New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones faced a lot of scrutiny for how he played and acted in the second season of his NFL career. Kirk Herbsreit won't stand for it.

The ESPN college football analyst and Amazon “Thursday Night Football” color commentator slammed those who criticized Jones for his performance in 2022, saying the unusual offensive coaching setup held him back.

“Give me a break on what they were doing offensively last year,” Herbstreit said in an interview on The Pat McAfee Show. “[Jones] had no chance. Not only did they not have weapons around him, but schematically he had no chance. So to blame him is a bunch of bull****.”

As it's been well-documented by now, the New England Patriots opted to have longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia call the offensive plays while longtime special teams coach Joe Judge coached the quarterbacks in 2022. The results were borderline disastrous. New England finished the season ranked 26th in total offense and dead last in red-zone efficiency.

Jones also showed frustration as a result, having profane-laden outbursts and showing poor body language toward the offensive coaches in three consecutive games in December. Herbstreit acknowledged that while Jones has earned a bit of a reputation for being a “hothead” since his college days at Alabama, he understandably gets why he was frustrated last season.

“Who would not be frustrated with what [the Patriots] were trying to do last year?” Herbstreit said. “I think anybody who is a competitor is going to get frustrated. But, you build in that background and this guy is a leader. He doesn't have some of the stature that some of these guys do by don't be fooled by that, this guy is one of a kind when it comes to the intangibles and what he can bring to a team.”

The Patriots rectified their wrong over the offseason, hiring Bill O'Brien to be their offensive coordinator again. Herbstreit thinks that will be a major step in the right direction for Jones.

“[Now] you get Billy O'Brien, who is as good an offensive mind as there is to come in there and work with Mac Jones,” he continued. “I'm telling you right now, you're gonna see a drastic change in what he's doing as a quarterback, and what the Patriots are gonna be able to do on that side of the football.”

Jones had great rookie season

Jones played well under an offensive coordinator with real experience during his rookie season. The 2021 first-round pick threw for 3,801 yards, 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions with a 92.5 passer rating under Josh McDaniels, helping the Patriots earn 10 wins and a playoff berth.

A year prior, Jones led Alabama to a national title as he quarterbacked one of the most dominant offenses in the history of the sport. What Herbstreit learned when speaking to Jones then and seeing what he did as a rookie makes him have high hopes for the Patriots quarterback.

“He was honestly the most impressive quarterback I've ever spoken to in college about what he sees and how his brain processes and how it fires,” Herbstreit said. “Give me a break on what they were doing on offense last year. He had no chance. Not only did he not have weapons around him, but what they were doing schematically, he had no chance.”

The Patriots have some notable additions this offseason, bringing in JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki along with O'Brien. They're also in the hunt for DeAndre Hopkins, who reportedly had a good visit with the team.

Herbstreit isn't entirely sold on the upgrades made around Jones just yet. But he acknowledged that they're big improvements and is enough for him to hold on to his stock in the quarterback entering his third season.

“I'm 1,000 percent behind Mac Jones,” Herbstreit said. “Of all the younger quarterbacks that have not had the opportunity to kind of prove their consistency and what they can offer, I'm telling you right now that Mac Jones is going to be a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback in the very near future, whether it's this year or in the next couple years. He's that good.”