Why Bill Belichick Reamed Out Mac Jones During Patriots Practice

GREEN BAY, Wis. — For better or worse, we haven’t seen Bill Belichick and Mac Jones interact much during Patriots practices this summer.

But late in Wednesday’s joint practice with the Packers, Jones got a serious earful from his head coach.

The context is a bit confusing, but we’ll do our best to explain it. New England’s top offense ran a two-minute drill against Green Bay’s No. 1 defense, with uneven results. After the drive began with a JuJu Smith-Schuster drop in the flat, Jones completed three consecutive passes before finishing with a scramble and a throwaway. With no timeouts and under 20 seconds remaining, the Patriots brought out rookie kicker Chad Ryland, who converted from about 45 yards.

However, Belichick then called back the offense to redo the previous sequence. From what we could tell, he wanted Jones to run one to two more plays, either to make the field goal easier or to take a shot at the end zone. But the first play saw Jones miss outside to Kendrick Bourne (who slipped at the top of his route) and the second resulted in an intentional throw to the ground. Nick Folk then came out for another field goal try.

After the incompletion to Bourne, Belichick laid into Jones, using words we can’t use in this story. He seemed ticked off about the entire thing but directed most of the ire toward Jones.

So, what was he so upset about?

Our guess: Jones shouldn’t even have thrown to Bourne, because a completion and tackle inbounds would’ve resulted in a running clock and potentially no field goal attempt. You also could argue that neither play was competitive, and Belichick simply was upset that redoing the sequence was a giant waste of time.

Jones kinda-sorta gave an explanation after practice — but didn’t go into great detail.

“Yeah, we scored on the two-minute drive with a field goal, and then we just wanted to try a situation again,” he said. “We just kind of redid the situation, I guess. That was fun, I guess, but it was my fault. I think it was just a miscommunication between all of us. It was fine. It was a good learning experience.

“It’s too hard to explain in football terms to the media and stuff, but it was kind of a nuance, because we kind of repeated a situation we just did, you know what I’m saying? That’s what we need though, so both teams can get the situation, try and practice it and then do it again to get it right.”

Mac Jones asked about Bill Belichick getting heated after he messed up a play due to a 'miscommunication' on offense#Patriots #Packers pic.twitter.com/nTBM6kukS3

— Patriots on CLNS (@PatriotsCLNS) August 16, 2023

Patriots fans shouldn’t read too much into this. These things happen during practices, especially when someone as detail-oriented as Belichick is in charge.

If anything, it’s a good sign that New England’s head coach still is dead-serious about making sure his team is prepared for any situation.

The Patriots and Packers will meet again Thursday morning for another joint practice. Both teams then will take Friday off before squaring off Saturday night in a preseason game at Lambeau Field.