The Patriots placed Mac Jones at the center of a historically unusual experiment last season, giving career defensive coach Matt Patricia the keys to the offense. It backfired, and Jones expressed steady frustration with the plan.
Jones’ irritation spilled outside the building, with NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran noting the former first-round pick was asking for assistance from coaches not on New England’s staff. Those efforts getting back to Bill Belichick has affected the sides’ relationship, Curran said during a WEEI interview (video link).
Alabama staffers received calls from Jones regarding the Patriots’ plan on offense, NBC Sports’ Chris Simms reports. This comes after a report that indicated Jones had said during the 2022 offseason he would be teaching the Pats’ offense to Joe Judge, who was moved into position as the team’s de facto quarterbacks coach following his Giants ouster. Judge remains on New England’s staff; Patricia is not currently with the team but has a potential path to stay.
This looks to be a storyline to monitor. Belichick has since shopped Jones this offseason, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who notes the 24th-year head coach has discussed his starting QB in trades with multiple teams. It is not known who Belichick discussed Jones’ potential availability with, but the Raiders were mentioned as a potential suitor before free agency. Las Vegas has since signed former Josh McDaniels pupil Jimmy Garoppolo. McDaniels worked with Jones in 2021.
The Texans also came up, per Florio. Houston GM Nick Caserio was not with the Patriots when they drafted Jones, but he obviously has deep New England ties due to his run as Belichick’s right-hand personnel man. Were the Patriots to attempt to trade Jones outside the AFC, teams like the Buccaneers and Commanders emerged as potential suitors. Those teams have since added Baker Mayfield and Jacoby Brissett, respectively. These veterans would not seemingly be an impediment to a Jones pursuit, so how each organization proceeds in the draft could be relevant to the Patriots.
Jones talks may well have reached the offer stage, with AtoZsports.com’s Doug Kyed adding no offer was good enough to prompt the Patriots to act here. Tension remains between Belichick and Jones, per Kyed, who adds both Robert and Pats president Jonathan Kraft are fond of of the third-year quarterback. This makes it worth wondering if Belichick would have the green light to move on from the former No. 15 overall pick. Jones’ rookie contract can run through 2025, via the fifth-year option. After 2022, it cannot be assumed the Pats will pick up that option. The former national championship-winning QB’s deal has been mentioned as a barrier in the way of a Lamar Jackson pursuit; the Pats are one of the many teams planning to steer clear of the Ravens superstar.
“I’m a big fan of Mac,” Kraft said at the league meetings. “He came to us as a rookie. He quarterbacked in his rookie season and did a very fine job I thought. We made the playoffs. I think we experimented with some things last year that frankly didn’t work when it came to him, in my opinion.”
Belichick’s unusual Patricia-based plan also may have bothered Brian Hoyer. The off-and-on New England backup was not on board with installing a former defensive coordinator as the play-caller, Curran adds. He was not the only one, with veteran NFL reporter Mike Giardi noting (via Twitter) every position group observed the dysfunction on offense last season.
The Patriots released Hoyer this offseason, eating $1.6MM in dead money to do so, and the 15th-year veteran agreed to terms with the Raiders on Tuesday. Following Hoyer’s 2022 concussion, the Pats used third-stringer Bailey Zappe in place of Jones. A mini-QB controversy developed after the Western Kentucky one-and-done won both his starts. Jones regained his job after recovering from the high ankle sprain he sustained, but Zappe is now believed to have a chance at pushing Jones this offseason.
A fourth-round pick who played one season of Division I football — albeit a record-setting showing in a pass-crazed offense — Zappe would be an underdog against Jones, who now has Bill O’Brien in place as OC. On his way out of Tuscaloosa in 2021, Jones helped teach Nick Saban’s then-new OC the Crimson Tide’s offense. After Kraft called Belichick’s decision to install Patricia as the Pats’ primary play-caller a mistake, O’Brien — in his second tour of duty as New England’s OC — is now in place to help clean up the mess.
After elevating the Patriots’ passing attack — at least, compared to their Cam Newton season — and helping the 2021 team to the playoffs, Jones has seen his New England tenure veer off course. It will be interesting to see how he, Belichick, Judge and O’Brien coexist moving forward.
