Let’s face it – New England in its current state, is dysfunctional. For the past two decades, Bill Belichick and his New England Patriots have been doing things differently. That statement remains true in 2023, but for all of the wrong reasons. So what happened?
“Sophomore slump”
2022 was a disaster for the Patriots. After a promising rookie campaign from Mac Jones, many fans were expecting progress. In reality, they ended up disappointed, and rightfully so. The entire offense stunk it up all year.
To point a finger at the young quarterback is unfair in my opinion. That offense was set up to fail after the hiring of Matt Patricia. Don’t believe me? As reported by Mike Florio, Mac Jones felt the need to call upon staffers from Alabama for advice in running an offense. Unsurprisingly this ruffled the feathers of Bill Belichick and other members of the Patriots coaching staff.
Can you really blame Jones for having to resort to that? Even Brian Hoyer reportedly wanted out as he was not on board with the 2022 offense. The offense declined substantially, going from sixth in points per game in 2021 (27.2) to 17th in 2022 (21.4).
The Patriots did nothing after a fairly successful 2021 campaign to build on that success. There are now reports that after the failed 2022 season Belichick has shopped around the third-year quarterback. Now I am not saying to believe everything you see on the internet, but there are certainly plenty of reasons to think this might be true.
Failure to commit
For starters, there wasn’t much support from the long-time head coach during the 2022 season. Just look at the Bears game – to pull Jones for Bailey Zappe was a devastating sight to see. Belichick has also failed to commit to his quarterback this offseason. When asked about Mac back in January, the response wasn’t too reassuring.
“Mac has the ability to play quarterback in this league. We have to all work together to try to find the best way as a football team — which, obviously, quarterback’s an important position — to be more productive than we were this year. And so, that’s incumbent on all of this. We’ll all work together on that. And, again, look for better results.”
At the annual owners and coaches meeting he was once again non-committal. When asked about who will play between Mac and Zappe he didn’t give us much, other than the typical Belichick answers of, “everybody will get a chance to play” and “we’ll play the best player”. Bill has always been a hard one to read and is known for keeping his cards close to his chest, but you’d think that the best player is your first round pick from 2021, right?
Who is to blame?
It was apparent that Jones was frustrated with the offense in 2022. Whilst these disagreements often occur behind closed doors, with Mac he wore it on his sleeve. Fans haven’t forgotten the Bills game in which Mac mouthed off to, who we assume, was Matt Patricia.
To many this may seem immature, but I think that Mac was speaking for all of us when he turned his back to Patricia. The locker room was reportedly also fed up with the coaching staff, and as the leader of this offense, Jones should be able to show frustration.
He has taken some of the blame though, and to an extent that is understandable. The numbers do show there was clear regression in 2022. Production is what counts, so this was obviously not ideal. That is especially true after a good rookie season that many expected him to build on as a sophomore.
So, with failure unfolding in front of us every Sunday and a quarterback who who couldn’t trust his coaching staff, it isn’t surprising that sides have been taken.
Living in The Past
As a Patriots fan, I am seeing a lot of other fans act like the Dallas Cowboys, bringing up past success to defend the failure we are witnessing today. Shockingly enough this has rubbed off on Belichick himself. When speaking to the media, the Patriots head coach let his past speak for the future. That was shocking, and not something we have seen him do before.
Belichick soon after backtracked on his statement, but it was too little too late. The damage has been done and such a thing should have never been said. It is a bad look on the organization, it rubs the fans, and presumably the locker room, the wrong way. Some fans seem intent on keeping the maturity of our young quarterback in check, but they need to keep that same energy for their head coach.
Reasons to not believe it
So it all sounds a little doom and gloom when it comes to the future of the Patriots/Jones relationship. Are there reasons to think things might be a little better than that? I think so.
The offseason is in full swing, and the team has already made some promising moves. After failing to hire a qualified offensive coordinator last season, they have brought back Bill O’Brien. They have also addressed the wide receiver position (kind of).
Losing Jakobi Meyers stinks, but bringing in Juju Smith-Schuster is a plus. Juju is coming off of a solid season with Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. Whether he can be as effective with a downgrade at quarterback remains to be seen, but he should be a solid contributor. The Patriots don’t seem to be done just yet either.
With the draft just around the corner, they have been linked to several wide receivers. Their current receiving corps is missing that guy who can elevate the quarterback play, but they might be able to fix that with the No. 14 overall pick. They have been linked to the likes of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jordan Addison, meeting with both of them. Smith-Njigba has reportedly been treated well by Boston as he was just at Fenway to support his brother. The Ohio State receiver could be Mac’s WR1 this upcoming season.
So maybe the Patriots aren’t completely out on Mac Jones. At least from the outside, it looks like they are trying make things better for him in 2023, something that is a welcome change from what happened last season.
Mac Jones just isn’t that good. He wasn’t good with his last 6 games with Josh McDaniels as his OC and a Top 5 offensive line. Patricia knows NFL football better than Mac Jones does….and I’m sure Belichick was heavily involved in the offense.
Patriots fans just want him to be good so badly that they bend over backwards to avoid seeing the truth.
Really, what’s to like about Mac Jones? He has below average arm & legs. He makes bad reads. His pissy faces and lack of toughness (all that from a sprained ankle?) coupled with his dirty play and lack of leadership are why Belichick is trying to trade him.
Belichick is just playing up the drama so other teams think Jones’ stinky play isn’t the reason why they’re trying to trade him. Belichick wants some sucker to trade for Jones. No way Mac Jones is the Patriots 2023 opening day starter.