FOXBOROUGH — Cam Cameron's tenure as Dolphins coach didn't last long — one 1-15 season in 2007 — and it was largely a forgettable disaster, but there's one thing he said that has stuck with me over the years.
Like with many things during his stint, Cameron, a really nice man, had the best intentions ... but they ended up failing miserably. Some guys are just better off as offensive coordinators or QB coaches. No shame in that.
I wasn't even there all that long for the Cameron Era. Covered his hiring and that infamous Ted Ginn & His Family draft, and by the end of camp, I was off to Green Bay to cover the Packers. But one of his phrases ... I recall it all the time when it comes to young players in the NFL because I think Cameron was on the money. He just couldn't coach it.
"We want them to fail forward fast."
That line ended up being the epitaph on his head coaching tombstone and a big punchline among Dolphins fans. I get it. He had a ton of them (check out the clip below). The Dolphins were awful. Jason Taylor would later call Cameron an idiot.
Just because Cameron couldn't coach and the Dolphins were awful ... it doesn't mean Cameron's sentiment was wrong.
He went on to explain.
"I want guys going out in this game not being afraid to fail," he said. "But if you fail, fail forward. What does that mean? If you're failing forward, that means your failing but you're learning, and then you've got to learn fast."
I thought of Cameron and those quotes watching Mac Jones during Friday's practice, and also Bill Belichick's decisions before and during the session. It was not a banner day for Jones. And it wasn't an awful day for him, either. More than anything, I think it was a failing forward fast day for him — designed by Belichick — and not only was it important for Jones, it was another indication of how Belichick feels about him.
Let me explain.
There are a few things we know about Jones and how the Patriots view him at this point.
On the first day of practice open to the media last week, Belichick had Jones working in tandem with Cam Newton while Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer were elsewhere, giving off a very varsity and JV feel.
Belichick knew the Knucklehead Knights of the Keyboard in the stands (raises hand) were going to see this and run wild that Belichick was far from hiding his first-round QB.
And Belichick didn't care. And Jones looked good.
And then on Friday, after Newton was out of practice with an injury and after Josh McDaniels huddled with Belichick to decide the next course of action with the QBs, Jones was essentially QB1 for the rest of practice. Again, in front of all those idiots, whose obviously astute observations would then be echoed across the NFL universe.
Again, Belichick didn't care.
Every situation is different, but if these same scenarios happened when Tom Brady was here with Jimmy Garoppolo and Stidham in their, basically, fifth practice as a Patriot, I have a hard time believing Belichick would have done the snaps the same way; it would have been Hoyer Time. Garoppolo and Stidham were basically neophytes at the same stage. Belichick does not view Jones as a neophyte, that's for sure. In fact, given Belichick's actions, I think it's just the opposite.
And that leads me into my larger point and back to Cameron.
I don't know exactly what the aim of Friday's practice was, but in my opinion, this was a practice that was blitz-heavy for the defense. It was largely all sub-packages, and the offense didn't show many traditional running plays outside of a designed draw in long yardage.
You get these practices from time to time in the offseason and, especially, in training camp. And normally, it does not go well for the offense, even back when Brady was here. Everything is in favor of the defense. They don't have to worry about the run. They're running designer blitzes that the younger players haven't seen before. The Patriots have a ton of experience on the defense, especially with Kyle Van Noy back in the middle of it.
Oh, and let's also throw in that the offense didn't have its top three backs (Damien Harris, Sony Michel, James White), their three top tackles (Isaiah Wynn, Trent Brown, Justin Herron) and one of its big-ticket tight ends (Jonnu Smith).
Talk about throwing the offense — and Jones — into the fire...
And, again, Belichick didn't care.
Newton went down and Belichick could have said to McDaniels, "Let Hoyer and Stidham take the bulk of the snaps and let Jones watch. He has little chance of having success ... let's take it slow."
Instead, Belichick said, in essence, "Throw the kid out there. I want to see how he handles this."
In his session with the media before practice, Belichick seemed to hint that this was coming, while also touting Jones' progress to this point.
"I think Mac has a pretty good understanding of the things that we do," Belchick said. "He has to go out there and do them and get comfortable with them, so it's a process ... We'll just have to see how it goes but he's working hard. He puts in a lot of time and certainly, giving his very best effort to do everything we've asked him to do and do it the way that we've asked him to do it, which is a great place to start. He's earned a lot of respect for that but he's got a long way to go and we'll see how it goes."
He has to go out there and do them.
Sure sounded a lot like, "He has to fail forward fast."
And like I said, Jones wasn't bad. Throwing a ton of checkdowns against a pretty good pressure defense when your tackles can't block a lick says one thing about Jones: he's not an idiot. Get the ball out, live to fight the next down. Keep the chains moving.
Yes, Stidham handled it better than Jones and looked like a real QB for the first time as a Patriot. Well, he should. He's been going against the same defense going on three years now, so he should know their pressures pretty well at this point. If he didn't, then he should pack his bags.
This wasn't about Jones vs. Stidham or anything like that. This was about Belichick wanting to get Jones experience as much as possible, and to learn.
Newton's injury — which is reportedly minor and shouldn't keep him out all that long — could be an opportunity for more of the same. I think it's fairly clear at this point Belichick views Jones in competition for the starting job. And while there's a very long way to go, Jones can get there — where the team will need him to be at some point — faster by trial and error on the field. Belichick knows Jones is going to take this film and teaching points from McDaniels, devour them and hopefully be better the next time out.
That's the test. That's failing forward fast. Cam Cameron ... not a complete idiot.
Can Jones do it? We — along with Belichick and the Patriots — shall see.