misstep by not taking action sooner against Stevenson. By not disciplining Stevenson, whether benching him for series, quarter or even a half, he inadvertently rewarded Stevenson for not keeping the ball in his grasps.

Mayo’s task this season isn’t just trying to improve New England’s on-field product, but also establish a new culture inside the confines of One Patriot Place after 24 years of Belichick’s reign.

Mayo could have made a stand with Stevenson and displayed that repeated fumbles won’t be tolerated on a team that needs to do the little things correctly even to have a shot in games. Instead, Mayo looked like a pushover, conceding to one of the team’s premier players.

The right decision is still available to Mayo even if it’s coming a couple of weeks late. Just four weeks into the campaign, it feels like a lost season for the Patriots, so giving Stevenson some time on the pine wouldn’t dramatically alter their trajectory.

The Patriots also already look like an undisciplined bunch with on-field outbursts and players calling out teammates in the media. It’s on Mayo to turn that around. He can fix only one problem at a time and he can start by showing his team that if they don’t protect the football, they aren’t going to see the field.