Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Mac Jones spoke about his former coach, Bill Belichick, when fielding questions from media members at his introductory press conference.
Jones was drafted by Belichick in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft. The signal-caller was thought to be the next franchise quarterback for the New England Patriots. Instead, poor development and lack of talent around him made things difficult in New England.
Jones finished his New England career with 8,918 passing yards, 46 touchdowns and 36 interceptions. He especially struggled during his 2023 campaign, throwing for 2,120 yards, 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Despite everything that went down in New England, Jones had nothing but positive things to say about Belichick.
“A lot of great learning experiences,” Jones said, as transcribed by Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams. “Learned from a great head coach, obviously, one of the greatest of all time. Been fortunate to kind of work with some great head coaches and learned a lot. Played a lot of games. Started a lot of games. Obviously, things went the way they did. My goal was to get the train back on the tracks. I think I can do that here.”
It is truly a new era for the Patriots in more ways than one. It’s just hard to believe that the Jones-Belichick era started out so promising and ended so abruptly.