Patriots Quarterback Mac Jones Is Ignoring the Noise

By: Steve Atkinson

The Patriots are a distant thought with the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. Bill Belichick canceled the last practice of mandatory minicamp on Thursday the day after the Celtics game three victory on Wednesday night at the TD Garden. Bill Belichick Robert Kraft and other members of the Patriots were in attendance at the game and possibly the reason Belichick decided to cancel practice Thursday. If you want to believe the reports that Belichick is impressed with how things are going and decided to give the players a break you can. Just know that wouldn’t have happened five years ago.

As for second-year quarterback Mac Jones he’s becoming the leader of the offense. With having no offensive coordinator Jones is ignoring the noise and just controlling what he can control. The offense seems to be different than in years past mainly because they had Josh McDaniel’s. With coaches on that side of the ball with less experience in Joe Judge and Matt Patricia, the offense needs to be put in terms so Judge and Patricia can understand it. They have the help of not only Mac Jones but Bill Belichick who has been very hands-on with the offense so far.

Mac Jones Has Been The Lead Story During Minicamp

Mac Jones was on fire the two days of minicamp this week. On Tuesday he went 11/12 on 11vs11’s. and 7vs7’s he went 14/14. The seventh-round pick from the 2021 NFL Draft Tre Nixon has been a favorite target of Mac Jones so far. Nixon spoke yesterday after practice

“Everything’s just starting to slow down a little bit,” Nixon said of his assimilation into New England’s offense. “I’ve still got a lot to learn. I’m still trying to find my role, but just compared to last year just a little bit slowing down. I’ve got my routine now, I really know how to take care of myself off the field. Like I said, I’ve got a lot to learn and a long way to go, but way different from the first year, for sure.”

Jones Has Taken More Of A Leadership Role

Teammates around Mac are seeing a different side of him going into his second season. He’s become more vocal and taking a leadership role on the offense. This is what Jakobi Meyers said today about Mac

“Has he taken control of the offense? That’s a capital YES, exclamation mark, exclamation mark,” Meyers said Thursday at the conclusion of the Patriots’ mandatory minicamp. “He’s the real deal. We’re all trying to catch up what’s in his mind, his vision.”

Jones also spoke today and talked about how much Bill Belichick has been a part of the offense so far.

“He’s very hands-on. Last year, he was more with the defense. But now, it’s like, ‘OK, let me show you this’ and he’s kind of coaching us,” Jones said. “I feel like we’ve made a lot of growth together as an offensive unit with him” He’s seen the most amount of football of any of our coaches. He’s seen defense, offense and special teams, so having his input is always going to be very beneficial to me, because he knows what puts stress on the defense.”

Jones is saying and doing all the right things. Not worrying about who’s going to call the plays or anything like that. He feels like he has the best coach in the league in Belichick and he won’t let him fail. Jones also stressed today that being on the same page with his coaches and players is the only way to success this upcoming season.

“The most important thing is getting on the same page, speaking the same lingo, between the players, the coaches, and we’ve done a good job of that,” he said.

“I definitely think we made pretty good strides there in the past couple weeks. You can’t be done with OTAs and let that fall off. You have to carry that through the season, that’s the most important part. We understand that for training camp. We have to keep communicating and keep talking.”