Remember when New England Patriots second-year quarterback Mac Jones, fresh off his first offseason in the NFL, expressed his excitement about working with assistant Joe Judge as the two set out to "teach each other."
If not, let the following serve as a quick reminder.
"He has knowledge that is very beneficial to me as a quarterback, and obviously I'm going to learn with him," Jones told reporters in reference to Judge after New England's first OTA session in May. "That's the goal, is to kind of teach each other and move along and take what he knows and then take the experiences that I have and combine them and work together as a great team."
While Jones might not have meant that to be a slight at the 41-year-old Judge, others couldn't help but take it in. It's not often a sophomore signal-caller is teaching his quarterbacks coach, but given Judge had never worked on the offensive side of the ball, it's probably fair for Jones to innocently think of it in that way.
Unfortunately for the 2021 first-rounder, those comments reportedly didn't sit well with members of the organization.
In an extensive feature story published Thursday by the Boston Herald's Andrew Callahan and Karen Guregian, members of the Patriots spoke on the condition of anonymity about the dysfunction that riddled the 2022-23 team. Among the many nuggets in the Herald's story was one that referenced those comments from Jones.
"Seeds of dysfunction were planted in the spring and summer, around the time Jones told the media he would teach his new quarterbacks coach, Joe Judge," the Herald wrote, "the first of multiple comments he made that would irk higher-ups."
It seems that was just the first of many differences in the relationship of Jones and Judge. The Herald also reported Jones' trust in his position coach was "non-existent" and cited one source who said, "Mac didn't like him. ... At all."
Additionally, the fact the Herald wrote those aforementioned offseason comments were the "first of multiple" that irked higher-ups clearly portrays there were more. Jones was seen on multiple occasions having emotional, in-game outbursts as the Patriots offense continued to struggle. And while Jones brushed them off as him being passionate about the game, it's fair to think those didn't sit well inside the organization, especially given the fact they were playing out on the national stage.
