Mac Jones isn’t expected to be suspended for his alleged low blow to New York Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, but the entire incident has fed into the narrative that the New England Patriots quarterback is a dirty player.
There have been multiple on-field incidents involving Jones that has some questioning his intentions. Former Patriots defensive end Chris Long recently went as far as calling Jones one of the top-five dirties quarterbacks of all time.
Buy Patriots TicketsDevin McCourty, the former legendary Patriots safety, took a different approach with the situation. He didn’t call Jones dirty, but he does believe the third-year signal-caller should do a better job of not getting himself involved in questionable incidents.
“…Once you’re involved in too many of these situations, it is what it is,” said McCourty, when appearing on “The Greg Hill Show”. “You can’t come back and say, ‘No, this is what I meant to do.’ There’s a lot of players that play this game, and they’re not involved in any of these things.
“So, I think he does need to do a better job of finding his way out of, whatever it is you want to call it. The twisting of the ankle. I think Chicago, it was like the kick on a slide or something. Even last year, when cutting my guy, the corner in Miami, Eli Apple. All of these different things, I think for anybody, you can’t keep defending the same thing. So, I think he needs to do a better job of that. I don’t think he’s a dirty player or a dirty person, and I think somewhere along the line, his competitive edge, he’s doing things you don’t really need to have on the football field, ever.”
To be fair, it’s hard to tell for sure if Jones intentionally went below the belt on Gardner. It wasn’t a situation where he reared significantly back and threw his hand in that direction.
But to McCourty’s point, Jones does seem to put himself in these situations too often for comfort. You have to wonder if the next incident could lead to a suspension or potentially even entice an opposing defense to start taking cheap shots at him.
Whether intentional or unintentional, none of this is a good look for Jones or the Patriots.
