Patriots’ Jerod Mayo Addresses Completely Overblown Storyline

The Patriots have plenty of questions to answer moving forward, most of which were prompted by dumbfounding decisions made by new head coach Jerod Mayo and his support staff.

Marcus Jones’ lack of involvement on offense isn’t one of them.

New England found itself at the epicenter of a complete non-issue that, for some reason, riled people up this week. Jones, for the uninitiated, is a defensive player who previously had been used as a gadget guy on offense and made his return to that side of the ball in last Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt was asked about the wrinkle and revealed he didn’t know the 26-year-old previously played offense until a few weeks back when he received a text from the man himself looking to get involved.

Harmless, right?

Nope. Apparently, that’s a major issue for some who follow the team. How could the offensive coordinator not know he had that guy at his disposal? Why didn’t anyone tell him?

Mayo thought some of those questions were rather ridiculous and defended his coordinator on Friday.

“I knew this question was coming,” Mayo said, per team-provided video. “Look, the primary focus for us this year was to get Marcus healthy, and to get Marcus ready to go as a cornerback and a punt returner. That was the primary goal, the primary focus. How much time do we want to spend on gadget plays? He’s most valuable on the defensive side of the ball and punt return.”

Jones, as some might have forgotten, only played in two games last season after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury against the Miami Dolphins — and missed a good chunk of training camp. It’s probably smart that they didn’t give that guy a role in all three phases, huh?

The Patriots might want to keep involving him moving forward, but the fact that it took a few months is a complete nothing-burger. Carry on.