Injured center and team captain David Andrews was among New England Patriots players who defended first-year head coach Jerod Mayo after Mayo said following the club’s Week 7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that he felt the Patriots were a “soft” team.
Coming off New England’s 25-22 upset win over the New York Jets this past Sunday, Andrews suggested on the latest edition of the “Quick Snap” podcast that Mayo can ultimately follow in the footsteps of popular Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell.
“He didn’t start off great over there, but he eventually got the players they want,” Andrews said about Campbell’s tenure with the Lions, as shared by Lauren Campbell of MassLive. “They had a good draft, got some good free agents and they’re rolling. So I think it’s always like the sky’s falling. But today, the sky’s not falling, and you can build off of how you responded to your head coach with a big win against a rival.”
Campbell played in the NFL long before he delivered what some saw at the time as controversial comments during his Lions introductory news conference and before he finished his first season as Detroit head coach (2021-22) with a woeful 3-13-1 record. He and quarterback Jared Goff have since helped the Lions become a legitimate Super Bowl contender and a team that participated in this past January’s NFC Championship Game.
Meanwhile, Mayo played for the Patriots under legendary head coach Bill Belichick from 2008 through the 2015 season. While New England undeniably is still in the early days of a needed roster rebuild, the hope is that promising rookie quarterback Drake Maye will help accelerate that process.
Some feared before the Jets game that Mayo could lose members of the locker room due to the “soft” comment that understandably could’ve upset players. Former Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer hinted during the “Quick Snap” episode that Mayo intentionally or unintentionally offered some extra motivation for his squad amid what was a six-game losing streak.
“There was some toughness throughout the game on all four phases,” Hoyer said about New England’s win over the Jets. “I think that is great to see in a coach’s first year where he kind of comes and calls out his team, and they respond and get a huge victory.”
As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the 2-6 Patriots as 3.5-point underdogs for this coming Sunday’s game at the 1-6 Tennessee Titans. Perhaps Mayo will use that line as bulletin-board material to fire his roster up ahead of the showdown at Tennessee’s Nissan Stadium.
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