Mac Jones' decline reportedly big factor in Bill Belichick leaving Patriots

New England Patriots insider Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston shared how the decline of quarterback Mac Jones over the past couple of years helped result in team owner Robert Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft officially parting ways with head coach Bill Belichick on Thursday. 

According to Curran, the Krafts view Jones becoming "literally unusable" during the 2023 regular season as "tied directly to Belichick’s coaching staff decisions" after former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels became the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders following the 2021 season, Jones' rookie campaign. 

Jones regressed in multiple aspects of his game during the 2022 season playing under assistants Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. It was recently reported that Robert Kraft essentially forced Belichick to make a change last offseason, and the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach ultimately hired Bill O’Brien as his new offensive coordinator. 

O’Brien proved unable to fix Jones, as Belichick pulled the 25-year-old from games on four occasions this season before the former first-round draft pick became a full-time spectator beginning in Week 13. Analysts such as Ryan Wilson and Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports expect the Patriots will use a high draft pick to acquire Jones' replacement this spring. 

"Handing Belichick the keys to a rebuild would have been a dice roll," Curran added. "But stripping the legend of personnel duties and telling him to stay in his coaching lane was also a non-starter." 

Interestingly, it was reported this past summer that Belichick could find himself on the hot seat during the 2023 season because Jones was "in pretty tight with the Krafts—perhaps tighter than Belichick" was at that time. While Jones insisted in the early days of training camp that he and Belichick were "good," the signal-caller's poor play became a significant reason the Patriots missed the playoffs for a third time since Tom Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March 2020. 

One wonders what would have been for everyone involved had Belichick hired a legitimate offensive coordinator to begin working with Jones in the spring of 2022.