Head Coach Jerod Mayo: "My job is to put the best player on the field." | Patriots Press Conference

okay oh who was here might used it last um excited to be out here you know we had a good week of preparation uh this was the really the first opportunity that we've had to really go through how it's going to be during the regular season a game week as far as preparation uh as far as running cards out here with the scout team and really just getting ready for for an opposing team so it's been a it's been a great week um secondly I heard this is your last day that you guys will be able to be out here all practice I'm going to miss you guys during during practice but um I I appreciate all you guys and the cooperation hopefully uh it's been smooth for you guys looking at the third preseason game it's important for a lot of players that are trying to fill a dream and what have you um how many roster spots in your mind do you still have open uh going into this that's that's a tough uh that's a tough question this this game you know we say you know it doesn't count but it matters and I think there are still a few positions where it's it's a bad we've been talking about competition all year and uh that's still my message right now how much of a learning curve has been for everyone just basically bringing in the game plan aspect of things just with working on the install um I wouldn't say you know it's so much of a learning curve I would say initially we were focused on NEP and whatever phase of the game we're talking about it was all about us uh now you start to focus on another team and their personnel once again we don't know who's going to play over there but it doesn't matter was more the exercise of going through who are their go-to players offensively defensively and special teams and how do we stop them these are the things that uh that we need to be careful of and these are things we want to try to exploit so it's a you know most teams they talk about you know you know postmortem like they they end up going and you know seeing what the game you what happened in the game to me it's about the premortem like how do we uh prevent ourselves from losing the game and you know you can't win until you stop from losing for some guys who might be perceived to be on the roster bubble who might be kind of playing for their lives on Sunday night how do you kind of preface conversations with them camping down that anxiety some concern I mean after you hit someone on the first snap it it just gets right back to football and I think sometimes we overblow you know it's overblown as far as the anxiety and things look anxiety is natural it's normal we talk about that every week but after you go out there and play a couple of plays it's just like when you were six years old you know out on the practice field so I think the guys are ready to go they understand this professional football there are more people in the locker room than there are jobs and they've known that since day one which yesterday at Mike at right tackle lad at R guard um what did you see from that group and is that something we're going to you know grouping we're going to see as we go on I would say you know it was encouraging it was encouraging to um you know to see that and you know anytime you can sandwich a rookie between two veteran players that's always going to be a benefit for for the player and also the team so we're still you know trying to figure out that combination but I feel like we're getting pretty close you um talk a lot about developing men in addition of players can you think about some of the motivational message Mees that you've decided to highlight why why is one of them about not taking what someone says that you wouldn't solicit their advice you know why why is that one that you know what I mean that came up me like I'm not going to take advice I'm not going to take Financial Services advice from a barber I'm just not going to do it or and it's nothing against Barber because vice versa I'm not going to take any type of haircut advice from a financial adviser and I think it's important look I think it's important for you to like the people that I take advice from are people that you know if I had to switch lives with that person right now it wouldn't be a big problem and so that's kind of how I look at it and for players I'm thinking I mean you're for you played you've been around the block you're you know father you know you had more life experience but for the players that you're sending this message to they're younger yeah like what is it about I guess the world we live in or whatever that made you know that made that well I think naturally we try from a staffing perspective whether you're talking about slater or myself or high tower I think all of those guys have instant credibility especially with the young guys and so you know they're always going to ask them questions not only about X's and O's but how they deal with situations off the field and you know it's on me to make sure that our staff is on the same page on how we want to uh get that messaging across to the young guys I hope that I hope that ANS I mean it's that is a good question and you know it's a longer answer no no no but it was a really long question but I could I could go for about 30 minutes on 30 minutes on that question coach this team had a long streak of having a drafted free agents make the roster how important is it for the organization to restart that streak and have those kind of players know that this is a team where they have a shot it it's huge um you know I always tell those guys you know they all were on teams in college where a five star would come in or a four star would come in and everyone's like oh but they're they're trash right and so you have that one star player that actually makes the team I think it's important and once again going back to competition and going back to my job is to put the best player on the field no matter where you drafted him so that's kind of how I think about it speaking of the undrafted free agents someone who we saw get his hands on have his hand in two plays one that was intercepted one that was almost was Del Pettis yesterday um what's it like seeing someone like that come in here and have this kind of impact on the field yeah he he's done a fantastic job