The rumors surrounding Mac Jones' future with the New England Patriots took an interesting twist on Tuesday.
Bill Belichick has shopped the 2021 first-round quarterback to multiple teams in a trade this offseason, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported Tuesday. Florio didn't share which teams had discussions with Belichick on a possible trade, but he mentioned the Las Vegas Raiders, Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Washington Commanders.
The report of Belichick shopping Jones comes a week after he didn't commit to Jones being the starting quarterback for the 2023 season while speaking at the NFL owners meeting.
Jones struggled in Year 2 after a strong rookie season, throwing for 2,997 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions with an 84.8 passer rating over 14 games. But Jones' performance might not be the only reason why Belichick might be looking to move on from Jones. It was reported in February that Jones sought outside help during the season as the offense struggled under coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. Jones' decision to seek help from non-Patriots coaches “really pissed Bill off,” NBC Sports Boston's Tom E. Curran reported last Friday.
Tom E. Curran reveals that Coach Belichick was really pissed off at Mac Jones for going outside the building for advice on how to run the offense.
Curran also believes Brian Hoyer was released because he was against the system like Mac. pic.twitter.com/ZC3URuwdQw
— Jones & Mego with Arcand (@JonesandMego) March 31, 2023
NBC Sports' Chris Simms offered more details on Jones' decision to seek help from outside coaches on Tuesday.
“Of course Mac Jones must have been frustrated, and that’s what I heard,” Simms said on “PFT Live.” “I think I said that early in the season, that he had called Alabama and certain coaches saying, ‘Hey, can you give some ideas to our coaches.’ Well, I mean, come on. All of us who pay attention to football, how do you think that’s going to go over with New England people if they heard that was happening, right?
“I’m sure he was frustrated, but I don’t know that calling Alabama, where the head coach is an ex-assistant of your head coach — it’s going to get back. That’s where he went wrong.”
Jones' decision to call Alabama coaches for help is interesting for multiple reasons. Of course, Belichick holds a strong relationship with Nick Saban, but also, the Patriots opted to hire Bill O'Brien as their offensive coordinator in January and O'Brien coached at Alabama last season.
As Jones was reportedly excited by the move to add O'Brien, Belichick didn't close the door on Bailey Zappe becoming the team's starter last week.
“Well, everybody will get a chance to play. We’ll play the best player,” Belichick said when asked about Zappe possibly starting over Jones.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft gave a vote of confidence though in Jones when speaking to reporters last week.
“I’m a big fan of Mac,” Kraft said. “He came to us as a rookie. He quarterbacked in his rookie season and did a very fine job I thought. We made the playoffs. I think we experimented with some things last year that frankly didn’t work when it came to him, in my opinion.”
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