The bye week clearly did not help Mac Jones. The Patriots offense got shut out in the first half of Sunday’s 10-7 loss to the New York Giants, and Jones got benched at halftime after throwing two interceptions while completing 12 of 21 passes for just 89 yards. It was the fourth time this season Jones has been benched.
Making his weekly appearance on The Greg Hill Show, CBS analyst and WFAN host Boomer Esiason said it’s “sad” to watch Jones struggle week after week with seemingly no hope for improvement. Listen to the full interview above.
“It's actually sad to watch,” Esiason said. “The body language tells me everything. The performance tells me everything. It's like they're just waiting for him to make a mistake. He's waiting for himself to make a mistake. It's kind of like watching [Jets quarterback] Zach Wilson. I don't think it's quite as bad, but when you’re turning the ball over the way that Mac has turned it over this year, to get benched four times tells you all you need to know. I'm sure that those coaches are looking at that film and they can't explain some of the decisions that he's making.”
Esiason was among those who blamed the coaching and the situation around Jones for his struggles last season. He puts this year on Jones, though, especially since the third-year QB has gotten worse as the season has gone on.
“It's 100 percent on Mac Jones,” he said. “I mean, I can't sit here and tell you that Bill O'Brien and Bill Belichick forgot how to coach football players and coach offense. If we want to go back to last year and we want to talk about Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, maybe that was the excuse from last year. I'm sure that they're sitting somewhere going, ‘Oh my God, thank God I don't have to be in the middle of this anymore.’ Because maybe the quarterback just doesn't have it. The amazing thing to me is that two years ago, I voted him as Rookie of the Year over Ja’Marr Chase. I thought he had a tremendous rookie season and he got the team to the playoffs.
“Watching what has happened to him over the last two years is virtually unexplainable to me because I think the Patriots -- I guess you could say that the offensive line has been in a state of flux, and he really has no playmakers. He doesn't have a Rob Gronkowski, doesn't have a Julian Edelman or a Wes Welker, or a Randy Moss for that matter. But I would just say eventually it comes back to the player himself and whether or not he raises all boats. He has not been able to do that. Last year, I'll give him the pass because of the coaching situation. This year, I can't do that. I have to say it goes back to him and him only.”