Welcome to Football Friday.
While Writing Roundball will still be primarily focused on basketball, I’ll be reserving Friday for some football talk, and there’s no better way to kick it off than to defend MY quarterback, Mac Jones.
Jones enjoyed a successful rookie season with the New England Patriots in 2021, but horrendous coaching staff mismanagement and injuries plagued his second year in the NFL, causing Jones to fall off a proverbial cliff regarding his production. But, make no mistake, Jones will be back to form this season.
In his first season with the Patriots, Jones helped New England reach the playoffs while finishing second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting and completing 67.7 percent of passes to go along with 22 touchdowns. Jones’ production dipped under defensive coordinator-turned-offensive coordinator Matt Patricia in 2022, with the Alabama alum completing just 65.2 percent of attempts while boasting just 14 touchdowns to 11 interceptions.
I won’t sit here and write that Jones was good by any stretch of the imagination last season — outside of his Thanksgiving performance against the Minnesota Vikings — because he really wasn’t, though I just can’t put all the blame on him because he dealt with several extraneous circumstances that were out of his control last season.
First off, Patricia had no idea what he was doing and didn’t play to Jones’ skillset at all, causing Jones to never quite get comfortable in the system. Second, Jones suffered a high ankle sprain early in the season and rushed back to action when the Bailey Zappe saga started to take shape, which greatly hindered him throughout the campaign. Third, and I mentioned it briefly in my last point, Bill Belichick and Patricia allowed a pseudo quarterback competition to fester throughout the first half of the season because of Jones’ injury and Zappe’s solid play when in the game.
And I’ll admit, I was on the Zappe train for a while — especially during the Bears game — but I was ultimately wrong.
Now, I know it’s a bit sad to get excited about bringing in a guy like Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator, but my God watching Patricia try to call a coherent offense last season was so damaging to my mental health that I would’ve been fine with literally anyone or anything calling the plays this season. Seriously, I would’ve taken a baboon with a typewriter calling plays over another year of Patricia.
And I fully expect Jones to jive well with O’Brien, especially with their Alabama ties. In fact, it was even reported last season that Jones contacted O’Brien and his staff at Alabama for some guidance while he was struggling in Patricia’s unintelligible system. That relationship should greatly boost Jones’ confidence in the offense, and perhaps the organization after his relationship with Belichick waned quite a bit last season.
Not only do I feel better about the circumstances surrounding Jones, though I do think the Pats’ receiving corps still leaves a little to be desired, but from everything I’ve seen this offseason, it appears Jones has taken another step in his evolution as a player. We have reached the “balling out in empty gyms” segment of the article, and I know we can’t make any assumptions based off one clip against air, but I was truly wowed by this throw he made in which he hid a receiver in stride on a 70-yard bomb. For someone who’s supposed to have a ‘weak arm’ that seems pretty damn good.
He’s also taken better care of his body and appears to have shaved off some weight in favor of more muscle. While I loved the fact that I could cheer for a fellow beer-belly enthusiast, I’m happy Jones made the commitment to refining himself in preparation for what’s certainly going to be a make-or-break season for him in Foxboro.
Overall, Jones will have improved coaching, play-calling and — if the Pats can bring in DeAndre Hopkins — players around him this season, and I truly believe he will be greatly improved from his dismal 2022 campaign. Have your apologies ready.
Writing Roundball 
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