Report: Talk About How the Patriots Offense Did Mac Jones 'Dirty' Went 'Far & Wide' Around the NFL and Players 'Respected' His Rookie Season

The most common reaction to this outburst Mac Jones fired in the direction of Matt Patricia in particular and the Patriots offensive staff in general, was that the kid needed to check himself. That going off the rails in the middle of a game this way wasn't doing him any good. That was the opinion of national football people. Local Patriots reporters. Former players like Ty Law and Julian Edelman. Certain charming, fetchingly handsome silver foxes who cover the Patriots on comedy websites. That many informed voices couldn't be wrong. 

And while we can all agree that was a bad look, the more pertinent question was more or less overlooked. And that was, Did Jones have a point? I mean, while keeping a stoic demeanor to project an air of confidence that sends the message, "Everything is under control is important, what matters most is that everything actually be under control. Which it most definitely wasn't. 

That larger point was just confirmed by Mike Giardi of NFL Network:

This is a key point that should not and can not be lost in the shuffle of a mess of a season. Not only did Patricia and Joe Judge do him dirty, fans and the media did as well. Need I remind everyone Jones was a Ja'Marr Chase season for the ages from being the Offensive Rookie of the Year, and yet in October the walls of Gillette were ringing with the sound of Bailey Zappe's name being chanted by the Real Housewives of Foxboro? After leading Alabama to a National Championship and New England back to respectability, double-digit wins and the playoffs, all of a sudden he'd become a petulant, spaghetti-armed problem child with no pain tolerance and no ability to run away from the ghosts he was always feeling in the pocket.

Meanwhile, people around the NFL who actually know what the fuck they're talking about knew the truth. The respected him for the "saw shit most rookies don't" - meaning he understood the game and picked up on things defenses were trying to throw at him - only to be saddled with new and utterly incompetent pair of coaches calling an offense they couldn't run and which was completely ineffective. A point which we were reminded of throughout the season. 

Or does anyone need another reminder? Like this one, from the Week 9 game in early November?

Source - Following the Patriots 26-3 win over the Colts, multiple offensive players in the Patriots locker room could be overheard talking about Shaquille Leonard calling out their play calls. One Patriots starting offensive player said Leonard occasionally called out what the Patriots were going to do on certain plays, such as outside runs and screen passes. 

At the time, the Pats were coming off two straight wins to get to 5-4. However, they were 16th in the league in points per game, 26th in yards per game, 24th in gross passing yards per game, 21st in passer rating, and 23rd in passing touchdowns. And I was going full Tom Clancy novel over it:

To this point, I've been willing to show patience with the Belichick/Patricia administration. Matt Patricia was tasked with making changes to the business-as-usual approach in Foxboro. And as is so often the case, change was hard. It meets with resistance. And special interests can be invested in maintaining the status quo. I get that. 

But this situation is the most damning indictment of our leadership in generations. It is unacceptable. Our enemies knowing our plans was never a problem before. We did it to them all the time, thanks to the best Intelligence Community in the game, headed by Ernie Adams. But we can't have a scenario where our security is so compromised that our opponents can act in advance and thwart our every move the way Indianapolis just did. It makes us look like a third-rate power on the world stage and will just encourage other bad actors to do the same.

But the situation didn't get appreciably better. A couple of weeks later, Kurt Warner took an hour-long deep dive into it:

The lack of spacing. Multiple receivers running similar routes in the same areas, or at times right into each other. A deplorable lack of timing. Little to no communication. Confusion in the blocking assignments leaving defenders unaccounted for and pass rushers coming free. Deep verticals across the board instead of guys breaking off their routes against extra rushers. The list goes on. And expecting a second year quarterback to thrive amid the anarchic mess of it all is worse than unfair. It's an idiotic thing to expect. 

Clearly players around the NFL didn't. They knew where the fault lay. And now that situation has been addressed, and the solution found. The more we learn about how badly things were being run, the better we can all feel about how good it's going to be under  Bill O'Brien's regime. Whom Mac Jones will definitely not be making puss faces at. Ever. So thanks for the shot of confidence, anonymous NFL player. Speaking for all of New England, we need this.