Blame Belichick! Patriots Failed Mac Jones
The New England Patriots have done the seemingly inevitable by trading quarterback Mac Jones, and ultimately, they have former head coach Bill Belichick to thank.
The agreement to send the former first-round draft pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars has been in the making for the past two years as a result of Belichick's multi-faceted mismanagement.
After Jones posted a promising rookie campaign that yielded 10 wins and an AFC Wildcard berth, Belichick, who was both the head coach and general manager, single-handedly stunted the young quarterback's development ahead of the 2022 season.
The first problem was Jones being forced to stand on a shaky foundation once offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left for the Las Vegas Raiders' head coaching gig. Instead of putting a mentor in place for Jones' sophomore season, Belichick failed to name a new offensive coordinator. The Patriots proceeded with a messy play-calling power share scenario between quarterbacks coach Joe Judge and offensive line coach Matt Patricia.
This past October, former NFL quarterback-turned-commentator Robert Griffin III accused Belichick of "coaching malpractice" for his failure to tailor the offense around Jones's skill set.
In addition to the lack of guidance, Belichick left Jones with a lackluster supporting cast. New England featured an average offensive line to go along with second and third-tier weapons.
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The Patriots haven't had a 1,000-yard receiver since Julian Edelman in 2019. Even when Jones threw for 3,801 yards in 2021, New England's leading receiver Jakobi Meyers was responsible for 866 of those yards. After another 800-yard receiving campaign in 2022, the Patriots let Meyers walk in free agency and he proceeded to tally 807 yards and eight touchdowns for the 2023 Raiders. Meanwhile, sixth-round rookie Demario Douglas's 561 yards topped all Patriots' pass-catchers this past season.
While forcing Jones to work under a different offensive coordinator for the third year in a row, Belichick sealed the quarterback's fate by benching him four times in favor of the undrafted, overwhelmed Bailey Zappe this past season.
After his fourth in-game benching on November 26, Jones did not see the field again the rest of the way.
"I thought both guys deserved a chance to play," said Belichick after the Week 12 loss to the New York Giants.
Was Jones ever going to evolve into a top-level franchise quarterback? Probably not, but he had already shown the ability to competently operate an offense.
Unfortunately, the former No. 15 overall draft pick never had a real chance. Belichick did not put his young quarterback in position to succeed. Arguably, he did the opposite.
