The New England Patriots started off their 2022 regular season by getting absolutely dismantled by the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, 20-7. Mike Reiss has covered the Patriots since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2009.
Toucher & Rich are fortunate enough to have Reiss on every Monday during the NFL season to share his latest takeaways on the team.
MAC JONES INJURY
Miami Dolphins safety Brandon Jones (29) knocks the ball away from New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones (10), during second quarter action of their NFL game Sept 11, 2022, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. The Dolphins recovered the ball and scored a touchdown. (Bill Ingram / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Rich Shertenlieb: There’s a lot of discussion about where Mac Jones got injured, how bad is this injury. What do you know from what you saw and what you saw after the game?
Mike Reiss: Definitely. So let me tell you what I saw after the game, which was to me, very interesting. So coming down from the press box here in the tunnel of the stadium and you’re waiting outside the small media interview room in the locker room. All of a sudden Mac starts walking by all the reporters in the other direction. So a few of us said “jeez, where’s he going?” So we followed him just sort of following our journalistic instincts and he walked right into the X-ray room. So I said, “Oh, wow, that’s not good”. And then sort of waited outside there, and it was about 5 minutes or so.
He walked back out and went into the locker room, and he was walking under his own power guys. So it wasn’t like he needed crutches or any aide to walk through the tunnel.
I have to be honest with you, too, the eye test at the time, I wouldn’t have known it was his back. You know? Like I thought maybe it was his ankle or something. So then we’re in after Coach Belichick, you know, one of the media officials for the team comes in and says “Mac won’t be available.” and they actually announced to us that he had a back injury.
Wallach: That in itself is a shocker, right?
Mike Reiss: Yes. Well, John, so they have to, because if the quarterback isn’t going to be available, they have to, they really have to tell you why. You know, like that by league rule, they can’t not have the quarterback be available.
Rich Shertenlieb: Well, let me ask you this then, Mike. Is there any reason to not believe that this was his back and maybe there was speculation that it could have been a head injury and they were looking for a way to keep him from speaking to the press. Have you ever heard of something like that happening? Almost like a show that they would put on to keep it away?
Mike Reiss: Yeah, well, almost like a deceptive injury, if you will because you want to protect the guy. I guess you could say that’s the case. But I will tell you, I watched the game over again, just try to be prepared coming on.
If you watch that one play at the start of the fourth quarter where there was a roughing the passer call and he sort of got hit low and he got hit high at the same time. He came down right on his back. And if you watch it, he almost stops for a second to brace himself.
To me, like I probably buy it that it is his back, but I think you always do fear to have some level of skepticism that maybe there’s something else going on, too.
THE OFFENSIVE LINE
MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 11: Jaelan Phillips #15 of the Miami Dolphins recovers a fumble during the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium on September 11, 2022 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Rich Shertenlieb: So are you shocked at how discombobulated the offensive line is and do you believe that Bill Belichick and his decision to bring in Matt Patricia and Joe Judge in guys that have never done this before in that position do you think that they might be compromising the safety of Mac Jones and doing so?
Mike Reiss: Let me take the second part first. I mean, look, I am interested because it’s unconventional. There’s a reason why most teams hire coaches with experience at those positions. And Bill Belichick is on record as saying it’s his belief that it doesn’t matter what position you coach, if you’re a good coach, you can coach any position on the field. So to me, that’s sort of the whole storyline of this season.
We’re going to see if Bill’s right, because he’s an outlier with that line of thinking. Okay, so that’s the first part. The second part is, as I watched the game over offensive line wise, like they had some very bad plays. Obviously the strip sack, which looked like a miscommunication, might have been Trent Brown that needed to get out on that rusher but you never know for sure. But Mac was only hit three times in the game.
When I watched it over, I thought to myself their struggles on the offensive line were probably as much about the inside running game as pass protection. The hits Mac took were significant because they were rushers coming through, literally unblocked but in fairness, guys, the Dolphins had the same thing on the other side.
The Patriots just couldn’t finish off those plays defensively.
Rich Shertenlieb: Yeah, but this used to be a strength of this team and that’s I think the biggest shock is that you’ve got to you’ve got a set of a set of players that used to be able to lean on and go, okay, well, at least you got that. Now to see it in the preseason and the way that, as you said, unobstructed Mac was getting hit, it’s a regression and it almost seems like they’re jeopardizing the safety of Mac Jones in order to try to jam in this coaching.
Wallach: He might have only gotten hit three times yesterday, Mike, but the quality of those hits were kind of shocking to those of us who watched the offensive line be a strength of this team last year.
