NFL rumors: Mac Jones made enemies around the league after sideline tirades
By Kristen Wong
Patriots quarterback Mac Jones’ very public arguments with his coaches last season apparently drew criticism across the league.
Mac Jones has a tantrum, and everybody knows it. The New England Patriots quarterback was seen yelling at his offensive coordinator, Matt Patricia, among other coaches several times throughout the 2022 regular season.
In doing so, he “drew the ire” of the league and turned himself into a particularly undesirable quarterback to work with. ESPN’s Jeff Darlington reported that Jones going after some coaches “drew a lot of criticism around the league” — this in itself, however, is not news.
The entire NFL community saw Jones lash out at the Pats’ play-callers, visibly unhappy with the team’s often conservative approach in games. In the latest Mac Jones trade rumors, some are claiming that Jones’ childish behavior last season “didn’t sit well” with head coach Bill Belichick and could be grounds for New England to move on from Jones as soon as this offseason.
The former first-rounder fell victim to New England’s run-heavy scheme in 2022 which saw the Patriots rely more on their one-two punch of running backs Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson rather than develop a consistent passing attack.
Mac Jones, widely known for his temper tantrums, has become one of the most polarizing figures in the NFL
In a loss to the Buffalo Bills, Jones went viral for complaining that the “run game sucked” and absolutely ripped into Patricia with no filter and nothing held back. His aggressive actions may indeed have made him one of the league’s favorite punching bags, yet Jeff Darlington wants to stress that the point of his report wasn’t to single out Jones for letting off steam on the sidelines.
The point was that Tom Brady and Bill O’Brien got into shouting matches like that all the time during their time together in New England, and in those instances, fire responded to fire. Each person’s body language was just as aggressive and neither side was willing to back down.
For Jones and Patricia, there appeared to be a veiled layer of disrespect with Jones doing most of the yelling. What was Jones so incensed about? Well, under Patricia, Jones suffered a steep regression in his second year in the league throwing for nearly 1,000 fewer yards and recording eight fewer passing touchdowns.
With Patricia out as offensive coordinator, Jones’ future in New England could usher in an era of newfound success, rather than hostile dysfunction, though Jones’ starting spot isn’t completely safe, either.
Jones just has to find his own Bill O’Brien. Maybe he’s in Las Vegas….