Devin McCourty is firmly in Mac Jones’ camp.
The newly retired Patriots legend appeared Monday on Kay Adams’ Fanduel show and laid out the case for why Jones should be given more patience.
“I’ll say this: all these young quarterbacks come in, and they get crushed right away,” said McCourty. “Now we watch Jalen Hurts. We give him time to develop, and everybody is like, ‘Did you see the Super Bowl he had? He might’ve been better than Mahomes.’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, he got drafted for a reason.’ We see Tua [Tagovailoa] down in Miami. You finally get some stability around him, get him with Mike McDaniel, a guy who’s run an offense, been in San Francisco. ‘Oh man, he’s actually a good player.”
It’s fitting that McCourty brought up Hurts and Tagovailoa, two quarterbacks whose teams surrounded them with the appropriate coaching and talent to win. The Eagles, who hired Andy Reid disciple Nick Sirianni as their head coach, acquired A.J. Brown last offseason for a first- and third-round pick.
The return was tremendous. Brown reeled in 88 catches for 1.496 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, and caught 13 passes for 146 yards and a score in the playoffs.
Miami surrounded Tagovailoa with speedsters Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and other weapons. The Dolphins have also acquired two star defenders over the last year: Bradley Chubb and Jalen Ramsey.
The Patriots, meanwhile, just let Jakobi Meyers walk over three years and $33 million. They haven’t signed any outside free agents so far.
Jones will be surrounded by better coaching next season, thanks to the hiring of Bill O’Brien. But the talent remains a question mark.
“Last year, it’s kind of like, testing things out with Joe Judge and Matty P running the offense, which didn’t work,” said McCourty. “The bad thing for Mac is, a lot of that goes right to him. Like he wasn’t good. It’s his fault, his fault. I just don’t see it that way. He’s a young guy who will now get a chance to be with Billy O, a proven offensive mind. I think he’s gonna go, and I just think he’s gonna skyrocket.”
For that to be true, the Patriots need to pair Jones with better talent.
