Mac Jones is looking back at his Patriots run with a sharper edge now, and he’s putting the first real crack in that whole New England era right where a lot of people would: Josh McDaniels leaving after the 2021 season.
That was the moment Jones pointed to when he recently talked with the guys at “Bussin' with the Boys,” calling McDaniels’ exit “step one” in the unraveling of what had once looked like a promising setup in Foxborough.
“And Josh McDaniels ended up leaving. That was kinda step one.
Thanks, Josh. He obviously coached us and got that chance to be head coach again and that’s what he wanted to do.
And good for him. But I think that really affected me because I felt like if I could have just built on the year before, it would have really helped me and everybody on the team.”
Jones has taken his share of shots at New England over the years, and not every one of them has landed cleanly. This one, though, is harder to brush off. The offense changed fast after McDaniels left, and Jones never got the kind of continuity that helps a young quarterback settle in and grow.
Instead, he cycled through three offensive coordinators in three years - McDaniels, then Matt Patricia, then Bill O'Brien - while also dealing with a petty Bill Belichick in his final season. That kind of churn is enough to shake just about any quarterback, and it’s fair to wonder how different Jones might have looked with some stability around him.
That doesn’t erase the fact that Jones eventually showed he wasn’t the long-term answer for the Patriots. But it does make the story messier than a simple bust label. There were real factors working against him, and the coaching changes were right at the center of it.
Since then, Jones has tried to rebuild his standing. He was traded to the Jaguars in 2024 by the Jerod Mayo regime, got starting chances there because of Trevor Lawrence’s injury, and later moved on to the 49ers. Now he’s working his way back as a legitimate quarterback with starting potential, to the point that he’s become the most talked-about backup to be traded to a QB-needy team this offseason.
That’s a long way from where things stood after his Patriots stint. And while nobody can say for sure what would have happened if McDaniels had stayed, Jones’ latest comments make one thing clear: he sees that departure as the beginning of the end in New England.
Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was just how it played out. Either way, Jones looks happier in San Francisco, and the Patriots have Drake Maye now.
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