Jerod Mayo’s Feel-Good Leadership Will Cost Him Says Mark Schlereth as Patriots HC Overlooks ‘Woefully Inadequate’ Drake Maye for QB1

It would be interesting to see how the New England Patriots season works out after Bill Belichick. They’ve got a new head coach and a new quarterback, who is supposed to fill in Tom Brady’s shoes and make the Patriots great again. But we aren’t expecting Maye to take over the NFL in his rookie year, are we? Mark Schlereth sure isn’t.

In a recent episode of The Stinkin Truth Podcast with Mark Schlereth, the ex-Broncos guard discussed how Jerod Mayo being a “player’s coach” might affect the team and if the head coach would be able to protect Drake Maye from going down the same path as Mac Jones, a first-round pick whose career went in a downward spiral with Bill Belichick.

Touching upon the similarities between the Patriots and Commanders, Mike Evans of the show picked Schlereth’s brains about what he thinks of this massive change in their QB and HC positions. In an interesting take, the ex-OLB pointed out how things might look bad for Jerod Mayo if the Patriots don’t win any games. Despite the “good energy” that Jerod Mayo brings to the team, there’s something that bothers Mark Schlereth.

“You listen to all the reports coming out there were players like, ‘Jerod Mayo is a player’s coach, it’s a different atmosphere,’ and I’m like that’s really good until it’s not really good, until you start losing,” said Schlereth and added, “Then everybody starts looking at it like, ‘Really? Are we sure that’s really good?”

While there is a need to experiment with how the Patriots run things in their new season post-Belichick, the owners might start questioning Mayo’s approach if the team goes on a losing streak. Quoting one of Mayo’s statements, Schlereth pointed out, “I’m trying to teach them how to think, not what to think.” But the real question is, will the Patriots stakeholders be able to digest this change of culture?

There’s one more noteworthy thing about the Patriots that’s alarming. They have a new offensive coordinator in Alex Van Pelt, who per Schlereth doesn’t have an “extensive play resume.” “Alex Van Pelt has been around a long time; he came from Cleveland. But he doesn’t have an extensive resume when it comes to calling plays,” said Schelerth of the Patriots organization, and thinks that there is going be a “play calling by committee,” that involves Jerod Mayo, Alex Van Pelt, and DC DeMarcus Covington.

Then there’s the problem with the quarterback department. Though Drake Maye is the most hyped one in the room, there’s still no guarantee that he’s going to start the season. In fact, Schlereth thinks that Maye should sit and observe for his rookie year and let Jacoby Brissett take care of things.

Can Jerod Mayo make it work with an ‘inadequate’ Drake Maye?

Evans wanted Schlereth to talk about Drake Maye. Though the QB was a first-round pick, the Broncos’ ex-guard thought of Maye as an unpolished QB who has a lot of room for improvement. In other words, the commentator was unimpressed with Drake Maye.

“I just thought he was super raw, super talented athlete, “said Schlereth and added, “I thought he was late, I thought he was inaccurate which is, anytime you’re late you’re going to be inaccurate, so those two things go hand in hand. But yeah, I was not a big fan of Drake Maye and I just thought you know, in today’s quick passing game, I thought he was woefully inadequate.”

Per the ex-NFL player, Drake Maye should just take a backseat in his rookie year, but the Patriots might not give him that chance and want to test him outright. But for now, Jacoby Brissett is listed as the QB1, but his 8-season career hasn’t been all that impressive. So, all in all, the Patriots might see themselves back to square on again. Why?

Take what happens to Mac Jones. Jones was supposed to take Brady’s place and he was on the right track. He recorded 3,801 yards in his rookie year, but then his performance kept declining before he finally got traded. That’s because Bill Belichick didn’t pay much attention to his development and took away one person that was motivating him: Josh McDaniels. Yeah, that sounds crazy, but Jones had a special bond with McDaniels, and he fell apart after the Patriots replaced McDaniels with Matt Patricia (a defensive coach by default).

So, what if the same thing happens to Drake Maye and the Patriots fail him? What if at one point Jacoby Brissett plays badly and the Patriots tell Drake Maye to start, and he flounders? Hence it makes more sense for him to just sit and watch this rookie season so that he can possibly become a franchise quarterback in the near future.