With two games to go in Division 1 of the Allianz Football League, Mayo find themselves mired in the relegation zone.
Matches against Roscommon and Down remain in order to secure survival but as new manager Stephen Rochford and his staff's main eye will likely be on the championship.
But what is ex-Mayo manager James Horan making of the county's development so far in 2016?
Mayo manager Stephen Rochford ©INPHO/Andrew Paton
Emphasising a need for perspective, he told Off The Ball: "My take on it would be you've got to step back a little bit and look at what the league is and where things are at. There's a lot of players missing, there's a lot injured and there's a lot coming back. There's a big panel there at the moment, there's a lot of people finding out new things.
"Sometimes a team you pick for a National League game, people can think it's a strategic team that you're picking to do this, that and the other and in fact it might be the opposite. It might be you're just getting bodies on the field and you're trying to get them to play as hard as they can and as people come back, you'll add to it. So I think there was a little bit of that."
But as the league has worn, he has noted "much more solid positioning of the defenders plus an extra defender there at times" in terms of preferred shapes as the season goes on.
Plus, the ex-Mayo manager gave his take on the positioning of Aidan O'Shea.
Listen to the full interview with James on the podcast player:
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