Outside of Mac Jones' pick-six in the New England Patriots 25-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, they had a reasonable shot to win the game, and former Patriots quarterback Cam Newton is defending his old team against ESPN analyst and former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan.
Appearing on ESPN programming, Ryan gave Jones a bit of a back-handed compliment, saying, "Peashooter Jones looked good."
Well, Newton took to his YouTube show to fire back at Ryan.
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"But Rex Ryan, questionable call goes to you," Newton said. "Bro, you sound like a hater. Giving somebody a backhanded compliment, what was it? Like the 'Peashooter, the peashooter look good.' So, come on bro. Like, let's have some grace."
Mac "Peashooter" Jones completed 35 of 54 passes in Week 1 against the Eagles for 316 yards, three touchdowns, and his pick-six to cornerback Darius Slay. He did have just 5.9 yards per attempt and three turnover-worthy plays, but his average depth of target was 8.3 yards.
If you take away the pick-six, the Patriots may have very well won that game.
While Ryan wasn't being outright derogatory toward the third-year signal caller, Newton wants media members to be held more accountable and show more grace toward players instead of being negative.
Certainly not a bad stance to take, and when it's a former NFL head coach, you think that would apply a bit more. We see it on The Pat McAfee Show, filled with former players. They'll comment on poor performances, but they aim to uplift the players as opposed to put them down.
Newton played one season for the Patriots in 2020. He completed 65.8% of his passes for 2,657 yards, eight touchdowns, and ten interceptions and rushed for 592 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Newton, 34, has 810k subscribers on YouTube, and the clip above was taken from his "4th & 1 with Cam Newton" series.
