FRANKFURT, Germany — The end of the Mac Jones era in New England was unceremonious. On Sunday, Bill Belichick had seen enough, another offensive disaster in a season full of them. But also in general. He’s watched Jones perform like one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL since the start of the 2022 season. Since then, Jones’ record as a starter is 8-16.
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After a devastating red zone interception, Jones’ league-leading 10th of the season, it was time to pull the plug. In typical Belichick fashion, it happened quickly and unemotionally. He walked over to Jones on the sideline and told the quarterback he wasn’t going back in the game. It was 6:03 pm local time.
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With that, Jones’ run as the Patriots’ starter ended. Perhaps not officially, but for all intents and purposes. He’ll remain with the team and might even play in some more games.
But Sunday, following Jones’ 15-of-20 passing performance for 170 yards, a ridiculous five sacks and that game-altering pick, the hope that Jones could be the Patriots’ franchise quarterback died at this charming stadium in the woods where a packed crowd deserved a more attractive game.
They watched what has become commonplace this season. The Patriots were largely dysfunctional. Just a couple of months ago, that would have been unfathomable. Now it’s painfully obvious.
Julian Blackmon intercepts Mac Jones at the goal line!
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The Patriots lost 10-6 to a bad Indianapolis Colts team playing its backup quarterback. New England didn’t score a touchdown. The team has now gone 17 straight possessions without a touchdown — and amazingly, that’s not even its worst stretch this season. Even owner Robert Kraft had a hard time watching. at one point, cameras caught him looking down in disbelief.
But this is what the Patriots are now, and the worst part is they don’t have an answer at the game’s most important position.
The Patriots don’t have a quarterback, not one they trust, anyway. Their defense was quite good Sunday and helped the offense get the ball back at the end of the game with a chance to deliver the kind of winning drive that used to be routine (with a different quarterback at the helm).
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But that’s when, with the game on the line, Belichick benched Jones. He put backup Bailey Zappe in the game for the final drive, and even if Zappe wasn’t much better (he, too, threw a bad interception), the decision means it’s over for Jones as the leader of the Patriots. Belichick doesn’t make that move in that spot expecting to then successfully turn things back over to Jones.
The Patriots’ options for the rest of the season aren’t great. They can bench Jones and play Zappe, but he’s no better, and Belichick clearly doesn’t trust him considering the Patriots cut him at the outset of the season. Same for Malik Cunningham. Will Grier is new and might get the next shot at quarterback, because, well, sometimes being new makes quarterbacks seem more appealing. Or maybe they go out and sign someone like Colt McCoy.
If we’re being honest, none of it really matters. The Patriots are a bad team headed for a lot of hard decisions in the offseason regardless of whether Grier wins a couple of games down the stretch or Jones continues playing.
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Their best move is probably to draft a new quarterback. Start over. At this rate, they’re headed toward their best draft pick since Kraft bought the team (they haven’t picked in the top five since taking Willie McGinest fourth in 1994). This makes the Patriots’ next game against the 2-7 New York Giants all the more important, as it’s a game in which both teams would benefit from losing.
Sometimes you swing and miss on a quarterback in the draft, and that’s what the Patriots did with Jones. But it doesn’t mean you stop trying. Start studying Caleb Williams and Drake Maye now. An important decision looms in April.
For now, the Patriots enter the bye week left to reflect on how the situation with Jones got so bad. It was only two years ago that he was enjoying one of the better rookie seasons for a quarterback in recent memory. The future seemed so bright.
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But the events of the last two years have ended any hope for what Jones can do with the Patriots. Blame can shake out in several different ways. Some of the problems, like the missed throws and horrific turnovers, were self-inflicted. Some, like the promotions of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge and the lack of a decent wide receiver, were Belichick’s fault. The poor offensive line play? Well, that’s the personnel, so that’s likely on Belichick, too.
Regardless, Jones isn’t the guy. Not for the Patriots anyway. Maybe he can salvage his career with another team. But that’s not going to happen in New England.
His confidence is shot. He plays behind a bad offensive line, yes, but he makes the unit look worse by having no feel in the pocket. He plays with bad wide receivers, yes, but he makes them look worse, too, by air-mailing passes off his back foot.
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Even he seemed to realize Sunday was different. He’s looked bad before, and the Patriots have lost plenty of games this season. But this felt different in that it seemed to bring finality, to Jones’ time as the quarterback and in solidifying the Patriots as one of the worst teams in the NFL.
Jones agreed.
“Didn’t play very well,” he said. “I’ve played well in my career before, but just not right now. It’s peaks and valleys, and I’m kind of in a valley right now.”
Not surprisingly, Belichick didn’t tip his hand on how things could change after the bye or on who will start at quarterback the rest of the season. “We’ll worry about next week next week,” he said.
But something has to change. It’s probably not going to be Belichick. If he were any other coach with any other resume, this would be a natural time to make a change. But you don’t fire a six-time Super Bowl winner in Week 10. That’s a conversation for after the season. And you probably don’t fire Bill O’Brien, as bad as the offense has been, because you just brought him back to New England with a new contract this year and because you haven’t developed an obvious candidate to replace him.
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That leaves the quarterback. Sure, the Patriots probably don’t have a better option than Jones. But they might as well try something different since it isn’t working with Jones. Belichick realized that on Sunday.
With the game on the line, he benched Jones for the third time in two months. When Zappe ran onto the field for that final drive, the German fans chanted his name, ecstatic that someone other than Jones was playing quarterback. Jones heard it all.
He had become the first quarterback Belichick ever drafted in the first round, the player a legendary coach wanted to build around in the post-Tom Brady era.
But now here he was, standing on the sideline, helmet on, arms folded, watching someone else do the job he thought he’d have for years.
(Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher via Associated Press)
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