WATFORD, United Kingdom – Jaguars.com senior writer John Oehser each week during the 2024 regular season will speak with a writer or media member covering the Jaguars’ opponent.
ESPN New England Patriots writer Mike Reiss on the Patriots as they enter Sunday’s Week 7 game against the Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London
Question: The Patriots are 1-5, having lost five consecutive games after a Week 1 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. What’s the state of the Patriots entering Sunday?
Answer: First year of a new regime. Head coach, Jerod Mayo; executive vice president of player personnel, Eliot Wolf; first-year offensive coordinator, Alex Van Pelt; first-year defensive coordinator, DeMarcus Covington; first-year special teams coordinator, Jeremy Springer. As you would expect, six games in we’ve seen growing pains with people in their position for the first time. Big picture, they did not inherit a great situation talentwise. I think the external expectation has been if they just show some incremental improvement and build a foundation, that’s a successful season. It centers around the quarterback, Drake Maye, the No. 3 overall pick. He just started his first game and flashed promise. No. 2, which sort of muddied the waters a little bit, is they go out and win their first game, 16-10 at the [Cincinnati] Bengals. It shocked everyone. It raised the expectation externally, and they’ve regressed. They haven’t been able to meet that level over the next five weeks.
Q: Assess Maye. What’s his outlook?
A: For long-time NFL fans, this reminds me of when the Patriots got [quarterback] Drew Bledsoe in 1993 as the No. 1 overall pick. They had endured some tough years before that, and you watched Bledsoe throw and you said, “This is different, the organization’s got a chance.” That’s the big takeaway coming off of his first career NFL start on Sunday, which was far from perfect. But the main topic of conversation up here after that…
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