Do The Patriots Trust Mac Jones?

The Monday night game against the Bills has people doubting Mac Jones. Bill Belichick played to the elements and didn't have to put Jones in a position to throw. Instead the Patriots opted for old school football. The Bills on the other hand threw it thirty times and Josh Allen could only complete fifty percent of his passes. The Patriots did their thing and as usual, Mac Jones did what he was asked. 

Yet, former Patriots offensive lineman Damien Woody had the never to question Mac Jones's abilities after the game. 

Woody said, “I don’t know if it’s going to be the regular season, or the postseason, but there’s going to come a time, they’re going to need their rookie quarterback to go toe to toe with the opposing quarterback. At some point, they’re going to need Mac Jones to deliver. He’s going to have to play some ball when matched up against another really good quarterback.”

Woody is potentially right. At some point there may be a team that realizes the strength of the Patriots offense is their running game. There may be a team that puts seven or eight in the box and forces Mac Jones to throw. However, they better have the secondary to cover because Mac is going to make them change their game plan.

Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald basically agreed that Mac Jones is being a game manager but she still posed a couple of questions.

Guregian wrote, "But after essentially being eliminated from the Bills game, what does that say about the confidence level of the coaching staff in their young star at this point? Would Belichick and McDaniels trust him to pull out a game, if need be?"

Karen thinks they would but seemed hesitant.

Brian Hines of Pats Palpit also agreed that Monday night was about the elements, although he did note there were times when the Patriots could've been more aggressive but chose not to be and that it paid off in the end. Hines did touch on what Guregian asked in his mailbag.

Hines wrote, "To me, the Patriots trust Mac Jones, but they also know his limitations. If he truly can't handle those conditions, then we should be worried here in the Northeast. He’ll certainly get another opportunity in poor weather, so we will have to wait and see what happens when he needs to throw the ball."

There's a difference between rain and snow but people have to remember who Mac Jones played for in college. Nick Saban is of a Similar mindset as Bill Belichick. It's probably why they're good friends and why Bill knew he could take Jones.

In October 2020 Saban talked about playing in wet conditions saying, "That’s all we can do to prepare for it. We can’t make it rain. I think handling the ball is the most important thing, but I also think it’s important to have a mind-set of getting used to handling the ball so it’s not an issue when you’re playing a game.”

Mac Jones did not have an issue throwing the football in the rain for Alabama. And again, I get that snow is different than rain. Mac is already adopting to the cold weather by wearing a scuba suit, just like Tom Brady did. All thanks to the defecto quarterback coach and backup quarterback Brian Hoyer.  If there's other tricks to playing in the snow, be sure that Hoyer's passing them down and preparing Jones.

Look the Tampa bay game, the game in Buffalo, it's all just circumstantial. Bill Belichick made the decisions and McDaniels, Jones, and even Nick Folk just have to execute. There's nothing more they can do. When they execute, there's a W in the win column. When they don't and go wide of the mark, there's an L in the loss column. It's that simple. The Patriots are on a winning streak because they're executing.

So as far as do the Patriots trust Mac Jones, if they didn't there's at least one other game manager on the roster, that they would've replaced him with this past monday being such an important game. The fact that Mac Jones is starting means that at the very least, Bill Belichick trusts him. And after the 2020 season one should know that if Bill trusts the quarterback, he ain't making the change, regardless of how bad they're hurting the offense. And Mac isn't doing that.