Former Patriots defensive back Jason McCourty isn’t sold on his old team’s unusual coaching arrangement, especially when it comes to Mac Jones’ development.
Zach Wilson's strange love triangle ...
In a recent segment on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” McCourty said he thinks the lack of an experienced offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach will impede Jones’ ability to game plan.
“You'll never hear anybody [on the team] say anything in the media ... but it's definitely going to be a big thing. It has to be,” he said, via ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “If you're Mac Jones ... who's the guy you go to and say, 'I want to run these plays this week’?”
That’s a good question. During minicamp, Joe Judge was spotted calling most pass plays, while Matt Patricia handled running plays. Bill Belichick called plays at various points as well.
While Belichick was dismissive about the lack of a coaching hierarchy during minicamp — he grumbled about how they won’t be calling plays for another several months — training camp is just a couple of weeks away. It is bizarre the Patriots aren’t pairing their second-year quarterback with an actual offensive coordinator.
Weirdly, Robert Griffin III, who now works as an ESPN analyst, said recently he thinks the Patriots’ strange staff will benefit Jones. “I believe that will lead to more ownership from him about what is being called and how he sees the game,” Griffin said.
While that may be true, wouldn’t it better for Jones to collaborate with an experienced coach? He experienced success last season working under Josh McDaniels.
Few people are more attune to Belichick’s philosophies than the McCourty brothers. The fact that one of them is expressing skepticism about the Patriots’ staff should speak volumes.