Exactly who has Bill highly drafted recently that has panned out?
I get your overall point but its not like he is incompetent. Hes drafted Uche, Dugger, Barmore, Jack Jones, Marcus Jones, Onwenu, Stevenson, Thuney, Flowers, Mason. He has a lot of misses but he has some good picks too, that is going back to 2015. He needs to be better with his high picks, but he does well in the middle rounds.
Since 2014, here are his 1st round picks
D Easley, M Brown, I Wynn, S Michel, NK Harry, M Jones & Strange last year. That’s terrible. I don’t think 1 got a contract extension with NE.
Strange will, and Michel did contribute to a championship level team, but Otto’s right. Belichick has mostly drafted well after Round 1. I don’t the Pats have had notable first round picks in some time.
Bill never won a division title w/o Tom. Either in Cleveland or in NE.
He’ll be a 1st ballot HoF’er and that’s thanks to Tom. Not the other way around. Records say it all. For me at least.
Nobody is bringing up Brady here except for you. Are we really going to have this discussion EVERY SINGLE TIME one of them is mentioned in an article? Shall we debate this the next time Brady and Rodgers play golf together?
Yes. Tom won w/o Bill. Bill didn’t/ doesn’t win w/o Tom. Is it that hard to understand?
1st response from asking google ‘Bill’s record w/o Tom’: Under the category of lies, damned lies and statistics, we present the head coaching record of Bill Belichick without Tom Brady: 79-87.
Any more questions? I’ll be glad to answer them.
arty! They both deserve credit and contributed to the dynasty. Brady leaving was a major blow to the Pats, and the division has gotten much better than it was for most of the Brady era. There’s no more ‘free wins’ anymore.
Of course Brady was going to bounce back faster than Bill. He jumped ship to join a team that was a QB and a few ring chasing vets away from title contention, and had another good veteran HC, in Arians. That’s like if Bill left NE to go coach the Chiefs.
Brady struggled too once he got stuck with a mediocre HC (Bowles). Barely made the playoffs in the worst division, just to get embarrassed by Dallas on their own field.
Brady would’ve always been great and won rings, but a HOF HC is what elevated his teams to help him become the GOAT.
Bill has been the GM in NE for a decade plus. Why was TB’s roster better? I’ve never received 1 viable answer to that question in 2+ years of asking anywhere. And before you say salary cap purposes, Tom and Bill ruled under the cap for 20 years. How is that possible?
TodayI posted Bill’s failures as a draft expert from 2014(!) & it gets ignored or skipped over, why? Same can be said for his FA signings. They amounted to nothing. His record says so.
Every where you read, Nick & Bill are best friends. So Saban sold Bill on a bad QB (Mac) why? What value does it bring Nick?
This is coaching. link to sbnation.com
You seriously believe that the Patriots’ roster was better than or even close to equal to the Tampa Bay rosters in recent years?
Okay, I will respond to this one time, since this discussion has NOTHING at ALL to do with our current topic (as it never does when it’s forcibly inserted into the conversation).
Tampa has had no fewer than twelve former All-Pros since 2020, Brady’s first year on the team. Note, these are not “Pro Bowlers” (another area where Tampa simply dwarfs New England and the rest of the league as a whole), but “All-Pros”. There is vastly significant difference in the criteria for selection and overall impact of the two. Briefly, I will list them (most of this is from memory, so I may have missed some):
Tom Brady
Mike Evans
Charles Godwin
Antonio Brown
Rob Gronkowski
Tristan Wirfs
Vita Vea
Ndamukong Suh
Jason Pierre-Paul
Shaq Barrett
Lavonte David
Richard Sherman
The Patriots have had, since 2020, a total of two. Those names are Stephon Gilmore and…Cam Newton. New England has not employed a single All-Pro since that time. Tampa, meanwhile, had most of those above players TOGETHER on the same team, and most of them played for two years at the minimum on the same squad (including Tampa’s Super Bowl win). For a portion of their successful tenure, Tampa’s three starting wide receivers and its starting tight end were all former All-Pros (Evans, Godwin, Brown, and Gronkowski). This means that ALL of Tom Brady’s possible receiving targets in the starting lineup had been selected as the best or second at their respective positions in the league by qualified experts (meaning, not you or me).
