New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien spoke Tuesday about the turning over of a new leaf for New England Patriot’s quarterback Mac Jones.
Patriots OC Bill O’Brien struck a consistent theme today when asked about QB Mac Jones — clean slate, all about looking ahead, pic.twitter.com/TNmNtU0VZI
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) April 18, 2023
“I think the big thing for us right now is everyone starts with a clean slate,” said O’Brien. What you did in the past, whether it’s a player or a coach or anybody in the organization really has no bearing on what happens moving forward. We just started yesterday and we’re looking forward to having a good phase one, and then a good phase two, and a good phase three, that’s kinda what it’s all about”.
Rumors have been swirling all offseason about what the Patriots plan on doing with Jones, some believe that they’d like to trade him away and roll with Bailey Zappe as their starter. Zappe stepped up when Jones was unable to play with a high ankle sprain, going 2-2 and creating a quarterback controversy for the team in just four games.
Jones had an impressive rookie season throwing for 3,801 yards, and 22 touchdowns, with a quarterback rating of 92.5, but after his offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left for the Las Vegas Raiders he struggled in 2022. The struggles could be largely due to the fact that the Patriots had Matt Patricia and Joe Judge splitting play-calling duties last season. Unlike Judge and Patricia, O’Brien has had a lot of experience and success with the Patriots. In 2011 as the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the offense had a New England record number of yards in the regular season with 6,848 yards.
In addition to bringing in O’Brien to call the offense, look for the Patriots to add a weapon for Jones in the draft, such as Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers who has visited with the team.
GET THE BEST ALABAMA FOOTBALL INSIDER INFORMATION, MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, AND RECRUITING COVERAGE TODAY! SIGN UP HERE TO UNLOCK OUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY CONTENT!*
