Shocking: A Patriots wide receiver has taken accountability for his own actions
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo has wanted to build a culture of personal accountability among his players and assistants. Incredibly, he’s created the exact opposite.
As he’s languished through a 3-11 season in which coaching and preparation has fallen off to the point of costing the Patriots games, Mayo has devolved into a finger-pointing, self-protecting shirker, a turtle retreating into his shell. No matter what he meant by his “You said it, I didn’t” comment after last Sunday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals, he threw offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt under the proverbial bus. There’s not much room left under there at this point.
It’s trickled down to the players, and the wide receiver room has been particularly messy and selfish. Veteran K.J. Osborn isn’t even here anymore because he was unhappy with his role, and, shocker, he was inactive for his first Sunday as a member of the Washington Commanders. DeMario Douglas has had to walk back comments about being unhappy with his lack of touches early in the season. Ja’Lynn Polk, I mean, holy shit.
Most recently, Kayshon Boutte threw quarterback Drake Maye under the bus and called out Van Pelt himself (not the first time) after the loss to the Cardinals, when he said about his drop that led to an interception, per Mark Daniels of MassLive: “I know it’s a play I’ve got to make but it’s kind of hard when you’re running full speed in one direction and the ball is kind of low.”
Boutte also called out the Patriots’ gameplan, and seems to fancy himself the coach. He’s since told reporters that he apologized to Van Pelt for those comments, adding, “Nobody likes losing, obviously, so I think it was just frustration lingering from the game.” So, good for him. But, if not for Mayo’s culture of self-preservation that he’s fostered, Boutte wouldn’t have said what he said in the first place.
Which brings us to Boutte’s teammate, Kendrick Bourne, who showed refreshing accountability for his own mistakes in his reaction to a play from Sunday’s loss. This wasn’t after he blamed another player, this was unprompted and directed squarely at himself.
Bourne quoted an X post by Taylor Kyles that spotlighted the play in which Bourne caught a deflected ball fumbled by Douglas. Kyles noted from the game tape that Bourne actually missed a block that led to Douglas getting hit, meaning the ensuing fumble was as much on him as it was on Douglas, if not more.
“Facts, this is bad ball by me,” Bourne said.
It’s about time someone in that room, hell on the Patriots in general, talked like that after a loss.
It’s not going to help that you-know-who found a few more square footage under the bus for Boutte, and in record time. Mere SECONDS after he said he’s not going to talk about players, Mayo talked about a player.
Mayo was asked whether Boutte was having issues with his route-running. Here’s his full answer: “I’m not going to talk about specific players. I think we all have to get better. For me, you talk about Boutte, it’s ‘get open and catch the ball,’ that’s your job as a wide receiver. ‘Receiver’ is in the title of your job, job description, and that’s our expectation.”
He’s not going to talk about specific players, but he’s going to talk about specific players. He didn’t mean anything by it, though.
Really, you can’t even blame Boutte for talking as much as he has about his coaches and teammates, as opposed to himself. He learned it from his head coach. It seems Mayo could learn from Boutte, in fact. Certainly from Bourne. Just throwing in “It starts with me” after chucking everyone else into the woodchipper isn’t good enough, definitely not when you’re 3-11 and your coaching (or lack thereof) has made it worse than it ever needed to be.
Bourne, however, showed why it’s a good thing that the Patriots have him signed for the next two seasons. That roster, and especially that receiver room, desperately needs professionals who put failures on their own shoulders.
But that might be hard if their own coach won’t do it.
Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.
