Patriots 2023 Season

[ozgod]

Matt Daniels from Masslive has an interesting article about how Belichick and Mac Jones's relationship unraveled to the point where neither were speaking with each other. Boston.com has a summary of that article (for those that don't want to read it all) which I have quoted from below.

The Patriots aren’t planning to pick up Jones’s fifth-year option, according to Mark Daniels of MassLive.

But, the Patriots haven’t ruled out bringing Jones back next year with a fresh start under new coach Jerod Mayo, Daniels wrote.

“The quarterback has a clean slate with Mayo and could remain on the roster,” Daniels wrote. “But the team won’t hesitate to move him if the right deal comes across their desk.”

An unnamed source told Daniels that Jones’s relationship with former Patriots coach Bill Belichick was “broken.” By the end of the season, the pair had stopped communicating to the point where no one told Jones he would be demoted to third string for the season finale against the Jets.

Where things began to go sideways, Daniels reports, was when offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to coach the Raiders and was replaced by Matt Patricia.

Jones “showed resistance” against switching over to the new offensive system, which angered Belichick. Jones struggled on the field and grew frustrated with his results. Belichick’s frustration with the quarterback intensified as the struggles continued.

By Week 12 of this past season, Belichick reportedly “stopped speaking” to Jones. Belichick chose to start Bailey Zappe for the final six games of the season.

Jones’s “biggest downfall” was playing outside of his comfort zone and freelancing outside of the offensive system, Daniels wrote. Frustration with receivers and offensive line played a role in this. The Patriots tied for the lowest scoring offense in the league. The entire unit could have played better, not just the quarterback.

But ultimately, Jones turned the ball over more than he scored and the team lost faith in him because of it. Will he get another opportunity to start for the Patriots with Belichick out of the building? That’s unknown for the moment, according to Daniels.

https://www.boston.com/sports/new-england-patriots/2024/01/29/mac-jones-bill-belichick-relationship-report-comments/?p1=hp_primary

[Goldstar88]

Matt Daniels from Masslive has an interesting article about how Belichick and Mac Jones's relationship unraveled to the point where neither were speaking with each other. Boston.com has a summary of that article (for those that don't want to read it all) which I have quoted from below.

The Patriots aren’t planning to pick up Jones’s fifth-year option, according to Mark Daniels of MassLive.

But, the Patriots haven’t ruled out bringing Jones back next year with a fresh start under new coach Jerod Mayo, Daniels wrote.

“The quarterback has a clean slate with Mayo and could remain on the roster,” Daniels wrote. “But the team won’t hesitate to move him if the right deal comes across their desk.”

An unnamed source told Daniels that Jones’s relationship with former Patriots coach Bill Belichick was “broken.” By the end of the season, the pair had stopped communicating to the point where no one told Jones he would be demoted to third string for the season finale against the Jets.

Where things began to go sideways, Daniels reports, was when offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to coach the Raiders and was replaced by Matt Patricia.

Jones “showed resistance” against switching over to the new offensive system, which angered Belichick. Jones struggled on the field and grew frustrated with his results. Belichick’s frustration with the quarterback intensified as the struggles continued.

By Week 12 of this past season, Belichick reportedly “stopped speaking” to Jones. Belichick chose to start Bailey Zappe for the final six games of the season.

Jones’s “biggest downfall” was playing outside of his comfort zone and freelancing outside of the offensive system, Daniels wrote. Frustration with receivers and offensive line played a role in this. The Patriots tied for the lowest scoring offense in the league. The entire unit could have played better, not just the quarterback.

But ultimately, Jones turned the ball over more than he scored and the team lost faith in him because of it. Will he get another opportunity to start for the Patriots with Belichick out of the building? That’s unknown for the moment, according to Daniels.

https://www.boston.com/sports/new-england-patriots/2024/01/29/mac-jones-bill-belichick-relationship-report-comments/?p1=hp_primary

He was just doing what’s best for the team. 

Guess things were personal after all…

[green_bballers13]

Bill is looking worse as this goes on. He should have retired when Brady left for TB.

Instead, he's hammered his legacy over the last 4 years. He's still the best, but this is a sour ending in NE that could have been avoided.

[Moranis]

The funniest thing about that is that despite all of that Mac was objectively a significantly better QB than Zappe was last year.  Like it isn't close. So Bill once again put his ego above the team.

