Patriots’ Mac Jones Has Deserved Reputation, Needs To Change

There’s no more getting around the fact that New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones has a bad reputation around the NFL.

Jones has found himself labeled as “dirty” on multiple occasions throughout his short NFL career and had that title returned to him Sunday night after the Patriots’ victory over the Jets. New York cornerback Sauce Gardner told reporters following the matchup at MetLife Stadium that New England’s signal-caller hit him in his “private parts” — which prompted a slew of responses from those around the league that mostly continued to slap that label on Jones.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny it, too. Jones has proven to be a dirty player.

Is the Patriots quarterback flying around and taking people’s heads off like Vontaze Burfict or Bill Romanowski? No, but in three seasons Jones built an All-Pro roster of enemies across the NFL. He started as a rookie, unnecessarily grabbing Carolina Panthers star Brian Burns by the ankle on a loose ball and added Miami Dolphins cornerback Eli Apple, Chicago Bears safety Jaquan Brisker, Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Calais Campbell and Gardner to the list.

Do we really think that there’s a coup to try and place that label on a young pocket passer?

It has been argued (mostly by Patriots fans) that Jones has been a victim of circumstance and this is just another example of that, but let’s actually use the Gardner example to see why Jones isn’t the victim.

The aftermath of the play on Sunday was weird. If you were watching the broadcast, you would have seen Jones roughed up twice. He was stopped on a sneak play. Jets linebacker C.J. Mosely sent him to the ground after the whistles were blown. Then, when he stood up, the 25-year-old was thrown to the ground again by Gardner with no response from the referees or Jones, who shuffled away with little-to-no reaction, attempting to get another play off.

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Is that the response you would expect out of somebody who is seemingly thrown to the ground for nothing? No, he knew he did something wrong, and he was attempting to just move past it without any repercussions.

(There’s also the fact the Patriots’ offensive line did nothing after he was thrown to the ground, moving on to the next play after watching their quarterback get ragdolled, which is also a bad look but a story for another day.)

In most situations, this would be a Monday morning story that fades quickly, but Jones has a reputation that is going to be hard to kick. If he doesn’t, these small strikes will start to pile toward an eventual punishment from the NFL or one of its players who has had enough of the signal-caller’s antics.