New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones underwent what he described as a “full audit” of himself during the bye week.
Through the first half of his second season, Jones has struggled, throwing 1,140 yards, four touchdowns and seven interceptions with a 76 passer rating in six games after an ankle injury cost him three games. Jones shared Wednesday what things he focused to improve on during the bye week to try and turn the corner in the second half of the season.
“I think a lot of us are working on different things every day and the bye week's a great time to do that,” Jones said. “So for me, just making sure my feet and eyes are in the right place, continue to go through my reads, continue to improve in the weight room, nutrition, all that stuff.
“So it's a full audit of yourself, I guess you can call it. Kind of look at yourself and see what you can do better.”
Jones added that there were things he noticed when he went through his self-assessment, though didn't want to tip his hand too much to share what he learned.
“I think a lot of things are personal to me and things that I want to keep to myself, but a lot of things that I can improve, just like I said, footwork, timing, eyes, all that stuff,” the Patriots youngster explained. “Which I’m trying to improve that every week regardless and definitely put an extra emphasis on it, trying to matchup everything. Felt good about the progress we made and just got to apply it, like I said, on Sunday.”
Mac Jones has been the centerpiece of a Patriots offense that's struggled under new tutelage in 2022. After a solid rookie season in 2021, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge replaced Josh McDaniels as the offensive play caller and quarterbacks coach, respectively.
The offense implemented by those two has been noticeably different, running a lot more 11 personnel sets than 12 personnel sets, for instance. But New England's offense has taken a step back this season, ranking 26th in total offense and in offensive DVOA.
As the Patriots hope any tinkering and changes they made over the break work, Jones said that the offense is “constantly trying to find that identity” to lead to success.
“Every offense is going to find that through the year. It's going to be defined through the year,” he shared. “We have to work through that. At the end of the day, we know what we want to do. We need to score more points and eliminate the turnovers and negative plays. That's kind of where we're at.
“From there, we just grow together, coaches, players, everybody. So I feel like we have good effort, energy and all that stuff. So we're kind of controlling those things. Then the results are going to come here soon.”
As Mac Jones and the rest of the Patriots offense search for that identity, he “wouldn’t make comparisons” to last season's team.
“Just two different offenses and different coaches, different players,” the 24-year-old QB noted. “We’re doing some similar things, which is really good, and every offense is different, right? You watch another team, their quarterbacks’ feet might be a little different than where it matches up with us.
“It’s just specific to us and I think we’re really doing a good job there for the most part and practice is where it starts, like I said, the only way you can tell is through full-speed reps. We’ve gotten a lot of those, obviously in training camp and in the spring too, so just going back on those reps that we’ve had and making sure that everything times up.”
First up for the Patriots following the bye is a matchup against the 6-3 New York Jets on Sunday. Jones had an OK showing against them three weeks ago, completing 24 of 35 passes for 194 yards with a touchdown and an interception while rushing for 19 yards.
But New York brought constant pressure on Jones, sacking him for a career-high six times and had a pick-6 he threw negated because of a roughing the passer penalty. Jones knows the challenge that awaits him on Sunday.
“They know exactly where their weaknesses are and things like that. There's not many weaknesses with this defense,” he added. “So they're obviously doing different twists to it, I guess. But yeah, they have a good front, and they rotate those guys. Everything starts with the front. They have good players all around.
“So we just have to – they can do whatever they want to do. Just because we play them, they can still come out and do different things and we can too. That's football and that's the cool part about the NFL. When you play somebody twice it's just a chance to go out there and compete, follow your rules and stick to your training.”
Follow Us
Subscribe
