There are many news stories that come across the wire. Some have some merit. Others are straight-up clickbait. In this new series, PlayerProfiler’s own NFL Insider and Host of PlayerProfiler Today, Jack Cavanagh, cuts through the mess to find real NFL player news everyone wants to know.
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Mac Jones Isn’t Getting Traded
Good evening.
Our top story this week – Mac Jones isn’t going anywhere.
A story broke over the past week that the New England Patriots have “shopped Mac Jones to multiple teams during the 2023 offseason.” The first thing one should do when reading a new story is ask, “does this make sense given what we already know?” So let me ask you – does it make sense that after 23 years with the New England Patriots? Would now be the time Bill Belichick starts leaking information to the media about how he wants to run his football team?
The answer to this bit of juicy NFL player news, of course, is no. Say what you will about Bill Belichick, but the man runs a tight ship. No one knew that the relationship between Belichick and Tom Brady was as strained as it was until after Brady left. No one knew that Brady wanted Jimmy Garoppolo out until well after it happened. Time after time, story after story, the world has no clue what is happening in New England. Why would that change now? Are we supposed to believe that swapping out Matt Patricia and Joe Judge for Bill O’Brien has opened the information floodgates?
Mac Jones and Bill Belichick
The relationship between Mac Jones and Bill Belichick went through it’s trials in 2022. The hiring of Matt Patricia to run the offense was a disaster from day one. Patricia’s stated goal was to merge the Josh McDaniels offense with Kyle Shanahan’s outside-zone-heavy scheme. The problem turned out to be Patricia brought a playbook half the size of his predecessor. When this merger failed, Patricia reverted to McDaniels previous playbook.
Things boiled over in a loss to the Buffalo Bills with Mac yelling “Throw the f***ing ball, the f***ing quick game sucks” at his OC getting caught on camera. This did not sit well with Belichick. Belichick prefers to keep things in-house. But Belichick clearly understood his quarterback’s frustration because Matt Patricia and Joe Judge were let go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Argu7e790eg&ab_channel=PatriotsGlobal
The replacement to the Patricia-Judge combination almost brings the feel of a Bill Belichick apology. At least, it’s the closest we’ll ever see to one. Bill O’Brien is being brought in fresh off a two-year stint as the Alabama OC. O’Brien had a chance to learn under Mac Jones‘ mentor Nick Saban. Bob also cut his teeth under Josh McDaniels. McDaniels served as Jones’s offensive coordinator during his rookie year. Bringing in an offensive coordinator with such close ties to his former mentors seems to be a sign Jones is here to stay.
Josh McDaniels
That brings us to Josh McDaniels. This is perhaps the biggest evidence there will be no Mac Jones trade. It is common knowledge that Tom Brady was Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C for the Las Vegas Raiders. These plans were forged before his second retirement was announced. It is also common knowledge that after Brady’s retirement, the Raiders talked with the Bears about trading up to 1.01 and with the Patriots to land Mac Jones.
The Bears wanted too much. The Patriots said no, and the Raiders were forced to go with Plan F in Jimmy Garoppolo. So we’re supposed to believe that Bill Belichick is simultaneously so over Jones that he’s shopping him to multiple teams? However, he’s also not over Jones enough to trade him to the one team actively trying to acquire him?
Conclusion
It’s easy to dunk on Jones. It’s been easy ever since the cigar picture began to circulate on Twitter. But just because it’s easy and the stories are fun does not make them accurate. At face value, this story makes no sense.
When you dive deeper, this story makes no sense. And when nothing about a story makes sense, we can throw this NFL player news in the trash where it belongs.
