Patriots Ex Coach Rips QB Mac Jones For 'Arrogance'

"There was a little arrogance to the way Mac Jones approached things," says ex Patriots coach Eric Mangini.

At some point, maybe, the "lost season'' of 2022 experienced by Mac Jones and the New England Patriots quarterback will be a distant memory. But for now? It seems it's very difficult for some - especially critics of Jones - to let it go.

Among those critics is Eric Mangini, the former Bill Belichick assistant in New England who used the word "arrogant'' to describe the young QB's approach.

In fairness, Mangini, speaking to the 33rd Team, did credit Jones with working to fix some of the mistakes of last year by taking the blame. An example from Jones is his recent remark that he is "going to do everything I can to earn the respect of everybody in this building again." 

That, obviously, is an admission from Mac that that respect was somehow lost.

"I like what he said,'' Mangini said (hat-tip NESN). "I like it a lot because I’ve always felt that Mac didn’t appreciate how good a situation he came into ... He had as stable an organization as you could get. He had a team that played complementary football. He came from a program that was similar. It was a perfect situation for who he was. ...''

And then of course last year came, among other things, the story of Jones going outside that "stable organization'' to get offensive-coordinator-level advice. And that seems to still bother Mangini, the former Patriots defensive coordinator who worked under Belichick for a half-decade.

"There was a little arrogance to the way (Jones) approached things," Mangini said. "And then he found out how hard it is to win consistently in this league, and how tenuous your position is and that you probably shouldn’t go outside the New England Patriots organization if you don’t like what’s going on."

Jones followed a Pro Bowl rookie season by last year ending up with 14 passing touchdowns to 11 interceptions. He did not hide his frustration with an offensive coaching staff that, in fairness to him, probably wasn't quite up to the previous Josh McDaniels level. McDaniels is long gone, the head coach in Las Vegas. In comes Bill O'Brien as the coordinator in 2023, with skins on the wall that include a time at Alabama, where Jones played.

It figures to be a match ... and maybe will slow some of the criticism of the "arrogant'' Mac Jones.

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