Multiple reports debunk Patriots "shopping" Mac Jones to multiple teams this offseason
BOSTON -- On Tuesday, Mike Florio reported that Bill Belichick has "shopped" Mac Jones to multiple teams this offseason.
In the hours that followed, multiple reports indicated that hasn't happened.
Mark Daniels of MassLive reported that multiple sources indicated to him that the Patriots have not discussed a trade of Jones with other teams.
Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald likewise said that the Florio report was "nonsense."
"It struck others around the league as likely old news overstated," Callahan said.
On Tuesday, NBC Sports Boston's Tom E. Curran said Belichick denied the trade talk report, though that was not an official statement.
Last week, ESPN's Mike Reiss reported that "the Patriots are committed to seeing if Jones -- who Belichick recently said has the skills to play in the NFL -- can get back on track and realize the potential they identified in making him the 15th overall pick of the 2021 draft."
Daniels appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich on Wednesday morning and detailed the discussions he had with his sources.
"With one source, one real good source with direct knowledge of this stuff, essentially said, 'That's news to me and I haven't heard it.' And I was like, 'All right, that right there tells me the Patriots aren't shopping Mac Jones. But let's go again,'" Daniels said. "Another source told me they haven't reached out to the Raiders ... and they haven't reached out, another source said, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which was another team mentioned. So right there with three independent sources who are rock solid, not secondhand, that have told me that that isn't accurate. I mean one of the sources just plainly told me that it wasn't accurate. Another one was like, 'They haven't shopped Mac Jones to us.' Another one was like, 'That's news to me, that's not what I've heard.' So yeah, if Mac Jones is being shopped, I can't find anyone to confirm it inside Gillette Stadium or with at least two of the teams that were mentioned."
Yet while the trade report from Florio appears to be a bit inaccurate, no reporters have dismissed the notion that there's friction between Belichick and Jones.
"The tension is real," Doug Kyed of A to Z Sports said. "And it goes both ways. ... Jones was described by one source as having some maturity issues. Another source said that 'Mac's antics last season didn't go over all that well in the building.'"
Earlier, Curran reported that Jones going to outside coaches for advice last year "really pissed Bill off."
While that may be the case, it doesn't appear to be an issue that will lead to the young quarterback being shipped out of Foxboro.
