What former Patriots OC would tell Jerod Mayo amid rumors

Bill O’Brien spent the 2023 NFL season as the New England Patriots offensive coordinator before he became head coach of the Boston College Eagles program this past winter. 

During a Thursday appearance on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show," O’Brien touched upon what he'd tell first-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo amid rumors suggesting team owner Robert Kraft could show Mayo the door if the 1-6 club doesn't improve by Week 18. 

"To me, it’s all about keeping the team together. It’s very difficult," O’Brien said, as shared by Jason Ounpraseuth of NESN. "I was there last year. We were terrible. It was hard, man. We had a lot of good guys on the team, but it’s just a brutal situation. And it’s important to keep them together, and keep them playing as good as they can and try to get them to improve every week. That’s the hardest thing." 

Depending on what one wants to believe, Mayo may or may not have made "keeping the team together" more complicated when he said following the Week 7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that he had a "soft" squad. He later walked back that comment, but some believe he's in danger of losing the locker room. 

As for O’Brien, he experienced plenty of highs and lows when he was head coach of the Houston Texans from 2014 through a portion of the 2020 campaign. He previously served as the full-time replacement for Joe Paterno at Penn State. At the same time, Kraft reportedly chose Mayo as Bill Belichick's successor long before the owner parted ways with Belichick this past January. Mayo first joined Belichick's staff as inside linebackers coach in 2019.

"I think it’s really important for all younger coaches to understand it’s very, very difficult to be a head coach," O’Brien added during the segment. "When you get into that seat and maybe you don’t have a lot of experience, it’s just a different world. To go from a position coach to being the head football coach, it’s hard. There’s gonna be some learning experiences that are going to take place." 

It's hardly promising that Patriots fans are facing a "how bad can this get?" stage of the season just seven games into Mayo's tenure. One wonders what could be said and/or written about Mayo if New England gets embarrassed in this Sunday's matchup against a 2-5 New York Jets team dealing with many issues this fall.