How Several Patriots Champions View Direction Of New England Franchise

BOSTON — The New England Patriots sit at 3-7 in the first year with Jerod Mayo as their head coach and with Drake Maye now starting as their future franchise quarterback.

Speaking exclusively with NESN.com Friday at the Pedro Martinez Foundation gala, three former Patriots who won Super Bowl rings with the organization gave their thoughts on the current state of the team.

Matt Light played the final four years of his career with Jerod Mayo and dove deep into the football perspective of the current head coach for the Patriots.

“For anybody that was there when he stepped in as a rookie, we understood right away that he was a man of the game,” Light said. “He cared about understanding every concept, getting with the veterans, being there early, staying late. These are qualities that veterans didn’t always have and here’s this rookie stepping in and he’s doing it on Day 1. He was always a Belichick-disciple in he didn’t need to buy in. He just knew that this is how we do things, this is the expectation and this is what I’m going to do. It was neat to see his rookie season. What he did after that, the impact that he had, the way the players responded to him. Here’s a guy that was a captain very early in his career, right? For good reason. They don’t hand things like that out to just anybody.”

Light added: “He’s always been a player-coach. As a coach, I think you see a guy that is disciplined. He loves what he’s doing but, as we all know, it’s very difficult to have success in the league. It doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’re Bill Belichick or Jerod Mayo. What I always tell people is this: you’ve got to give people time, and they need time. He’s going to develop things, figure out his system and his approach. When you’re a first-time coach, what he’s going through now is what everybody goes through.”

Shutdown cornerback Ty Law knows that development is prioritized over results in the current state for the Patriots. As each week passes, the youth movement for the Patriots will learn from their mistakes.

“You can’t always look at wins and losses right now because it’s new,” Law said. “It’s a rebuild. You finally got our quarterback of the future that’s a rookie and a rookie head coach. There’s going to be some transition but they have some talent. They’ve got a few pieces there that they can build around. You’ve just got to give them some time.”

Former tight end Jermaine Wiggins centered his thoughts around personnel with fundamental building blocks in Maye and cornerback Christian Gonzalez. That’s the foundation for the Patriots to highlight when building their next core of contention, whenever that arrives.

“Drake Maye looks good, that’s all I care about,” Wiggins said. “It’s about Drake Maye. He’s playing well. That’s the most important thing. You’ve got the guy at quarterback. Anybody who watches the NFL knows that if you got that guy, it’s easier to build pieces around them.”

The central takeaway from this championship trio of past Patriots?

Give Mayo time, give the Patriots time to build and embrace the emerging star in Maye. That’s the goal for the Patriots, who have seven games left this season to expedite the process.