In the good ol’ days of the Patriots dynasty gone by, this used to be the time of year for exciting postseason football and more Super Bowl runs than any fan base probably deserves.
Now, though, apparently late January is excuse season in New England.
At least that’s how it feels with the recent winter Foxborough flurry of written reports and podcasts revolving around the downfall of Patriots QB Mac Jones and how oh so many factors outside of the former first-round pick’s control led to his two-year career nosedive.
Yeah. And?
Sure, MassLive detailed the timeline of the “broken relationship” between Belichick and the passer who earned Pro Bowl honors leading the Patriots to the playoffs as a productive rookie in 2021.
Sure, NBC Sports Boston talked to Jones’ longtime QB coach Joe Dickinson – that kids now have nationally-renowned personal QB coaches by the age of 11 is a different topic for a different column – and gave him a platform to profess just how much went wrong around Jones in terms of coaching and personnel in New England, creating the crucible for his regrettable regression.
Sure, longtime NFL scout and current Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy told WEEI recently that, “To me, what happened up there is not on Mac Jones.”
And it all may be true. But it’s all also truly meaningless and actually just kinda annoying at this point.
The bottom line is that Belichick was right last winter when he coldly said in less-than-supportive fashion that Jones “has the ability to play quarterback” in the NFL.
He didn’t say he had the ability to play it at a high level. Or to even be a starter. Or certainly to be the kind of franchise leader that teams lust for and hold onto to with a salary-cap choking grip if fortunate enough to find.
Is Jones one of the top 32 NFL quarterbacks on the planet? Debatable. But he’s certainly in the top 64 or 96 options as teams fill out a professional depth chart at this point where their clearly aren’t enough capable passers to go around.
But as we and he have learned over the last two years, he’s not good enough to overcome. Not good enough to cover up. Not good enough to carry a team. In fact, in the first two losing seasons of his football life, he cracked under the pressure. He broke. Fell apart. He became far more part of the problem than part of the solution, clearly a contributing force to his own ruination.
So it’s true that Jones had three coordinators in three years. Had suspect offensive line play and protection in front of him. Didn’t have much high end talent to speak of or work with in his band of not-so-merry pass catchers performing under the stage name of “Stink, Stank and Stunk.”
Yeah. And?
Maybe he can join some sort of coffee-sipping support group for promising QBs whose careers flamed out thanks in large part to their circumstances. Because there have been plenty of them over the years.
That’s life as a QB. You get more blame than you should.
Oh, and let’s not forget more credit, too.
Just like no one seemed to bat an eye when Jones and his questionable talents rose to first-round pick status after one year starting at Alabama surrounded by some of the best playmakers and coaching any QB at any level could ask for. Few questioned it when Jones suddenly flew up draft boards after one season in which he never lost a game, never faced adversity, never had to deal with an actual hostile crowd in the SEC thanks to COVID.
Jones and his support crew were more than happy to enjoy the fruits of that less than laborious labor.
And when he hit the ground running under Josh McDaniels’ watchful eye in the NFL, the expectations outgrew the talent and reality. He was well on his way to lucrative stardom. Cue the “Mac10” and “MJ10” trademarks, baby!
The bottom line of the 2021 offensive season in New England earned McDaniels the head coaching job in Las Vegas. But, little more than a year later, McDaniels was falling on his face with the Raiders just like his former star pupil was face-planting in Patriot Nation.
Is McDaniels a better coach than his most recent results and reputation? Probably.
Is Jones a better QB than his current lot in career-crossroads life? Maybe.
But it all, as the former boss of both men would say, is what it is.
You are what your record (or stats) say you are.
Excuses are often just reasons given out by losers in a world that lauds, supports and props up winners.
So, yes, there are reasons behind Jones’ failures and struggles in recent years. Just as there are reasons why McDaniels has now failed twice as a head coach. And why Belichick is out of work and options after two-plus decades of dynastic success.
Losing is undefeated. All three men lost more plays and more games and more decisions than they won in recent years. And have paid the price for it.
Hey Mac Jones, here’s a little unsolicited advice that you probably will never read or hear. The same words of cliché wisdom we’ve shared coaching years of eye-rolling youth athletes -- Make plays, not excuses!
Or in more dated, ol’ school football coach jargon -- Don’t tell me about the pain, just show me the baby!
Fair or not, no one really wants to hear about why things went wrong. This is a bottom-line, results-based NFL and world in general. All we care about is that things did go wrong and, now more importantly, getting them right in the future.
After some great fortune for two years leading the Tide and Patriots, Jones legitimately fell on some tough times the last two years in New England.
That damage is done for all involved.
It’s time to stop making excuses and start fixing things. For both Jones and the Patriots.