[SparzWizard]

And once again, the ego of Belichick continued derailing Jones. I would understand getting frustrated over playing for Matt Patricia on offense.

Mac did one thing right and got us a top 3 pick.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

And once again, the ego of Belichick continued derailing Jones. I would understand getting frustrated over playing for Matt Patricia on offense.

Mac did one thing right and got us a top 3 pick.

I really have no idea what Bill was thinking when he decided it was a good idea for Patricia to run the offense. That just makes zero sense. He had a young QB who'd just had a really good rookie season, and he places him under the care of a guy who'd never coached offense?

[Phantom255x]

Mac Jones isn't close to the level of Burrow/Mahomes/Allen, and likely isn't a Top-10 QB in this league. All true. But I'm sorry, I refuse to believe Mac is truly this horrible. He had a very promising rookie season and helped them reach the playoffs. Then it all derailed when Belichick hired those bozos to run the offense (Patricia, Judge).

Some of these other QBs like Goff, Mayfield, Geno Smith, etc. weren't thought of much in recent years but go figure, with good coaching and a good system they've all thrived and done pretty well, including playoff wins.

I don't think it's a coincidence at all Belichick doesn't have a job in 2024. The league has seen it too, he ruined Mac's development and has been extremely mediocre since Brady left. Not just the QB, but there's a lot of guys who regressed after coming to New England and others who have been misused. And all the penalties, lack of fundamentals, etc. I put that almost entirely on coaching.

Then in the article, it said Belichick apparently didn't even talk to Mac after his benching. What a child. You won 4 games Bill... it's not as cute now without Brady. Again, Mac isn't the guy here but I don't think it was all his fault. I mean, Zappe came in and looked worse in some of the games which is saying something.

It might not be great next year either, but I'm hoping at least some of the dysfunction can go away now that Belichick is gone. Belichick the GM was also a massive problem

[celticsclay]

I’m really surprised this many people are supportive of Mac. Saban didn’t love him either and said he had maturity issues (though Saban did say he improved on them). But you could arguably say the goat of college football and the goat coach of the NFL had some issues with him, and we want to assume they are both wrong on this guy to give Mac the benefit of the doubt and pile on bill.

There is also a big difference between guys like baker and mayfield that were the number one overall pick in terms of physical skills then someone like Mac at 15

[johnnygreen]

The team certainly ruined Mac Jones, but I'm not sure it was all Belichick. How has Robert Kraft escaped blame in this?

The Patriots have been notorious for hiring coaches that were fired. One of the ideas behind hiring these coaches is they would take lower salaries because their former team was still paying them. Why would Bill care about salary for coaches, when there is no salary cap for them? Was this a Kraft strategy to help lower costs?

Patricia and Judge would go onto mismanage the offense in Mac's second year. On top of that, Patricia was the offensive line coach. One of his first moves, was to switch the left and right tackles, which caused bad blood. That moved also compromised the pass protection.

Then last off season, the team wouldn't pay Jakobi Meyers, who was easily the teams most reliable receiver. Meyers for Mac, was like Edelman, Welker, Brown was to Brady. They weren't your traditional #1 receiver, but when it mattered, each of those guys, was reliable.

I know Bill can hold a grudge, which probably didn't help Mac. Might there be another angle. Was Bill frustrated because of the financial restrictions from Kraft, and Bill was simply in the middle and couldn't tell the truth?

[Goldstar88]

So Bill will make this trade to fill a hole in the secondary but won't do anything to shore up the O-line? The Pats were going nowhere, even with Gonzalez and Judon playing great defense, because the offense was so bad. So why not address the offense?

That’s a good question. Maybe he’s still upset with Mac from when he was calling around last year, looking for advice on how to deal with the Patricia experiment. His way of running Mac out of town, lol. Bill doesn’t strike me as the forgiving type.

It would worry me if our 70 year-old coach & GM behaved so petulantly

Would it surprise you, though? I can only imagine how peeved Bill must have been when he found out about it… I’m not sure a player can come back from that. Also not sure if Mac would be here if it wasn’t for Kraft.

[Roy H.]

I’m really surprised this many people are supportive of Mac. Saban didn’t love him either and said he had maturity issues (though Saban did say he improved on them). But you could arguably say the goat of college football and the goat coach of the NFL had some issues with him, and we want to assume they are both wrong on this guy to give Mac the benefit of the doubt and pile on bill.

