It’s only May(e) 1.
It’s barely three months into youthful first-year head coach Jerod Mayo’s tenure setting the tone in New England, the Chosen One tasked with the unenviable task of following up Bill Belichick’s dynastic tenure with the Patriots.
It’s only a couple days removed from New England using the well-deserved No. 3 overall pick on a much-hyped but even more questioned would-be franchise QB in Drake Maye, the on-field Chosen One.
To say the Patriots are a major NFL question mark would be the understatement of this or any year.
That great and dubious unknown even has Mayo worthily and understandably voicing mixed messages to the media and his fan base.
The affable, love-driven former All-Pro linebacker has vacillated this winter and spring between preaching “patience” and avoiding too-low, too-early expectations.
As recently as draft night Mayo made it clear he was steering clear of having any time-lines for his No. 1 pick and franchise-altering QB selection. Declaring there would a QB competition this summer. That the best guy will play. That history shows that some players can succeed right out the gates – recent history, if you saw what happened in Houston last fall with C.J.
Stroud – while others need a year or more on the bench.
And either plan can lead to success or failure based on the specifics of the team and player in question.
When should a rookie QB play? It, like the Patriots themselves, is a great unknown. An unanswerable hypothetical, the kind Belichick historically was borderline allergic to addressing.
But even while managing expectations for Maye and his team, the competitor and confident football man in Mayo couldn’t help himself last Thursday night in the wake of the biggest, most critical New England draft pick since Drew Bledsoe circa 1993.
“I know a lot of people are writing us off, but we'll see when it comes to the fall,” Mayo said in subtly confident fashion, the kind that flies in the face projections that his team will be picking in the top 5 picks again next April.
Then, this past Monday on WEEI’s Greg Hill Show, home of Mayo’s weekly radio interviews this fall, the man leading the new-age collaborative charge at Gillette Stadium was asked if his team was better right now than the one that won just four games in Belichick’s final season a year ago.
“100-percent,” Mayo responded without hesitation, doubling down on a predication on the same show in January that New England would indeed win more than four games in his first season on the sideline.
The hope, like the trepidation, is warranted.
The NFL is a world where going worst to first, from the top 10 picks to the playoffs is a very real possibility.
Why can’t Mayo be this year’s version of DeMeco Ryans, a former star linebacker who leads his team’s turnaround in his first head-coaching campaign?
Maybe Maye is Stroud-like, best-in-class surprise waiting to happen?
Maybe either Ja’Lynn Polk or Javon Baker has Tank Dell-like impact, helping a guy like DeMario Douglas break out the way Nico Collins did in Houston.
Maybe.
No, Chukwuma Okorafor is no Laremy Tunsil. And the Patriots are only in Year 1 of Eliot Wolf’s roster turnover, unlike the time that Nick Caserio had to put his stamp on the Texans.
Could the Patriots be a much better team in 2024? Kevin Garnett, Mayo and every NFL fan knows it’s possible.
Could the Patriots be a team headed toward another top-5 draft pick in a multi-year rebuild? Fans in Chicago and Carolina, to name two, know firsthand that’s very much possible.
With Mayo and Maye now entrenched in their critical roles in New England this May, hope springs eternal in Foxborough. As it should.
But reality remains a concern. As it should.
That’s why Mayo is sending out somewhat conflicting but also very worthy mixed messages, requesting “patience” while simultaneously warning outsiders not to “write us off.”
Mayo understands that his team and his coming season are a massive question marks this May.
That’s why he’s saying, literally, ALL the right things.
Time will tell where the truth, ironically, lies.
Come what Maye…