Ex-Patriots Captain Has Strong Message For Mac Jones After Latest Incident

Devin McCourty played with Mac Jones for two seasons. He does not believe the Patriots quarterback is a “dirty player.”

But it’s becoming increasingly difficult for him to defend Jones, who is embroiled in yet another on-field controversy.

New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner accused the QB of hitting him in his “private parts” during Sunday’s Patriots victory at MetLife Stadium. Jones said “nothing was intentional” on the play.

The signal-caller’s track record, however — which includes earlier borderline plays involving Carolina’s Brian Burns, Chicago’s Jaquan Brisker and Cincinnati’s Eli Apple — has lost him the benefit of the doubt in the eyes of many current and former NFL players.

McCourty continued to back his former teammate Wednesday during an appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.” But he followed it up with a pointed message for the 25-year-old Jones. In essence: You’ve got to cut it out, man.

“I won’t call Mac a dirty player because I know him personally and I think he’s a good dude, a good kid,” McCourty said. “But I will say he has to stop being around these incidents. It won’t matter what any former teammate says, current teammate says.

“It’s getting to the point where, is it on purpose, did this happen, is it intentional — it’s not going to matter. Because once you’re involved in too many of these situations, it is what it is. We can’t come back and say, ‘No, this is what it was meant to do.’ There’s a lot of players that have played this game, and they’re not involved in any of these things.”

"He needs to stop being around the incidents"
Devin McCourty doesn't believe Mac Jones is a dirty player, but there are some things that he has been doing that needs to stop. pic.twitter.com/lA2SfWImc7

— The Greg Hill Show (@TheGregHillShow) September 27, 2023

McCourty ran through Jones’ list of earlier incidents: the ankle twist on Burns in 2021, the spikes-up slide against Brisker last October and the low block on Apple last December, the latter of which got Jones fined by the league for unnecessary roughness.

“All these different things,” McCourty said. “I think for anybody, you can’t keep defending the same thing. So I think he needs to do a better job. And I don’t think he’s a dirty player or a dirty person, (but) I think somewhere along the line in his competitive edge, he’s doing things that you don’t really need to have on the football field — ever.”

As of Wednesday morning, the NFL had yet to announce whether Jones would be punished for his alleged low blow on Gardner.