Bill Belichick on Jerod Mayo comments: I know the Patriots players, they are not soft

After the Patriots' loss on Sunday, head coach Jerod Mayo said his team was soft. The man who brought in many of these players disagrees.

Bill Belichick, who was Mayo's boss in New England and signed, drafted and traded most of the players on the current roster, said Pat McAfee today that he doesn't think the players on the team are soft.

“Defensively, last year the Patriots led the league in rushing defense, yards per carry, No. 1 in the league, and this year they are somewhere way down in the 20s. It’s the same people,” Belichick said. “It's a lot of the same players, and in some cases I would say more, so I feel kind of sorry about these guys being soft? They are not soft. They were the best team in the league against the run last year. These guys went out there and did it even though we couldn't score many points offensively. I feel bad for the defensive players because these guys are a tough group. . . . These guys are all tough players.”

Belichick clearly doesn't take kindly to his former top assistant, Mayo, belittling the quality of the players on the roster largely built by Belichick. And Mayo's “soft” comment came after he said last week that this was the case many gaps in the squad that he inherited and the reconstruction would take more than a year. Belichick and Mayo have worked closely together for many years, but they disagree about what kind of team Belichick handed over to Mayo this year.