Bill Belichick defends former players after Patriots coach Jerod Mayo’s criticism: ‘They’re tough guys’

Belichick is coming to the defense of his former team

Bill Belichick is no longer the head coach of the New England Patriots, but he still has a lot to say about his former team, including coming to their defense.

At the end of last season, the Patriots and Belichick parted ways, ushering a new era in New England with Jerod Mayo leading the team. Mayo’s Patriots have struggled this season, standing at 1-6 and looking like a mess in many areas, including one side of the ball that was once thought secure: the defense.

New England’s defense, specifically their run defense, looked abysmal at most points of their Week 7 game in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars. At one point, the Jags offense ran the ball 17 times straight and gave up 25 unanswered points between the second and third quarter.

Jacksonville finished with 13 rushing first downs, 364 total yards, including 171 rushing yards on 39 attempts. The 32-16 loss led Mayo to call his team “soft.”

“Look, we are a soft football team across the board,” Mayo told reporters. “We talk about what makes a tough football team, that’s being able to run the football, that’s being able to stop the run, and that’s being able to cover kicks. We did none of those today.”

Mayo did eventually begin to backtrack on his call out of the team, saying, “We don’t have a soft football team. We’re playing soft.”

The comments got a negative reaction from many, including the team’s former head coach. Belichick noted that the makeup of the defense is very similar to what they have last year, when they were among the best on that side of the ball.

“The Patriots led the league last year in rushing defense, yards per carry, [they were] No. 1 in the league,” Belichick began, referencing the team’s league-best 3.3 yards per carry allowed in 2023 and comparing that to their 4.6 yards allowed per carry this season, which is middle of the pack.

“It’s the same guys. They re-signed [Anfernee] Jennings, they re-signed [Jahlani] Tavai, they re-signed [Kyle] Dugger. Marcus Jones and [Christian] Gonzalez have been healthy all year, which they were both on IR at this point last year. So you got [Deatrich] Wise, you got [Davon] Godshaux, you got Keion White, you got [Marte] Mapu,” Belichick continued, backing his point that the team looks much the same.

“It’s a lot of the same players and in some cases I would say more, so I’m kind of hurt for those guys, because to call them soft, they’re not soft,” he said in their defense.

He gave his former defense credit for always playing their hardest, even when the offense was struggling.

“They were the best team in the league last year against the run and those guys went out there and did it, even though we couldn’t score many points offensively,” Belichick said. “So I feel bad for the defensive players on that one because that’s a tough group.”

He concluded, saying, “Those guys are all tough players. They’ll strap it up and go. They’re tough guys.”

Now it’s up to Mayo to get this defense back on track where it was last season. Up next, the Patriots have the New York Jets for an AFC East matchup.