Mike Reiss: I think it’s a fair point. I think my pushback would be like I remember times where Tom would get batted around at times. It’s not like this never happened in the past. That being said, I’m not going to put perfume on a pig. They can’t play like that. As if they go forward and expect to win games. So it has to get better. I think the context is probably important because the first game they hadn’t played that much together because of injuries to a couple of guys in the preseason. So it’s the first step. Was it awful? I didn’t think it was awful. I thought it was passable. But to your point, a couple of those run away rushers. One of those hits goes in the other direction. You lose your quarterback and it changes the complexion of the season. So I know I said a lot there, but that’s sort of that’s sort of how I look at the line.
KENDRICK BOURNE
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – JANUARY 02: Mac Jones #10 of the New England Patriots talks with teammate Kendrick Bourne #84 before the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Gillette Stadium on January 02, 2022 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Getty Images)
Rich Shertenlieb The other big story that people are going to be thinking about this morning is Kendrick Bourne. And you actually tweeted something a couple of hours ago that is fairly shocking when you take a look at the number of snaps you had, it looks like two. He got less snaps than lil Jordan Humphrey. I mean, he’s at the bottom of the list, but when he got in there, he ripped off that 41 yard play. He didn’t show up until the fourth quarter.
Then there’s the story that I think it was Phil Perry who told us or he told NBC Sports Boston last night that when he thought he was going back in, Troy Brown said “nope, get back on the bench”. When he sees Agholar spill the ball, he gets pissed, starts throwing stuff off the bench and it sounds like the players all want him back as well. They’re kind of choosing his side over the coaching side.
What’s going on there? What do you know about why he was kept on the bench for so long? Yesterday, when last year he was arguably one of the best players on this team?
Mike Reiss Definitely. I mean it’s a big storyline. I talked to him after the game with all the other reporters and he said he’s not giving the coaches what they want and that he needs to practice better to earn their trust. And is this the hardest thing, guys, when you’re reporting on a team like we’re not in the meetings.
We’re not there to see, you know, what happens at practice, the full practice every day. So we’re judging it based on a limited snapshot. And so that’s hard. I really think this goes back to the second preseason game and it was trending in the wrong direction. He got kicked out of practice for fighting. He wasn’t ready to go. An official tossed him out of a drill. Belichick wasn’t happy about it. Ended up not playing in that second preseason game. He hasn’t been doing interviews with us since that time.
Something’s been going on behind the scenes because it can’t strictly be about pure performance because as you mentioned, he gets on the field, he makes a big play. They need his explosive playmaking ability on the field.
Wallach: The longer this goes on though, Mike and I worry about it now because his team isn’t winning. You know, you see other teams have locker room problems when things like this happen. We’re not playing well. You have a good player who can help us not on the field for whatever reason, but the head coach is making a point. Can Bill afford to push this much further if the offense continues to struggle?
Mike Reiss: So I totally understand what you’re saying. And I don’t. I don’t think he can, but not necessarily for that reason. I just look at it from a pure football standpoint. They’re trying to run two more tight end sets, which is fine. You get Jamu Smith and Hunter Henry, but what does that mean for receivers? You get two on the field usually when you’re running with two tight ends. They’re going with Devante Parker and Jakobi Myers as their main two guys. And if you’re a defense, I just don’t think that that scares you in the deep part of the field or that scares you because there’s no player on offense that can catch the ball and run away from you. That’s what Kendrick Bourne can do. And to a degree, that’s what Nelson Agholor can do when he holds onto the ball. To your previous point.
Rich Shertenlieb: And you’re right, it’s like he’s not the team’s not good enough to bench one of their best players. And Jon said it best… In years past, Wes Welker makes the foot joke. They bench him for a while and they ended up losing that game.
Wallach: But it doesn’t matter because you’re not going to lose the locker room because you keep winning because well, when a team 14 games a season now things are.
Rich Shertenlieb: Differently it sounds like the players and from your sense does it seem like according to reports there, the players are rallying around Kendrick Bourne and that’s the last thing you want is a locker room that’s choosing a side and that side is against the head coach.
Mike Reiss: So I don’t actually don’t see it that way. Don’t get me wrong. Like, I think players are always going to stick with players. That’s generally what happens. But I also see it from a standpoint of you can’t be making exceptions for players like again, guys, we don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes and if you start compromising your rules, your structure, your culture. Then one guy says, wait a minute, you know, and I’m just going to hypothetically say this, guys, okay? This guy showed up late, but he didn’t get the same punishment as the other guy that showed up late. You know? Like there’s a lot that goes into this stuff. And again, that’s hypothetical, but there’s so many things that we don’t know behind the scenes. But I’m going to make this point. I think Kendrick will play more than two snaps next week, and if he doesn’t, then I think it elevates to a higher level of urgency. I would say, based on this topic.
