Former Patriots RB Blames Coaching For Mac Jones’ Struggles in New England.Why Mac Jones failed in New England and why it’s still affecting Bill Belichick.
Although over half of first-round quarterbacks don’t make it, at least one former member of the New England Patriots doesn’t hold Mac Jones responsible for his struggles. Running back Damien Harris of the Buffalo Bills currently plays for Boston.com.
It was not Mac Jones’ fault that anything occurred to him in New England. What happened to Mac Jones in New England was that you removed the offensive coordinator who helped him become a Pro Bowl player and nearly led us to division victory with a rookie quarterback in his first season.
Given that Jones’ darkest years were spent calling plays like Lloyd and Harry from Dumb and Dumber, Harris’ description is difficult to contest.
A Coaching ‘Debacle” in New England
Why Mac Jones st.ruggled and how it affected Bill Belichick’s coaching candidacies
Like children, rookie quarterbacks succeed based on two main factors: nature and nurture. Physical and mental traits represent their nature while coaching, teammates, and the system covers nurture. Jones never came in with Adonis-level genes, but he was saddled with “The Purge” levels of nurturing after Josh McDaniels left.
As Harris detailed:
Whenever Josh McDaniels left — Matt Patricia, who has coached defenses his entire life, and Joe Judge, who has been a special teams coach, coached receivers at some point. And then you just throw them in there and be like, ‘Hey, coach this kid up. He’s a first-round pick, but as long as you teach him what I say, everything will be fine,’ and shit wasn’t fine.
Things definitely weren’t fine. From year one to year three, Jones’ numbers plummeted. He went from 67.6% passing completion to 64.9%. As a rookie, he threw 22 touchdowns to 13 interceptions that flipped to 10 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. His success rate also fell from 49% to 43.3%.
In fairness to Jones, coaching matters in the NFL more than any other major sport. It matters in life, so why should football be any different? Everyone’s had a teacher who made them flat-out hate a subject. Meanwhile, some of us have been lucky enough to have teachers who unearthed skills we never knew we had.
Based on Jones’ sideline demeanor with Patricia or Judge, they seemingly made him hate football, and who can blame him? Most of us would probably be unhappy with the situation if either of them were constantly passing along actively unhelpful information.
Harris also offered an intriguing explanation for why Bill Belichick, the head coach of the G.O.A.T., won’t be spending 2024 on the sidelines of the NFL:
He requires total command. That is the character of Bill Belichick. Can you blame him, though, for that, too? Because he achieved great success during the 20 years he held complete control. So it’s not your fault.
There were rumors that during his talks with the Washington Commanders and Atlanta Falcons, Belichick never advocated for complete control of football operations. However, the franchises concerned realized that, after twenty years, he would be hard-pressed to alter. They feared that once he left New England, his “Lord of the Flies” fostering style would follow.
