Jerod Mayo Reveals Surprise Role for New Patriots Addition

With two wins and an overtime loss over the last three weeks, things are looking good for Jerod Mayo, Drake Maye and the New England Patriots. Optimism in Foxborough is a lot higher than we've seen all year, and the team may finally be starting to hit its stride after the embarrassing set-back against the Jacksonville Jaguars in October.

Adding to the optimism was a major addition to the defense last week, who has still yet to debut. The Patriots claimed former Baltimore Raven Yannick Ngakoue off waivers, and he's expected to debut on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.

A skilled pass-rusher, Mayo revealed on Monday morning that Ngakoue's role will actually be much bigger than most fans were assuming. Mayo spoke about the veteran's ability to play on all three downs.

His pass-rushing prowess has never been in question. He has a career 70.5 sacks, having topped 8.0 in seven of his nine NFL seasons. In Baltimore he was playing only about 25% of the defensive snaps to start the year, largely as a situational rusher on obvious passing downs.

But Ngakoue had played over 70% of the defensive snaps available for his teams in six straight seasons before 2024, averaging 9 tackles for loss per season over that stretch. And this year, PFF actually has him graded out better against the run (65.2) than as a pass-rusher (61.1).

But let's pump the breaks a little bit. The last time he even hit a grade of 50 against the run from PFF was in 2019. He's missed at least 5 tackles a season each year since 2017. He had a ridiculous missed tackle rate of 29.2% last year.

Ngakoue is certainly not a better run defender than Anfernee Jennings has been this year, and while his 2024 numbers are okay, nothing he's done in the previous few seasons show him as an upgrade over even Keion White or Deatrich Wise, who have both struggled to defend the run on the edge.

Hopefully Mayo is simply hyping up his newest addition, trying to make him excited about moving from a Super Bowl contender to a rebuilding team. Either that, or hopefully Mayo sees something that has changed in Ngakoue's game this year that does make him believe that the veteran's improvements against the run are actually sustainable.

Either way, it may take a few weeks to fully integrate the new addition into this defense, so don't be surprised if his role is a lot more "situational pass-rusher" than "3-down defensive starter" against the Rams.

More New England Patriots news and rumors: