Patriots coach Jerod Mayo met with the assembled media on Monday in Orlando at the owners meetings. Mayo touched a variety of topics from free agency, to being a head coach to the NFL Draft. 

He opened with a statement regarding free agency. 

The clarity I would begin with is free agency – the media, the fans – everyone wants that big signing. But at the same time, as we continue to put this team together, I think there has to be a process. It has to be a methodical process. Look, when there is a guy we want to get, the Krafts have already told us they’ll spend the money. I would say offensively this year, we were very picky as far as the players we were getting. At the same time, that wasn’t really a deep offensive free-agent class to even make that type of splash. Now in saying that, the draft is coming up. There will still be conversations as far as trades and things like that. And guys will be released. So this is a process that’s going to go on all the way until after the draft.”

From there he spoke for a about a half hour and delved into several topics.

Mayo was candid regarding free agency and the lack of spending by the Patriots. He said the team was more focused on re-signing it’s own free agents and that the team was tried but was unsuccessful to lure some of the big free agents in the market, including wide receiver Calvin Ridley. 

“It is frustrating but at the same time, one of the No. 1 priorities we had was to sign our players back. I think it’s not a popular pick to sign an offensive lineman to a big deal, but at the same time, he’s a critical piece to our team. We want to take care of our own and I think that was the strategy going into it. We did have targets that we wanted that it just didn’t work out. But when it’s all said and done, we want guys that want to be a part of this process, that want to be a part of the next chapter in New England history.”

I believe the Patriots made a competitive offer to Ridley. I have a hard time believing they were willing to overspend on him however. They were not and that is he ultimately took the Tennessee Titans $92 million dollar offer.

Mayo also talked about his experience so far as a head coach and his “burn cash” comment he made on WEEI. Mayo said “That was terrible.” when asked about the comment. He said he doesn’t regret saying it but he does feel the Patriots need to be smart with the way they spend money in free agency. 

“No, I don’t regret it. Look, I’m a first-year head coach. I didn’t mean like ‘burn some cash’. I know we have a lot of cash to utilize but we are going to utilize it the right way. We have to be very convicted when we do spend that cash. Ownership has done a good job letting Eliot and I know that we have the cash to spend; just try to spend it smartly.”

Mayo also talked about the fact that he hadn’t had time to focus on the X’s and O’s as head coach because he has been busy assembling a staff, dealing with free agency and evaluating players for the draft. 

He was also asked about the draft and North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye specifically. Mayo gave a glowing answer about the young signal caller.

“Drake Maye had a fantastic interview at the combine. He brings a lot of energy. You can tell he has that leadership ability. Also the exciting part about a guy like Drake Maye, there is really no ceiling with a guy like that. In saying that, when we’re trying to put together this roster, I know a lot of people look at the ceiling. But you also have to look at how low is the floor. I would say a guy like Drake Maye – he has a lot of room to grow. He’s a young guy. Honestly, he hasn’t played football nearly as much as these other guys. So that’s definitely something we’ve looked at, but he’s definitely going to develop.”

Mayo was also asked about the possibility of the team trading down. At first he made it seem like the Patriots would be taking a quarterback with the third overall pick but he later said that trading is always a possibility because the additional picks you add could help the franchise fill multiple positions. 

“We are open to trading the pick. We’re open to taking a guy there. The crazy thing is, we have telephones at this point. Eliot didn’t come because he’s doing a lot of work back home. I don’t say that to be disrespectful, but I would say, he’s doing a lot. He’s working. His staff is working through the weekends. Honestly, I would rather him be doing that than sitting here right now.”

Mayo added: if someone offers a ‘bag’ as we would say – a lot of first-round picks – we definitely have to talk about those things as we continue to put together this team. You said it, there are holes on this team. But I would also say there will be people available going forward to fill those holes.”

Mayo was also asked about Mac Jones and why it did not work out with him. He gave an interesting response.

“Mac Jones came in and had a lot of success early on. We always talk about that jump from year one to year two and how significant that year is, or that bridge is to year two. I would say it was a combination of things that really kind of hindered that growth in the second year. One thing I did learn about that process: As you continue to develop a quarterback, it’s not only the players you put around him, but also the coaches that you put around this guy. Not only the coaches, but it can go all the way to the ops teams and things like that – to support a guy who plays the most important position in sports; and to ask him as a rookie to come in is always going to be tough. You get to Year 2, you want to see that jump. You get to Year 3 and you would want to see success like it’s a straight line, but realistically that’s not what it is. It’s like a bunch of ups and downs. I think just supporting a quarterback is one of the biggest things. I would also say this – bringing a guy like Jacoby in, he’s definitely a starter in this league. I would also say he’s a good mentor to quarterbacks across the league.”

Sounds like the Patriots are going to learn from their previous mistakes regarding quarterback development.

Mayo spoke at length on a variety of topics and his candor was refreshing. Will he always be this forthcoming with the media? Probably not. But it was nice to see a Patriots coach give honest answers about the state of the franchise.

He also followed the Belichick tradition of drinking Orange juice. Which probably endeared him to the assembled media even more. 

*Quotes used in the story were courtesy of Mike Reiss who transcribed the interview.