In addition, the Bucs had Pro Bowlers as backups behind them (Julio Jones, whose addition would make thirteen All-Pros, but I did not add to the list as he was a reserve, and Cam Brate, who was a starter before and after Gronkowski). You can make the argument that Brady elevates receivers with his play, but of all the names on that list, only Gronkowski made his All-Pro selections with Brady as his quarterback. All of these players earned their awards independently of Brady’s influence on the field, and were recognized on their own merits.
There is literally no way possible that any sane or rational person can make an argument that the Patriots’ squads of the last three years come anywhere close to comparing to Tampa Bay’s in that same time frame. There is even an argument that could be made that those were Brady’s best teams ever in his career, especially on paper. I am not making such an argument, but I will be remiss to not mention that in regards to what you are asserting. There is quite simply no way that the Patriots could compete with Tampa talent-wise. Note that Tampa had only been one game below .500 the year before Brady’s arrival. Winston threw 30 interceptions-30-and lost a few fumbles. If not for those thirty plus turnovers, it’s nearly certain that the Bucs would have had a winning record. Many of those high profile names on the above list were on that team, and Tampa only ADDED more of them afterward. The Bucs were clearly a better team, with or without Brady, than the Patriots were. If you do not accept this than there is simply nothing more that I can do to help you.
You made my point, thank you! Bill isn’t a good GM. His rosters were and still are barren. I believe that to be a major factor as to why Tom left.
I said that from the top w/ my 1st question? ‘Who has Bill drafted recently. Answer not 1 first round pick got a 2nd contract in NE.’ That’s a terrible record from in 2014. Almost a decade of 1st round busts. Any other GM would have been dismissed long ago.
Common fans like us knew Patrica & Judge dual OC roles was ludicrous last summer. Who puts a DC & STC in charge of the offense? As expected by all, the offense did very little and it frustrated Mac. From what we are reading, he spoke to offensive minded coaches off the staff. Now Bill is mad at his QB for wanting to win?
After NE has another average season this year. That will be 4 years without Tom & without much winning. When does Bill’s record reflect that on his overall resume? Why do his fans ignore his sub 500 record in Cleveland? The pre & post Tom era’s still count for Bill.
arty! seems to be obsessed with diminishing Bill Belichick. Strange. Both Brady and Belichick made that dynasty.
If Bill did anything on his own, I wouldn’t. 5 years in Cleveland and soon to be 4 in NE w/o Tom. Nine years of average coaching. But keep blowing off a near decade of his career to make yourself feel better.
Andy Reid, & Sean McVay come to mind as contemporary coaches that have done more w/o HoF QB’s. Philly & KC (prior to Mahomes) were always tough outs.
AK185 covered it thoroughly, but Brady burned out of the league pretty quickly without Belichick surrounding him with a disciplined team and a top tier defense.
Don’t you watch football? Tom’s first year in TB they won the SB, followed by 2 division titles. How is that ‘burned out of the league’?
However the ‘great hoodie’ and his teams over the same 3 years went 7-9, 10-7 (narrowly losing to the Bills by 30 points in the playoffs) & one more sub 500 season last 8-9.
Now tell me who had a better career the last 3 years? I’m waiting to hear your reply!
One Super Bowl and then a slow meltdown and then a fast meltdown in Tampa Bay. Yes, when teams are between quarterbacks, they don’t usually go deep in the playoffs. The NFC South hasn’t been terribly competitive of late.
This is a stupid conversation though. Both Belichick and Brady are greats at their respective position (head coach and QB). The Hall of Fame will agree with AK185 and me. I’m not sure why you’ve become a one-issue crusader against Belichick. He and Joe Gibbs are the two greatest coaches I’m likely to observe in my lifetime. Oh and Bill Walsh of course.
And I say that as someone who doesn’t even like the Patriots or Brady and their whole no-fun spygate, deflate-gate, ref pressuring schtick.
Between QB’s? Pats were founded in 1960. The 1st time they made the SB was in 1985. 25 years & about another 20 before Tom came along. Between QB’s? You don’t known a thing about the history of the game with that response.
