Three years after drafting him in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots parted ways with QB Mac Jones over the weekend, sending him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick.
With the Jones era in New England coming to an end, there has been a lot of finger pointing as to who deserves the most blame for his disappointing tenure with the Patriots. One analyst, however, highly criticized New England for its failure to develop Jones.
Dan Orlovsky Slams Patriots for ‘Ruining’ Mac Jones
It was Sunday afternoon when reports of Jones being traded to Jacksonville first came out. Jones grew up in Jacksonville, also as a fan of the Jaguars. Now, he will likely be the team’s backup behind Trevor Lawrence.
Jones was taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the same draft that saw the Jaguars take Lawrence with the top pick. Since then, Jones has been up and down.
After a solid rookie year, Jones has disappointed in both 2022 and 2023, resulting in a benching and now a trade.
“And everyone wonders why they say the draft is a crap shoot,” said Dan Orlovsky on ESPPN’s Get Up. “If you want a 101 of how to ruin a young, promising quarterback, look at what’s happened with Mac Jones and his career in New England.”
"If you want a 101 of how to ruin a young, promising quarterback, look at what's happened with Mac Jones and his career in New England."
😯 @danorlovsky7 pic.twitter.com/wKu3Qx3q6k
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) March 11, 2024
“We can point the finger at Mac Jones all we want, have at it people, this is the walking example of how to ruin a guy that was a young promising player,” said Orlovsky.
“You give him god-awful coaching and then support him with absolutely very little help around him.
“And then you see the fall off a cliff, so, for everyone that says, well drafting a quarterback is a crapshoot, that’s because you draft the quarterbacks and then you put them in situations where they have very little chance to realistically have consistent success at the hardest position in all of sports,” said Orlovsky.
“One, they had to do it, he lost the locker room, obviously had lost the organization,” said Orlovsky. “Two, you can draft a quarterback at three New England, if you want to. Don’t play ’em, because your roster is not even remotely close to being capable of supporting a rookie quarterback.”
During his time with the Patriots, Jones had a different offensive coordinator all three seasons. He had Josh McDaniels in 2021, Matt Patricia in 2022, and Bill O’Brien in 2023. To change things even further, before being traded, head coach Bill Belichick parted ways with the team.
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When it comes to a supporting cast, there wasn’t really much there for New England. Jones’ top weapons included wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker, Jakobi Meyers, Demario Douglas, and Kendrick Bourne, among others. He also had the help of running backs Ezekiel Elliott, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Damien Harris.
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