Given an opportunity to speak to Bill Belichick for the first time after the New England Patriots traded him to the Arizona Cardinals in March, linebacker Chandler Jones thanked the Patriots head coach for dealing him to a good team.
“I didn’t get a chance to speak to (Belichick) – he was on a flight or something,” Jones said, via Tom Pelissero of USA Today. “But I called him the next day and said, ‘Hey, you could’ve traded me to any other team, so thank you for not trading me to a crappy team.’”
The NFC West champion Cardinals sent former first-round guard Jonathan Cooper and a second-round pick to the Patriots for Jones, who recorded 12.5 sacks and four forced fumbles during a Pro Bowl season in 2015.
It’s unknown if the Patriots had any other deals on the table for Jones. There’s a very strong possibility that if a “crappy” team had offered a better deal for Jones, New England would have sent the 26-year-old pass-rusher to the bad team. Probably without hesitation.
Hypotheticals aside, Jones is now expected to be a key member of team with Super Bowl aspirations in the NFC.
The Cardinals finished 13-3 and advanced to the NFC Championship Game last season, but a lacking pass-rush contributed to Arizona getting bounced in the title game by the 15-1 Carolina Panthers. Jones, who has 36 career sacks, should give the Cardinals’ pass-rush some serious juice heading into 2016.
He’s also entering a contract season, which was a big reason why the Patriots dealt him away.
Jones is trying to forget about the pressure.
“Back of my head, yes, it’s my contract year, it’s my fifth season, on my fifth-year exercised option,” Jones said. “But I feel like if you get too much into that, that’s when you start worrying about, ‘Oh, I need this many sacks, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that.’”
Luckily for Jones, he’s now in a perfect situation in Arizona to set himself up for a huge payday. With a stacked and productive offense on one side and a stacked secondary playing behind him, Jones should be in a position to put up big sack numbers. And he’ll do it for a team that is far from “crappy.”