Don Shula, Bill Cowher, and Tom Landry were great coaches you should always mention as well, given they were coaches even well during your lifetime, too. Also probably why you might’ve almost forgot Bill Walsh…
Tom Landry was before my time. You’re right I should have seen the tail end of Don Shula’s career. Bill Cowher’s career came during years where I didn’t follow the league at all.
Cowher is not quite in the same category as Walsh, Gibbs or Belichick but Shula certainly is.
Spot on
Belichick the GM can’t hold a candle to Belichick the Defensive Coordinator.
Belichick the DC helped the giants to 2 SB championships and the GM to multiple SB championships for the pats. I
I mean, if you’re the Texans and can trade # 2 for Jones, # 14, and other picks why not. They’d be reuniting Jones with Metchie and could then address other areas of the roster with picks. From the Patriots perspective moving to 2 allows them to draft an elite talent on defense like Will Anderson or Jalen Carter. Give the Patriot defense a shiny new toy to play with. Texans get minimum 3 years of Jones on his rookie deal.
From the Patriots perspective moving to 2 would be a complete steal given Mac was taken at 15 and has literally done nothing to become worth a 2
The deal isn’t Mac Jones for # 2. It’s Patriots moving up to # 2 and Texans get Mac Jones for 3+ years, # 14, and other draft assets
He showed a lot of promise in his rookie year. Of course the Texans are hoping he can regain his trajectory and the showing last year was more so because of dysfunction by hiring Patricia to be an offensive coordinator than regression. They’re definitely taking a flier on him, but that’s why draft capital is also included in the deal. I’d rather take a chance on Mac Jones than Bryce Young or Will Levis and definitely Anthony Richardson.
The Texans have # 2 and #12 in First Round. Trading Mac Jones for the # 12 pick is more realistic, along with more draft picks (maybe Patriots include a 3rd rounder and Texan add a 4th rounder). Texans still pick at # 2 or even trade out to move down a pick or two to a QB needy team to recap more picks and still Draft Will Andreson.
Patriots pick at 12 and 14 and Draft O-Line and WR, Sign Matt Ryan or Marcus Marriota as back up QB to Zappe, and pick Stetson Bennett in 4th or 5th Round.
Or they could draft Levis /Richardson or Hooker at 12 and fill WR/OT at 14.
No, trading Mac Jones for #12 is not more realistic. He’s only controllable for 3 more seasons and he’s been mediocre at best so far. He’s not worth a 1. Maybe a 2 and a 3, though.
Nobody is giving a 1 for Mac.
Nobody.
He is on a train to backup QB land.
From the Patriots perspective, moving to 2 would be an enormous steal given Mac was originally taken at 15 and has done nothing to raise his stock to even be worth a 14.
How does this solve the Patriots QB issue?
How wouldn’t it? They’d get the chance to draft someone they think could be a franchise QB.
I think that would be too much for the Texans to give up unless the Patriots added more future picks, but the idea behind moving up would be to get a quarterback if they were trading Mac.
You seem to miss where they state they can draft an elite defensive talent with #2.
I am assuming Bailey Zappe showed enough promise in his 2 starts to lead the Patriots offense in this scenario.
When you install a defensive coordinator to run your offense it shouldn’t come as any great shock there will be problems.
Don’t forget the special teams coordinator was also involved on the O side last year as well. And both flamed out as HC’s!
I’m going to take the trade talk with a grain of salt for now, since it’s coming from Florio. In reading his story, this self-obsessive “journalist” who constantly complains about “unnamed sources” when other reporters invoke them cites “a source knowledgeable of the situation”. Now, could that be true? Certainly. But someone who whines constantly about that phenomenon when it’s used in some story that he personally disagrees with uses it himself makes me roll my eyes a bit…but I digress.
In any case, Florio cites the Raiders and Texans (because of course he does) as two possible spots. In my opinion, this makes his story less trustworthy. What reason does he have to pick those two teams? Just because they’re the first two “Pats Connections!” organizations that he can think of? Well, yes, because he admits so himself, even though he frames it as being out of his “source’s” mouth. He notes the connection that Caserio has to New England as his only evidence, and McDaniels’ tenure as coordinator in New England as his other. There is no fact checking or specific reasoning other than that for why those teams were picked. They’re just names dropped at that point to make the story appear more credible.