There is also a big difference between guys like baker and mayfield that were the number one overall pick in terms of physical skills then someone like Mac at 15

I agree.  From what's been reported, he's a QB who refused to listen to coaches, went around BB's back, and who lost the locker room.  It's not just the coaching staff that doesn't trust the kid.  And, on the field, he's played like hot garbage.  Regardless of system, 24 TDs vs.. 23 INTs over the past two years isn't going to get it done.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I’m really surprised this many people are supportive of Mac. Saban didn’t love him either and said he had maturity issues (though Saban did say he improved on them). But you could arguably say the goat of college football and the goat coach of the NFL had some issues with him, and we want to assume they are both wrong on this guy to give Mac the benefit of the doubt and pile on bill.

There is also a big difference between guys like baker and mayfield that were the number one overall pick in terms of physical skills then someone like Mac at 15

I agree.  From what's been reported, he's a QB who refused to listen to coaches, went around BB's back, and who lost the locker room.  It's not just the coaching staff that doesn't trust the kid.  And, on the field, he's played like hot garbage.  Regardless of system, 24 TDs vs.. 23 INTs over the past two years isn't going to get it done.

I'm definitely not in the "For sure keep Mac at least one more year" camp. My fairly uneducated opinion is that he could be a good QB but nowhere near great, and if that's true, why keep him? Teams usually need to have a great QB to win SBs.

[Goldstar88]

I’m really surprised this many people are supportive of Mac. Saban didn’t love him either and said he had maturity issues (though Saban did say he improved on them). But you could arguably say the goat of college football and the goat coach of the NFL had some issues with him, and we want to assume they are both wrong on this guy to give Mac the benefit of the doubt and pile on bill.

There is also a big difference between guys like baker and mayfield that were the number one overall pick in terms of physical skills then someone like Mac at 15

I agree.  From what's been reported, he's a QB who refused to listen to coaches, went around BB's back, and who lost the locker room.  It's not just the coaching staff that doesn't trust the kid.  And, on the field, he's played like hot garbage.  Regardless of system, 24 TDs vs.. 23 INTs over the past two years isn't going to get it done.

Where was all of that his rookie year. So he just regressed for no reason? Or could it have been a dysfunctional/toxic work environment that had something to do with it… if Mac is that bad and also a problem in the locker room, why haven’t they released him?

[Moranis]

I’m really surprised this many people are supportive of Mac. Saban didn’t love him either and said he had maturity issues (though Saban did say he improved on them). But you could arguably say the goat of college football and the goat coach of the NFL had some issues with him, and we want to assume they are both wrong on this guy to give Mac the benefit of the doubt and pile on bill.

There is also a big difference between guys like baker and mayfield that were the number one overall pick in terms of physical skills then someone like Mac at 15

I agree.  From what's been reported, he's a QB who refused to listen to coaches, went around BB's back, and who lost the locker room.  It's not just the coaching staff that doesn't trust the kid.  And, on the field, he's played like hot garbage.  Regardless of system, 24 TDs vs.. 23 INTs over the past two years isn't going to get it done.

Where was all of that his rookie year. So he just regressed for no reason? Or could it have been a dysfunctional/toxic work environment that had something to do with it… if Mac is that bad and also a problem in the locker room, why haven’t they released him?

Bill's lack of confidence in Mac destroyed Mac

[BitterJim]

I’m really surprised this many people are supportive of Mac. Saban didn’t love him either and said he had maturity issues (though Saban did say he improved on them). But you could arguably say the goat of college football and the goat coach of the NFL had some issues with him, and we want to assume they are both wrong on this guy to give Mac the benefit of the doubt and pile on bill.

There is also a big difference between guys like baker and mayfield that were the number one overall pick in terms of physical skills then someone like Mac at 15

I agree.  From what's been reported, he's a QB who refused to listen to coaches, went around BB's back, and who lost the locker room.  It's not just the coaching staff that doesn't trust the kid.  And, on the field, he's played like hot garbage.  Regardless of system, 24 TDs vs.. 23 INTs over the past two years isn't going to get it done.

Where was all of that his rookie year. So he just regressed for no reason? Or could it have been a dysfunctional/toxic work environment that had something to do with it… if Mac is that bad and also a problem in the locker room, why haven’t they released him?

He also could have picked up some bad habits (like not listening to his OC) while under Patricia, and then kept them up when O'Brien came in. That wouldn't be enough that you need to cut him, but is definitely enough to bench him.