Photos posted online began circulating, and the excitement surrounding the 2022 season grew stronger each week. Throughout the offseason, Jones was credited with seeking top trainers and nutritionists to transform his football capabilities and body. Bill Belichick essentially set him up to fail during the 2022 season It was an impressive feat, given the massive shoes he was handed to step into, all of which sparked considerable hype about what he could accomplish in his sophomore season. Despite finishing with a below-average record according to New England standards, it was good enough to make the playoffs, a privilege they missed out on the season before. The immediate chemistry between Jones and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels paid off on the field, allowing the quarterback to impress on game day with accuracy and poise. And that's how it continued to appear throughout his rookie season. Coming off a championship-winning team at Alabama, plus being coached by Belichick ally Nick Saban, it seemed like the perfect match for Jones and the Patriots. Although New England didn't select until pick 15, they were fortunate to have Mac Jones fall into their lap, the presumed favorite to take over the Patriots offense post-Brady. It was a deep class, with the first overall pick known months ahead, but left options on the table for other quarterback-needy teams. The 2020 season put the Patriots in a position to draft a quarterback in the first round. It's what led Bill Belichick to sign Cam Newton for the season, a decision that made sense at the time but unfortunately didn't yield the desired results. Brian Hoyer was never the guy, and although he was young and maybe had potential, Jarrett Stidham would not be the right choice either. The departure of Tom Brady set the Patriots back further than anticipated, mainly because there wasn't a suitable backup quarterback waiting in the wings to take over. Mac Jones' rookie season was one of the better ones by a quarterback in recent history And in the case of Mac Jones, that's certainly applicable to his career thus far. It goes back to the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover." There's always more to a game than what a stat sheet, final scoreboard, or win/loss record will tell you. Plenty of teams can play poorly and still do enough to scrape out a win, while others can do everything right but have one mistake that guarantees a loss. Simply looking at the final score of a game or a player's stats doesn't tell the entire story of how a game was played. But in the NFL and many other sports, context matters. As fans of the Patriots during the two decades of unimaginable success and the complete opposite over the last three years, New England is more than aware of what it means to win and lose. Wins and losses define a team's future, whether it's post-season contention or where they will be positioned in the following draft their record dictates a lot about the state of the franchise. That's the funny thing about sports that people often ignore or label as something it's not. Even though much of his performance resulted from bad decision-making and costly turnovers, it cannot be overstated how much the lack of proper and experienced coaching directly impacted his development and growth as a quarterback in the NFL. When attempting to discuss the ramifications of the Matt Patricia and Joe Judge experiment for the 2022 season, most assume it all culminates into an excuse for Mac Jones' poor play and somehow exonerates him from any culpability or blame.
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