For those of you thinking the (bleep) show from last season was a thing of the past, fasten your seatbelts.
We’re on to the sequel.
The latest from the soap opera playing out in Foxboro reinforces the notion all’s still not right at the home of the six-time Super Bowl champions.
According to ProFootballTalk, the Patriots have floated Mac Jones to at least four teams in trade talks during this offseason. Bill Belichick supposedly picked up the phone and tossed that bone to the Raiders to see if they’d bite on a possible swap for Jones. Same with the Texans, Bucs and Commanders.
Holy dysfunction, Batman.
That word got tossed around quite a bit last year when Belichick decided it was a good idea to have Matt Patricia and Joe Judge run the offense. Turns out, we’ve only just begun. The Big Top is back up. The circus remains inside the walls of Gillette Stadium.
Robert Kraft and Belichick are at odds. That much was clear from their respective press sessions at the owner’s meetings last week.
Belichick and Mac Jones are also at odds.
That much was also evident given Belichick refuses to endorse Jones as his starter, much less say his name when asked questions about his quarterback. Now this.
On the surface, what we know is that anyone questioning Patricia or Judge last season has either gotten a ticket out of town, or is possibly on his way.
Coincidence?
Brian Hoyer, who was like a big brother to Jones and reportedly wasn’t shy about letting his feelings be known when Patricia or Judge messed up during practices, got the boot. And so did Jakobi Meyers, Jones’ favorite receiver.
Is Mac next up?
Understandably, Belichick didn’t like seeing Jones whine and show up his hand-picked coaches during games, not to mention behind the scenes. He didn’t like Jones reportedly making calls outside the organization for help with the offense. No coach would appreciate that.
But two wrongs don’t make a right. Belichick is the one who put Jones in an impossible situation last season. He’s the one who made Mac lose his mind and regress in Year 2 with two coaches who had never run an offense.
So now he reportedly wants to dump his first-round pick? He can’t give Jones a break on having a few meltdowns?
Let’s not stop there. The plot thickens.
Jones is a personal favorite of Kraft. Mac’s his guy. He adopted him post-Tom Brady. The Patriots owner loves the kid.
So this type of move could be considered a win-win for Belichick. He extracts Jones as payback for dissing his pals, or he continues to torment Mac and let him know he was a bad boy last year by putting his name out in trade talks.
Let’s not forget Belichick also informed the media that Jones would be competing with Bailey Zappe for the starter’s job.
“Everybody will get a chance to play,” Belichick said last week when asked if there would be a quarterback competition. “We’ll play the best player.”
Meanwhile, all of the above zings Kraft in the process. So that’s a win-win for the vindictive Hoodie.
Talk about grown-ups acting like children.
Flipping back to the owners meetings, Kraft essentially made it known he wasn’t happy at the notion he was unwilling to spend money to improve the team, given the Patriots were among the lowest cash-spending teams in the NFL the past three years.
Who let that cat out of the bag?
Belichick, back in January.
Kraft, of course, couldn’t let that sit. So he basically returned the salvo when he told a small group of reporters, present company included, that Belichick had no limits on spending.
“I’ve had the privilege of having Bill as a coach for 24 years. He’s never come to me, and not gotten everything he wanted from cash spending. We have never set limits,” Kraft said.
He went on to say “money-spending will never be the issue.”
The implication was that it’s on Belichick if money isn’t spent. It’s on Belichick if the team consistently ranks among the lowest in overall cash spending.
So was Belichick’s return volley to get rid of Mac, so he could spend a fortune, not to mention draft picks, to land Lamar Jackson?
Because it was Kraft who also spilled the beans that Jackson wants to be a Patriot, via his rapper friend Meek Mill. And, he made it perfectly clear it was up to Belichick to make that decision.
Just more tit for tat. Just more evidence of all the lunacy running rampant in Foxboro. And that's without noting that the aforementioned Judge, who was at odds with several players, most notably Jones, is now Belichick's assistant head coach. Which of course, adds insult to injury.
Considering all of that, it's also possible Jones’ camp leaked the information about being in trade talks, as opposed to Belichick.
Why?
Jones wants out of this circus. While he might now have a legitimate offensive coordinator in Bill O'Brien, he just doesn't want to deal with a head coach who is holding a grudge. He doesn't want to put up with the mud-slinging constantly aimed in his direction.
That's also a very real possibility.
Whatever the case, none of it is good. None of it bodes well for the football team going forward. It's a debacle at this point.
If Kraft ultimately vetoes a trade, and Jones is still here, how does he respond? Moreover, how does Belichick respond?
Or, if Jones is traded, and Zappe's the starter, and the Patriots don't get Jackson, how will that go over?
Welcome to Wacko World, the sequel.
