Image courtesy of Mike Reiss/ ESPN

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo spoke to ESPN’s Mike Reiss at the annual NFL Owners Meetings on Sunday evening and touched on a couple of topics. 

Mayo talked about the Patriots approach in free agency thus far and why they did not sign any of the big free agents available. 

“The most important thing for us was to get our people back here. Re-sign our players — the Mike Onwenus of the world. We have some good players that we like to keep and that’s kind of part of the culture that we want to build,” he said. “Obviously, we were disappointed that Ridley went in a different direction, but we’re good. I like the direction that we’re going.”

Keeping many of the team’s free agents is fine but the lack of a big play receiver and a left tackle has not sat well with Patriots fans. Especially when you consider the fact that Mayo said the team would spend and director of scouting Eliot Wolf said the team would “weaponize” the offense. It did not happen, at least in free agency.

Regarding the draft, Mayo talked about the Patriots current situation, including how they view the quarterbacks and whether or not they would consider trading down. 

“Obviously, quarterback is definitely a priority. With that being said, we’re still open to any type of deals that come our way,”

Mayo added: “We’re very far [into] the process, but we still have a long way to go. Definitely feel like we have time to really nail down our prospects in who we are going to go after.”

All of this sounds good but based on what is circulating out there in recent weeks, the Patriots are drafting a quarterback with the third overall pick. 

Could they trade it? Sure but they would have to get blown away with an offer. Several teams will be looking to trade up but unless they are willing to sell the farm, expect the Patriots to stick and pick their quarterback of the future. 

Mayo is scheduled to meet with the media from the owners meetings this morning at 7:45. We will have more from the meeting as soon as it concludes. 

(Quotes in the story courtesy of Mike Reiss/ESPN)