When Mac Jones was a rookie, his coach told him to ask the Patriots to trade him.
Jones’s coach urged NBC Sports Boston that he told Jones to look for a trade after his rookie campaign with the Patriots.
That was two seasons before he failed as New England’s starter and well as is no longer in the team’s plans as an NHL player.
Mac or his agent should go ask for a trade, I told them. I told them, “Hey, I think it might work better for both of you and the New England Patriots if they trade you.”
After Tom Brady was taken by the 15th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Jones and McDaniels looked like they would help the New England Patriots in the years after Brady. Brady led the team to a 10-7 record and the playoffs.
You will help him by putting the right people around him. He also said, “If you don’t, it’s really easy: just trade him for another guy; that’s allowed and follows the rules.”
Instead, McDaniel quit to become the head coach of the Raiders, which turned out to be a bad idea.
Jones then went on to have an 8–17 record in the next two seasons, which was hurt by inconsistency, coaching changes, a lack of talented receivers around him, and maybe even some Bill Belichick interference.
Jones, who was benched for most of the 2023 season, is said to have told a Jets employee that he liked how the team dealt with his select classmate Zach Wilson, who was additionally benched a lot and has struggled to live up to his high expectations.
At the time, the Patriots quarterback might not have been open to the idea of a trade, but he probably has changed his mind now. I thought, “Hey, if you want this guy to work, you’ll put some guys around him.”
As the end of his rookie contract year approaches, Mac Jones is said to be tradeable during the NFL offseason in 2024.
He told Tom E. Curran, “After the first season, I saw which it was really good for Mac and I saw his coach (Josh McDaniels) was leaving.”
It is well known that Bill Belichick put him on the bench late in the season in favor of Bailey Zappe. This ended his time as the New England Patriots’ starting quarterback.
Even though Belichick as well as the Patriots broke up at the end of the 2023 NFL season, it looks like the team will still hire a different quarterback.
This is especially true since they have the third pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. New head coach Jerod Mayo will likely want to use this chance to start over.
Mac Jones had two years in a row of serious regression after a promising rookie season. There are likely a lot of different things that led to his downfall, so it’s hard to say who is to blame.
Joe Dickinson, Jones’ private throwing coach, says that Bill Belichick is just as much to blame as anyone else for how the young quarterback seems to have been handled.
Joe Dickinson seems to think that everyone, including himself or Mac Jones, has a hand in the quarterback’s huge drop in performance over the last two years. In his first season, he had a good 10-7 record with 22 touchdowns as well as 13 interceptions.
After that, Mac Jones had a terrible two-year stretch, going 8–17 with 24 touchdowns as well as 23 interceptions. Things might get better with a new team, and Dickinson is said to have already suggested this as a solution in the past.
According to the same report via NBC Sports, Joe Dickinson told Mac Jones before the 2022 NFL season that he might be better off if he was traded to a different team.
Dickinson seems to be saying that the organization let Mac Jones down by not putting him in the best possible situation. He had a total of three distinct offensive coordinators within three years, so you have a point.
Putting strong wide receivers around him didn’t work out for the New England Patriots either. During his three-year tenure in New England, they were one of the worst teams he played on.
He might have grown faster if he had better weapons as well as a more stable place to learn. Check out Mac Jones’s NFL team for the 2024 season. It will be interesting to see if he gets to be a regular starter with any team.