What Patriots’ Jerod Mayo Finding ‘Frustrating’ Before Deadline

The last thing the struggling Patriots need are more distractions, but they have been abundant of late.

As one of the worst teams in all of football, New England has been a popular subject of trade rumors in the lead-up to Tuesday’s deadline. While there’s been a little chatter about the Patriots potentially buying, the lion’s share of reports have been about New England potentially selling off pieces to accelerate its rebuild.

Jerod Mayo has been around the NFL since 2008, so he’s plenty familiar with trade speculation. Still, the first-year head coach on Sunday admitted the rumblings can be irksome as he tries to transparency with his players.

“A lot of those things are silly,” Mayo said on 98.5 The Sports Hub, as transcribed by ESPN’s Mike Reiss. ” It’s frustrating at times because you always want to be very transparent with the player and let them know; they hear it. When a report comes out that is absolutely 100% false, and you have to address it with that individual, it just takes up more time and more headspace.”

The Patriots have done pretty well for themselves with recent trades, most notably an act of thievery in the Matthew Judon deal with the Atlanta Falcons. So while it might cause a few extra headaches for Mayo and others, the trade market figures to keep being an effective resource for New England as it tries to take steps forward.