Bill Belichick caught a lot of flak from Patriots fans when New England didn’t make much of an effort to retain J.C. Jackson. The ire toward the longtime head coach grew when a rookie cornerback was set to play a major role for the Pats in 2022.
But as we enter Week 7 of the campaign, those Jackson-related criticisms of Belichick are non-existent.
After four solid seasons in Foxboro — the last of which included a second-team All-Pro nod — Jackson left the Patriots to sign a five-year, $82.5 million free-agent contract with the Chargers. “Mr. INT” is off to a rough start in Los Angeles, though, as he missed the first two games of the season due to injury, struggled in coverage upon his return and was benched at halftime in Monday night’s win over the Denver Broncos at SoFi Stadium. On the opposite coast, first-year corner Jack Jones is looking like the real deal within a Patriots secondary that’s been playing very well.
Belichick has been garnering plenty of praise of late, most notably for the emergence of rookie signal-caller Bailey Zappe and the former’s ascension on the NFL head coaching wins leaderboard. But during the Week 6 finale, the compliments for Belichick came at the expense of Jackson.
One of Belichick’s greatest strengths since arriving in New England has been knowing exactly when to cut bait with a player, whether it be due to declining skills, a rising price tag or a combination of both. Jackson still has plenty of time to turn his debut Chargers season around, but as of now, the Patriots look smart for not breaking the bank for the veteran corner.