and um there's been a lot of conversation around him but he's done a fantastic job up until this point but it is important that those guys go out here and realize like I can play at this level there's always this impostor syndrome where am I good enough am I not good enough and for a guy like Dale Pettis for for example to go out and make those plays just continues to boost his confidence someone like David wall as well with the punt returns we've seen him have a decent Camp yeah he's had he's had a decent Camp um I would say he has definitely gotten better um he's an explosive player uh so you know we have to find a role for them the rookies coming to the end of their first NFL training camp how have they done as a group when it comes to responding to some of the challenges that been put in front I I would say as a whole they've done well um you know whether we're talking about the slipping SL or we're talking about you know running up the hill after a two and a half hour practice I think those guys have responded well now the game is always going to be different and that's what I'm trying to you know really focus on this week is the game and then in away game for those guys this will be their first opportunity as a young player to go on the road and get their routine kind of tightened down uh because the first game of the season will be on the road you saying every player's going to play are we talking one possession for the first team or no we're GNA play we're gonna play I mean if you guys want look Jacob's goingon to start the game off Drake will play as well Joe will play as well there's a there's a nugget boom you're welcome thank you now you guys can sleep Za play Za play but hold on one thing sorry sorry one thing we do have some players you know dealing with small things that probably won't play and get ready for the regular season some of our proven players uh yeah there you go all right fantastic now you guys can sleep at that can um can I stick on the quarterback topic just for a second because I'm curious how you value things when it comes to that position you know Alex was here with us yesterday talking about how jacobe has a lot of tools that at this point in terms of probably diagnosing defenses things of that nature that that Drake probably just doesn't just based on experience is that more valuable than the ability to make some plays physically that Drake might be able to make that other quarterbacks might not be able to how do you weigh those two things and what's more valuable to you to me the top two things mental toughness and just competitiveness those are two qualities that I really look at uh you know with quarterbacks I can't sit here and tell you unless it's like a A Philip Rivers release where man that's that release is kind of weird I don't get into the technical stuff like that but for me evaluating a quarterback or any other player but especially the quarterback they have to be mentally tough and they have to be able to just bounce back from all that you know the adversity that they're they're bound to see has Drake like what have your thoughts on that going into camp and coming out of camp with Drake CU you knew jacobe you had those two things yeah if you guys remember early on like he was you throw interceptions and he get so down on himself and I would say now as we exit Camp he's done a lot better job being being able to pull the nose up on the plane uh when it seems like it's going down and I think that's an important quality you seem like you've been a lot of different places with phal players as you go about your day is that something you wanted to do or is it just comes naturally evolved here no that's something I wanted to do and you know I talk about it all the time we brought in 17 new coaches I have to have belief in my coaching staff to go out there and really get the things done now we meet all the time inside the building which you guys are never in there but we meet all the time inside the building and we're all on the same page one thing I would say from my perspective the most important thing is fundamentals it's you know the X's and O's no matter what team you're talking about it's really the same thing they've been running since college is about linking that communication but for me when you look at a game that you just lost you know a close game or something like that you can always point back to fundamentals whether they're good or they're bad tackling running catching throwing the ball all the basic things that you know young kids are trying to are learning now and those things uh they they still exist at this level kind of you saw kind of a GL terms of what regular season practice is going to look like but obviously it's a little bit different than 90 guys out there and the past we talked to veteran players they've been surprised that only veterans or only starters practice they've said a lot of other guys are on the scout team are you going to continue that or is there going to be a little bit more competition I think it's always competition I'll take you back to a story when I was a player here early on the starters would you know they would run the first three scout team reps and I think it's important that the first team offense gets to see what the first team defense is doing and then you get to show team players now our philosophy when I say our I'm talking about Elliott and myself the way we look at the practice squad is a development type of you know way to look at it it's not a all right this guy's just out here to take snaps like we're going to depend on these guys whether it's week one or at the end of the season and so we look to develop those guys so it's definitely important when we were talking to yesterday he just talked about dissecting defenses kind of like what Phil was asking about with Drake I just wondering how different from a defensive perspective is preseason defense compared to regular season defense yeah it's definitely different I would say you know we have a very versatile and complex defense that he's gone against all training camp so he has seen a lot of that stuff now there are game plan things that you'll see going into a game but at the same time we'll pair down the Playbook so it's it kind of balances itself out all right thank you guys appreciate it enjoy the