Callahan: Patriots locker room joking around after loss

On Tuesday's Toucher & Hardy program, Andrew Callahan detailed the mood of the Patriots locker room after losing to the Miami Dolphins, 34-15.

Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity.

Fred Toucher: There was a story yesterday that some people were talking about that involved the Patriots locker room after the Miami loss. There was some laughing and clowning around from the offensive players. What was your experience with that? 

Andrew Callahan: So, I walked into the locker room almost immediately after it opened to the media, about 10-15 minutes once the game was over. At first, it was a pretty standard, quiet locker room. Not a lot of guys in there. Players are showering, packing up, and getting ready to go.  

And then you look over to the offensive side of the room, as Mark Daniels and Greg Bedard talked about, and the feeling was that of a lighter mood. And then the word I used after my initial tweet was “accepting.” Guys aren't as bothered after bad losses as I've seen before.  

And there's an important detail I think people are overlooking. Because I did see, you know, some guys joking around, smiling, laughing, however, that’s not a crime. 

But I think the missing detail is that they were down 24-0 at the half and I think they had time to process being angry and upset. They had reached the end of the grieving process there. Still, it struck me as unusual. So, I tweeted about it. That’s what I was seeing. 

That was different from all the bad losses that I've covered over the last 3-4 or five years. And so that's why I tweeted it out and didn't make a story out of it. But it did strike me. And as a reporter that's what we're supposed to do. Take you inside the locker room and other places you can't go to tell you things you can't know.  

Toucher: So, basically, the players wouldn’t do that in the past or it was considered unacceptable behavior? 

Callahan: I just think Bill Belichick cast such an appall with his moods after losing. We all know what that was like and it permeated in locker room. A team responds and over time it resembles the head coach. Similar to pets with their owners. 

It’s not that Jerod Mayo wasn't upset about the loss. I think there's generally a lighter culture and atmosphere now. And you’ll see that in the good times and the bad.  

I get why people on the outside are madder at home on the couch than these guys are in the locker room. I think you saw their frustration on the sidelines. After that, I think the players just wanted to go home. 

Ryan Beaton is a producer for 985thesportshub.com. You can follow Ryan at @ry_beaton on Twitter.

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The New England Patriots enter Thanksgiving week coming off arguably their worst loss of the year. On Sunday the Patriots got beat convincingly in all three phases, in a game that wasn't quite reflected by the 34-15 final score.

With the loss, the Patriots fell to 3-9 on the season. They're now guaranteed to finish under .500 for the third year in a row, and fourth time in five seasons.

As a result, fans are now looking ahead to the offseason. This week's Mailbag is mostly questions about the plans once the calendar flips to 2025, rather than the last five games remaining in this season.

Given the penalties and other game management issues on Sunday, coaching is part of that discussion. We'll start there for Week 13...

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When it comes to Jerod Mayo - maybe 'deserved' isn't the right term but the argument would be there's not enough talent on the roster to truly evaluate him as a coach. Pending a few wins down the stretch here that show late-season improvement (the real goal from the start of the season), that would be the case.  For what it's worth Dianna Russini reported last week that the current expectation is that Mayo's job was safe, so the team may be set on at least letting him start a second season either way.

The question of talent on the roster though brings us to Eliot Wolf. Aside from Drake Maye the production from his first draft class has been minimal. That's not a great sign for a GM working on a 'draft and develop' philosophy. Meanwhile Wolf failed to supplement that draft in free agency, particularly when it comes to the offensive line. Those offensive line deficiencies have limited the Patriots overall multiple times this year, especially when it comes to Maye. Like Mayo, Wolf's job may end up being safe just by nature of the team not wanting to 'one-and-done' any top staffers, but this upcoming offseason needs to see a more aggressive approach.

Kendrick Bourne gave a good answer to this question after the loss on Sunday. "Yeah, absolutely. He's putting the league on notice," Bourne said. "I love playing with Drake, so I can see the potential. So if anybody else can't see it, I don't know what they looking at. We know what he's going to be."

How wide-reaching will that be? That remains to be seen. If Maye does have an impact - which I think he'll have some - it will mostly be on the offensive side of the ball. Using Maye to convince defensive players to sign still probably isn't the best pitch (that's reserved for perennial MVP-level quarterbacks) but offensive players should definitely feel better about joining this team now than they did last offseason (this is something that reportedly impacted Brandon Aiyuk's decision to turn down the Patriots' offer).

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It's a short list, which isn't a great sign for this coaching staff. It looked like Kayson Boutte was going to highlight this group, but he's taken a step back the past few weeks.

That being said, Keion White has made strides in 2024. White flashed early last season but then missed time with a concussion after which it took him a few weeks to get back into form. This year he's hit the ground running and ranks 25th in the NFL with 38 pressures in 12 games, despite not having many other pass rushers around him for opposing teams to worry about.

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Caedan Wallace should be the starting right tackle once he's healthy. For one, everything we've seen from him going back to Penn State suggests that if he's going to be a tackle in the NFL, the most likely path is on the right side. Plus, just like on the left side there's no other real long-term option on the right side either. Given they'll need at least one starting tackle this offseason either way, they should let him play his natural position and develop him there and invest in adding a true left tackle to play on that side.

Adding another plus running back certainly would make sense for the Patriots this offseason. The days of one running back shouldering the majority of the load are mostly history, and we've seen how Rhamondre Stevenson's level of play can be impacted when too much is put on his place. This year Antonio Gibson could have had a bigger spell back role, but the team didn't use him much that way prior to the last two weeks.

Getting another "1A" type of back the coaching staff trusts should be on the offseason to-do list. When it comes to who that back is though, they can probably do better than Najee Harris. For one, this is an incredibly talented and deep running back draft, and a rookie would have more ceiling and be more of a long-term action than Harris. On top of that the Patriots should be looking to add more speed to their offense, with Harris being more of a power back.

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My top 5 Thanksgiving side dishes...

1. Mashed potatoes
2. Stuffing
3. Green beans
4. Cranberry sauce
5. Cornbread