Now, Belichick may very have gone as far as Florio claims he did. He may very well have just asked around to gauge Jones’ value for his own knowledge. He may have done none of that. However, the obvious mixture of possible fact (from an unverified source, of course) with likely Florio speculation is suspect to me. And, frankly, it’s little unethical to use it to spread what already is an unverified story.
I gave up on Florio and his web site years ago. He pushes his biases, football and otherwise, and uses his lawyer experience to cleverly wordsmith his viewpoint.
Run Jones out of town to cover for the terrible Matt Patricia as Offensive Play caller. Nice.
If I’m Lamar, your unfortunately been tagged, requested a trade and looking for a way out. You didn’t like the offer you received, you don’t have an agent so your having to do everything for yourself here.
I’d be pushing the Pats to trade for me, give up Mac Jones to the ravens, give up a first and call it a day. Baltimore had to realise yes they have Lamar signed but ultimately the player holds the power especially at QB and if he chooses to sit out or anything your screwed. He didn’t like the offer, you’ve now tagged him and he’s requested out. Getting back a cheap replacement QB in Max Jones would be a good start, and then also getting a first round pick would be a really decent return.
Pats are happy they get a really solid upgrade at QB. Have to work out a new deal for him and it cost you a first but that’s fine. You’re got a former MVP, he’s a top 10 QB, and it only cost you a first that’s a steal. You don’t even draft well in the first round anyway.
For the Ravens, save the money get Mac, bring in OBJ then your offence is set. Hood pocket passer, JK Dobbins gets all the carries, top 3 TE in Andrews and some receiving options. Jones is use to working with poor receivers coming from NE so I think he’d actually have a good season.
How good would the AFC east be, Tua Lamar Allen and Rodgers
Bill Belichick had twenty years of Brady. Traditional pocket passer, student of the game, great reads and game decisions under pressure. Why the heck would he want one trick pony Lamar Jackson who can’t win games against top ten defenses (read playoffs)?
It would be simpler to dump Matt Patricia and bring in an offensive co-ordinator whom Matt Jones likes. Which is exactly what Belichick has done. Jones already has worked with Bill O’Brien.
I mean, Belichick had Bernie Kosar in Cleveland, another “pocket-passer, high-IQ, playbook student, all college-prepped” like Brady…
What does Kosar think of Belichick (who infamously cut home town hero Kosar in mid-season in 1993)?
In 1994, the Browns went 11-5 and beat the New England Patriots in the Wild Card round.
Lamar still has to convince another team to offer him a contract for what he thinks he’s worth. That has yet to happen. Now, perhaps other teams think he could be had for less than the two picks, but that means the Ravens would be willing to cut bait, Lamar can certainly pass on $34M guaranteed, but he’ll likely never recoup that in future deals.
Jackson has to play this year or he loses that salary for sure. On the other hand, if Jackson skips a year he can still sign for $100 million guaranteed next year. Jackson will not be able to recoup the Ravens’ best offer which was close to $175 million in guarantees (if Jackson continues to play and doesn’t violate drug or conduct policies).
Some people blew up Jackson’s confidence in himself and ego to the point that he overvalued himself. Jackson is most valuable to the Ravens (built to win with his style of QB, existing player relationships). Hoping that someone else would offer him the world (Deshaun Watson/Patrick Mahomes style contracts) was a very bad miscalculation. Deshaun Watson is a classic NFL dropback QB with good wheels as a bonus. He fits into any team (from a play standpoint). Jackson is not that QB.
Moreover, the Browns overpaid for Jackson. Owners are on their guard against repeating the Browns’ mistake and now the Broncos mistake, who did something similar with Russell Wilson.
Reject Jones, embrace Zappe.
If the Jets weren’t in the same division, it would make sense. The entire AR situation is ridiculous and Jones would be a good growth piece anywhere. He’s not tier one, but has a ceiling of tier two and on the right team could win as tier three.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
I live this.
Belichick needs to retire.
Mac Jones for Davis Mills
Jones is kirk cousins average guy. Who will win you nothing unless you have talent all around him. Guys who you hope don’t lose you games not win.