Damien Harris Rips Patriots’ Handling Of Mac Jones ‘Debacle’

Damien Harris is not a fan of the way the Patriots handled... well, anything toward the end of his tenure in New England.

Harris, who retired in March after suffering a serious neck injury in 2023, joined Robert Mays on "The Athletic Football Show" on Thursday. It was only natural that the end of his Patriots tenure was brought up, and the 27-year-old didn't hold back -- especially as it relates to former teammate Mac Jones and offensive coordinator Matt Patricia.

"What happened to Mac Jones in New England, was not because of Mac Jones," Harris said. "What happened in New England to Mac Jones was because of the fact you took away an offensive coordinator (Josh McDaniels) who coached him to be a Pro Bowler and almost coached us to winning our division with a rookie quarterback.

"... Then you take Matt Patricia, who's coached defense his entire life, Joe Judge, who's been a special teams coach ... and then you just throw them in there and say, 'Hey, coach this kid up. He's a first-round pick, but as long as you teach him what I say, everything gonna be fine.'"

Harris disagreed with that approach.

"(Expletive) wasn't fine," he quipped.

Patricia has long been the target of criticism for his season calling offensive plays in New England, but Harris shared his experience in what was certain to be a frustrating environment.

"If anybody had anything to say about it, it was (met with) a very, very quick, swift, 'Shut the (expletive) up. I know what I'm doing,'" Harris recalled "And that's it."

Harris and Jones are longtime friends, originally meeting as teammates at Alabama. It's not enough to say that you should take his opinion about Patricia with a grain of salt, but perhaps he's a bit biased as it relates to Jones.

Harris didn't necessarily have anything bad to say about Belichick the coach, stating he loved playing for the eight-time Super Bowl champion on multiple occasions, but did mention he wasn't surprised to see him get passed over for a coaching job.

"I'm not saying that to say anything bad about Bill Belichick, but I just wasn't surprised because he's been in one place for so long," Harris said. "I think that just at the stage of his career that he's in, I think that what he was expecting to be handed to him versus what people were willing to give him -- in retrospect, I think that maybe they just didn't align."