Felger & Mazz: Has Mac Jones aggravated Bill Belichick?

According to former NFL quarterback Chris Simms on his "Chris Simms Unbuttoned" podcast, there's a chance that Mac Jones has pissed off Bill Belichick and the offensive coaches.  Felger and Mazz opened their show on Thursday discussing the possibility that Jones has in fact pissed off the Belichick and the offensive coaching staff.

Felger: Chris Simms last night on his unbuttoned podcast:

Chris Simms Audio: There's something going on in New England. He's pissed them off. This is a real thing. I know it. Mike Florio knows it. I don't know the exact details, whether he talked about the coaches behind them to the Kraft family or he talked about the two new offensive coordinators to Belichick, there is an issue there. There is. I mean, there's a part of me that the game rolled out, I want to go, oh, they call those plays for Mac Jones, and they put Bailey Zappe in and they called the good stuff, you know, because I want to be like what are they setting it up for failure? What was going on there? The whole thing was just un-New England like and weird to me.

Felger: That just a comment that packs punch. Another guy that looked at the play calling and said why did you run that for Zappe but not Mac Jones? There's a bunch of people who've said that. Chris Simms is just one. But that first piece, boy, you want to piss off, Bill? Go complain to ownership about the coaching that you're getting. That's a good way to get to someone's doghouse, wouldn't you say?

Mazz: Yeah, especially when you have all of, like, 20 games under your belt in the league. You know, again, Tom Brady wants to do it, it's a little different. For every win that Mac Jones has, Brady's got a Super Bowl trophy. So, like, it's a little different and I'm sure Brady wasn't doing it at the beginning. You want my honest opinion?

Felger: No, I want to dishonest opinion.

Mazz: Bill doesn't like this kid. He doesn't like him. He doesn't like him as a player, and he doesn't like some of the shenanigans he's pulling behind the scenes. And he might be right to not like him. That's the other part of it. Like when I say he doesn't like this kid, I'm not saying, "Oh, he didn't send me a Christmas card, I can't stand him."

Jim Murray: He thinks he's a pain in the ass.

Mazz: Yeah, And he's not that good. Not good enough to be a pain in the ass. Which is really what it comes down to. I think Bill looks at him and says, kid, you're not worth the effort. If you're going to be a pain in the ass and you're going to play like this, you're not going to play.

Felger: You sense any of that from Bill's press conference today?

Mazz: Yes

Jim Murray: Yeah.

Felger: There was still some reluctance or something.

Mazz: Trepidation.

Felger: Short of a full sort of declaration.

Mazz: Yeah. Again, he said, you know, Mac went through the full workout. So, you know, he's I think...

Felger: Again, we'll play it. But it was like it had to be crowbarred out of him.

Mazz: Right. He never, until he was really pushed, never said he's going to start Sunday. Like he just said he'll be available for the whole game. What does that mean?

Felger: Exactly. He left that vague. He's available.

Mazz: He doesn't like the kid.

Jim Murray: He didn't commit to anything beyond this week. What's that tell you?

Felger: That too.

Jim Murray: I mean, that's the biggest tell. Like didn't we all kind of feel like, okay, they figured this out. He's probably gone to the coaches or this is what Greg Bedard said, maybe he's gone to Matt Patricia and Joe Judge and said, "guys, figure it out. Like we know this doesn't work, but this is the guy. This is our quarterback. Now it's been announced he's starting, it's the Jets. This is over". It's not over. Bill's looking at this "alright, let's see how he plays against the Jets". And if he cost them the game against the Jets, the hated Jets, it's going to be Bailey Zappe again. He had an opportunity to say "no, this is the starting quarterback going forward", and he didn't.

Felger: So I don't know about that, meaning one game and he's out.

Jim Murray: Well would you say it's fluid?

Felger: Bill was just being Bill which was a part of that right? He just doesn't want to give in.

Mazz: Sure.

Felger: Anyone asking him questions at a podium. There's a big part of that just pure stubbornness. But, how much of it is that thing and how much of it is, "I'm not going all in publicly on this kid because I'm not all in on him"?

Mazz: No, I think that's a big part of it.

Felger: And I think there's part of that.

Mazz: Definitely.