Former Patriots RB says Mac Jones’ demise in New England wasn’t Jones’ fault: ‘I will die on this hill’

The path that led former New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones to his current role as Trevor Lawrence’s backup with the Jacksonville Jaguars was a strange one.

Jones was selected in the same draft as Lawrence, but 14 picks later. Lawrence went No. 1 overall to Jacksonville, while Jones came off the board to New England at No. 15. In his first professional season, Jones played very well: he completed 67.6% of his passes with an average of 7.3 yards per attempt. He threw 22 touchdowns against 13 interceptions. The Pats went 10-7 and made the playoffs, while Jones was named a Pro Bowl alternate and finished second in NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year voting.

And then things quickly went wrong. In Year 2, Jones took a step back, falling to a 65.22% completion rate and 6.8 yards per attempt, along with just 14 touchdowns and 11 picks in 14 games, as at one point he was replaced by Bailey Zappe. In 2023, things got even worse: 64.9%, 6.1 yards per attempt, 10 touchdowns against 12 picks in 11 games in which New England went just 2-9.

To hear former teammate Damien Harris tell it, this wasn’t really Jones’ fault.

“I’m going to die on this hill and people can be mad at me, people can be happy with me, people can be somewhere in between. What happened to Mac Jones in New England wasn’t because of Mac Jones,” Harris said during an appearance on “The Athletic Football Show.” “What happened in New England with Mac Jones was because you took away an offensive coordinator who coached him to be a Pro Bowler and almost coached us to win our division with a rookie quarterback in his first year.

“And then you take – whenever Josh McDaniels left – Matt Patricia, who coached defensive backs his whole life, and Joe Judge, who was a special teams coach, coached receivers at some point. and say, ‘Hey, train this kid. He’s a first-round pick, but as long as you teach him what I say, everything will be fine.’ And shit wasn’t right.”

Harris, of course, is referring to the Patriots’ infamous plan to replace McDaniels (who took over as head coach of the Raiders, from whom he was fired) as offensive coordinator with the combination of Patricia and Judge, which resulted in disaster. The Patriots tried to salvage things last season by bringing in Bill O’Brien, but the damage was apparently done. And Harris is clear about where he thinks the responsibility should lie.

“It’s like Mac Jones’ breath in New England, it came and went and it shouldn’t have [gone] the way it happened,” Harris said. “And the only reason this happened is because Bill Belichick, stuck in his ways, said, ‘As long as I’m here, as long as I’m – along with Robert Kraft – the head of this organization, No matter who, no matter where, what position, where they train, whatever, we will be successful.’”

Instead, the decision “was a disaster,” according to Harris, who said the players immediately realized the deal wasn’t going to work. He did, however, understand why Belichick thought things would work out.

“He needs total control. That’s exactly the kind of guy Bill Belichick is,” he said. “But at the same time, can you blame him? Because in the 20 years that he had complete control, he was very successful. So you can’t blame him.”