A day after his team lost 28-22 to the Rams, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo reflected on how a close game slipped away, Hayden Bird of The Boston Globe reports.

“Overall, I thought the guys played the way we wanted to play,” Mayo told WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” in his weekly interview. “The execution started to waver a little bit in critical situations. But when you look at the stat sheet, and to really be 2:1 as far as time of possession, [the players] went out there and tried to do the right thing. Unfortunately we didn’t walk away with the win.”

New England’s offense, as Mayo noted, produced some quality statistical achievement (even if the final score wasn’t one of them). Along with the aforementioned time of possession stat, the Patriots churned out a season-high 382 total yards of offense.

Spearheading the production was rookie quarterback Drake Maye, who again directed the offense with a promising level of talent and aggressiveness. The 22-year-old finished the game 30 of 40 with 282 yards of passing and a pair of touchdown tosses.

Yet while Maye’s development since becoming the starter has been clear to even casual observers, outside speculation of the organization’s handling of the third overall pick from the 2024 draft has persisted.

In a segment from Boston Sports Tonight in the buildup to the Los Angeles matchup, Sports Illustrated NFL insider Albert Breer reported that Patriots team leadership had called around to ask other teams about how to aid young quarterbacks.

“They have done some research over the last few weeks on how to handle a young quarterback,” Breer said of the Kraft ownership group. “Obviously they failed with Mac Jones from 2021 through 2023. So the Krafts have asked people and done their homework on how the right way to handle a young quarterback is and how they’re going to do that going forward.”

When Breer’s report was brought up to Mayo on Monday, he produced an instant rebuttal.

“Yet we sit here and say he’s developing at a good trajectory. Can we all agree on that?” Mayo asked WEEI co-hosts, who concurred. “All those reports are false. None of those reports are true.”

Mayo, who said he has “open lines of communication” with Robert and Jonathan Kraft, paused before expanding on his response.

“It’s almost like talking out of both sides of our mouths. We’re sitting here saying he’s developing great, and then to sit here and the story comes out that people are asking around how to develop a quarterback,” he explained. “I’ll take all the shots and all that stuff in regards to our record, our team, our development, that’s fine. That’s part of being a head coach. The one thing that, being a head coach, I need to make sure I do a good job protecting our coordinators, our coaches, and also the players on the field.”

“Who do you think’s responsible for that? Alex Van Pelt. He’s responsible for that. Why even call around to ask how to develop a quarterback when everyone in the New England area, you even said Sean McVay included on the West Coast, is like, ‘Hey, this guy is developing at a good rate and he’s going to be a good football player.’ That to me is the frustrating piece.”

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/theredzoneorg 
       
Don't forget to follow us on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@theredzoneorg 
         
Like us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/Theredzone.org