Mike Florio believes the Patriots shopping Mac Jones is simply the natural progression of a messy relationship.
In a somewhat surprising development, Florio reported Tuesday that Bill Belichick had shopped Jones this offseason. Florio reported that Jones was shopped to “multiple teams,” and that the list of potential destinations included the Bucs, Texans, Commanders and Raiders.
Thus far, Florio's report has not been corroborated. However, given how uneven last year was due to the disastrous Matt Patricia/Joe Judge experiment – and Belichick’s apparent disapproval of Jones making his frustrations clear – it’s not the most implausible idea that they’d consider other options.
Appearing on “The Greg Hill Show,” Florio said he believes this is just the natural progression of a “dysfunctional” partnership.
“I don’t know that surprised is the word,” Florio said Tuesday on "The Greg Hill Show". “It’s the next logical step in a dysfunctional relationship that has been in existence for at least the last nine months or so, ever since Mac Jones realized he went from one of the great offensive minds in football to this frankenstein monster that Bill Belichick decided to put together, right?”
The last year has been an adventure for Jones, who at times was playing for his job after the emergence of Bailey Zappe. Tuesday’s developments probably won’t do much to strengthen the relationship between Jones and Belichick.
“I don’t know what his mindset is right now, but I know there’s been enough that’s percolated over the past several months that hasn’t been thrilled with the way things have been handled," Florio said. "He can’t be happy that he’s got to go compete with Bailey Zappe for the starting job that he believes he earned as a rookie, and last year wasn’t his fault.
“Everything that occurred between his injury and the coaching issues, it shouldn’t be something that’s blamed on him. If he’s there, and at this point we assume he will be there, he’ll have to compete with Zappe and he’ll have to win the job that way. It will make for an interesting season.”
One of the follow-ups from Florio’s reporting came from MassLive’s Mark Daniels, who said sources from both the Raiders and Bucs essentially shot down the rumored interest. Same went for The Boston Herald's Andrew Callahan, who said some figured it was old news, and that Jones has been in the building in Foxboro.
Florio offered his belief on why teams are dismissing it.
“Once you’ve made your plans for quarterback, you don’t want to make it look like you had some other plan you were considering,” Florio said. “The Raiders have Jimmy Garoppolo now – although I don’t rule out a possible run at exploring Mac if the Raiders don’t emerge from Round 1 of the draft with a quarterback – but the Bucs went all-in with Baker Mayfield. …
“I think teams that make their decisions and go in a certain direction don’t want to do anything to undermine that after the fact. And there’s also that still lingering respect/fear of Bill Belichick that you don’t want to get on his bad side, and that may be part of it too.”
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