Mac Jones' play in his final two seasons with the New England Patriots plummeted from where he began as a rookie, causing him to be benched and later traded. But former Patriots running back Damien Harris doesn't think that Jones is to blame.
Harris pointed at Bill Belichick for Jones' struggles in New England that caused him to lose his job as the team's starting quarterback in an interview on “The Athletic Football Show.”
“What happened to Mac Jones in New England, was not because of Mac Jones,” Harris said. “What happened in New England to Mac Jones was because of the fact you took away an offensive coordinator who coached him to be a Pro Bowler and almost coached us to winning our division with a rookie quarterback in his first year.”
Of course, what Harris is referring to is the offensive coordinator situation Jones dealt with during his second season. Belichick didn't get rid of Josh McDaniels, which the quote from Harris seems to suggest. But he replaced McDaniels with longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia as the offensive play-caller while former special teams coordinator Joe Judge served as the quarterbacks coach.
Harris, who played for the Patriots from 2019-22 before joining the Buffalo Bills last season, believed that was a misfire by Belichick.
“You just throw them in there and say, ‘Hey, coach this kid up. He’s a first-round pick, but as long as you teach him what I say, everything gonna be fine,’” Harris said. “S— wasn’t fine.”
The offense appeared to be a disaster from the start. During training camp, they implemented a new run scheme that looked discombobulated.
They played that way during the regular season in 2022, ranking 26th in yards. Jones, meanwhile, regressed to the tune of 2,997 passing yards, 14 passing touchdowns, and 11 interceptions in 14 games.
Harris said that it felt like they were taking plays from “Madden” that year, adding he and other players on the offense “knew before the first game” that the experiment wasn't going to work out. Still, Belichick wouldn't listen to concerns brought up by leaders on the offense, according to Harris.
“If anybody had anything to say about it, it was [met with] a very, very quick, swift, ‘Shut the f— up,’” Harris said. “‘I know what I’m doing.’ And that’s it.’”
That's why Harris is placing the blame on Belichick for Jones' regression in New England.
“The breath of Mac Jones in New England — it came and went. It shouldn’t have (gone) the way that it went,” Harris said. “The only reason that it did was because Bill Belichick, being stuck in his ways, was very much so ‘As long as I am here. As long as I am, along with Robert Kraft, the top dog at this organization. We will have success.’”
The Patriots traded Jones to the Jacksonville Jaguars in March for a sixth-round pick, putting a cap on a once-promising tenure. But that wasn't the only person the organization said goodbye to this offseason.
Why Damien Harris feels Bill Belichick didn't get a head coaching job after Patriots departure
New England also parted ways with Belichick at the start of the offseason, agreeing to end its relationship with the head coach after 24 seasons.
“And I think that just at the stage of his career that he’s in, I think that what he was expecting to be handed to him versus what people were willing to give him — in retrospect, I think that maybe they just didn’t align,” Harris said.
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