New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo. Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

Patriots HC Jerod Mayo admits he made ‘rookie mistake’ after he was hired

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 4/30/24

Taking over a team that had approximately $66M in cap space prior to the start of free agency, New England Patriots first-year head coach Jerod Mayo may have been a tad bit overzealous when thinking about how he wanted to construct his roster.

During a radio interview in January, Mayo stated the Patriots had plenty of cash to burn — a statement he has since made known he regrets making.

“That was a rookie mistake by me,” Mayo said Monday on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.” “As soon as I got downstairs, [Patriots vice president of communications Stacey James] slapped me in the head like, ‘What are you doing?’ You understand what I meant though. What I really meant is we're going to be, obviously, smart with cash and smart with acquisitions. I was just very excited.”

"Matthew Slater's no. 1 job is going to be... can we just make sure (Jerod) Mayo doesn't say something ridiculous."

3x SB Champ @DevinMcCourty on the #Patriots hiring Matthew Slater as an 'advisor' @heykayadams pic.twitter.com/4lus5x1mZI
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) April 30, 2024

While New England did have a sizable amount of cap space, its free-agent splashes were minimal. The team spent $31.247M of that cap space on new players in free agency, and the rest was used on retaining key internal free agents.

New England kept offensive tackle Mike Onwenu (three years, $57M), safety Kyle Dugger (four years, $58M), tight end Hunter Henry (three years, $27M), receiver Kendrick Bourne (three year, $19.5M), linebacker Anfernee Jennings (three years, $12M) and edge-rusher Josh Uche (one year, $3M) all in-house, and it signed defensive tackle Christian Barmore to a massive four-year, $92M extension on Monday.

The largest contract the Patriots gave to a player not on their roster last season was the three-year, $11.25M one to which they signed running back Antonio Gibson.

Most of Mayo’s key offseason additions came via the draft where the Patriots added quarterback Drake Maye (No. 3 overall), receivers Ja’Lynn Polk (second round) and Javon Baker (fourth round), offensive tackle Caedan Wallace (third round) and guard Layden Robinson (fourth round).

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