Bill Belichick has Shopped Mac Jones to Multiple Teams
According to Pro Football Talks Mike Florio, Bill Belichick has shopped Mac Jones to multiple teams around the NFL.
According to Florio’s column, “The full list of potential destinations isn’t known. The teams mentioned as potential destinations were the Raiders, Texans, Buccaneers, and Commanders.
Obviously, a trade hasn’t occurred yet. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen. A team hoping to draft a quarterback could pivot to Jones, if that team doesn’t get the guy it wants.
The Raiders are the ones to keep watching. Jimmy Garoppolo‘s contract lands in the low-end of the middle class for starters, and Jones has two years left under a slotted rookie deal before his fifth-year option would apply.”
This is a sticky situation as New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft said last week at the owners’ meeting “I’m a big fan of Mac”.
“He came to us as a rookie. He quarterbacked in his rookie season and did a very fine job I thought. We made the playoffs. I think we experimented with some things last year that frankly didn’t work when it came to him, in my opinion.”
Kraft has also been outspoken about Belichick this offseason with regard to Tom Brady’s departure from the organization, the way he (Belichick) has struggled in free agency, and keeps referring to the Patriots as “my football team”. Kraft has been “sympathetic to frustrations” when it comes to the coaching decisions made last season. Kraft clearly was not a fan of the Matt Patricia and Joe Judge offensive experiment and went out to name Bill O’Brien as the successor to Josh McDaniels.
This news also breaks weeks before the draft as Jones has been shopped to teams who have recently moved on from their prior quarterback. The Raiders have signed Jimmy Garoppolo to what is average money on the quarterback market and with two years remaining on Jones’ rookie deal before a decision on a fifth-year option has to be made that is one team that could be a potential landing spot.
Belichick, who now is outspoken against his quarterback, is seemingly lighting the torch to burn the bridge between not only himself and Mac Jones but also owner Robert Kraft. Belichick has been dismissive of Jones as the Patriots starting quarterback so far this offseason and also since the final game against Buffalo has not said the quarterback’s name once in any media arrangement he has partaken in.
The fractured relationship of Jones seeking outside council last year has grown now into seeking a trade partner for the former first-round pick.
It is an interesting dynamic as now reports this week came out saying that Belichick would be open to coaching another team if he was to leave New England. The Patriots seem to now have dysfunction leaking to the outside world which is unlike the Patriots’ way of keeping things in-house since the Bill Belichick tenure started over two decades ago. Now the question remains will we see Mac Jones on another team come September?
