Mac Jones sounds ready to solve toughest problem yet
FOXBORO — Mac Jones is a problem solver. It’s how he sees himself, how he frames life, how he routinely clears football obstacles most believed he would never encounter. Now a starting NFL quarterback, Jones will be confronted with dozens of problems during his pro debut Sunday against the Dolphins.
There’s the blitz-happy opposing coach armed with intimate knowledge of the offense Jones is still learning. There are the starting tight ends he’ll need to produce despite never playing a game together. And then there’s everything else that comes with being a rookie: nerves, accelerated game speed and world-class athletes coming to knock his head off every down.
So here’s the solution Pats right tackle Trent Brown offered Jones this week.
“I tell him he’s not a rookie. This is his offense. Run it as such,” Brown said Wednesday. “We go as he goes.”
According to Brown, that’s precisely how Jones has handled practices since being named the starter.
If the offense stumbles during a team period, he’ll occasionally beat offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to barking the expected orders: “Do it over!”
“And with some authority,” Brown recalled with a smile. “As a young guy, that’s pretty cool to see.”
During the preseason, Jones flexed this command most clearly during two-minute drills. Control at the line of scrimmage seemed to give him comfort, confidence. No time to overthink. Just go.
Jones shredded all three opponents — Washington, the Eagles and Giants — with such drives.
Most coaching staffs are reluctant to drop rookie quarterbacks into empty formations, where they’re most vulnerable to pressure. Last month, Bears’ firstrounder Justin Fields famously got clocked by the Dolphins defense after failing to set the proper protection. And those were Miami backups.
Jones, though, is not most rookie quarterbacks. In barely four months, he’s beat out Cam Newton for the starting job, won over a veteran-laden locker room, earned Bill Belichick’s trust and grasped one of the NFL’s most complex offenses.
His secret? Solving one problem at a time.
“It’s a daily grind and a daily battle,” he said.
Specific to Sunday, Jones knows Miami will send linebackers, safeties and cornerbacks at him from a variety of alignments. The Dolphins blitzed on 41% of defensive snaps last year, second-most in the NFL. Bill Belichick doesn’t foresee them changing this weekend.
“I wouldn’t say that they have shown a lot of drastic changes in preseason. A few things that I’d say are a little bit different for them, but overall, it’s still pretty much what it is,” Belichick said Wednesday. “They have good corners, and they don’t mind pressuring the line of scrimmage and letting those guys do their thing.”
It reasons the Patriots will try to clear Jones’ pre-snap picture by throwing him in the no-huddle, which often prevents defenses from disguising and simplifies a quarterback’s reads. The Pats are problem solvers, too.
“I’ve been taught what to do in those situations here,” Jones said of leading hurry-up drives, “and that’s something I’ve noticed is we do spend a lot of time on those type of things.”
In practices, Jones knows he can hit pause after mistakes; a neverending effort to “close the gap on perfect,” as he called it Wednesday. The clock will stop for Jones on Sunday, but it will not rewind. The difference between a final exam and practice test.
“You have a picture of how it’s supposed to go in your head,” the rookie said, “but you want everything to be perfect, and it’s not always going to be perfect. Especially in the games.”
Jones has pictured starting in the NFL for a long time. As an overlooked high school recruit and college backup, he kept Tom Brady’s combine photo on his phone for years; one underdog quarterback staring at the success of another, working and hoping to someday close the gap.
Having solved the problem of how to start at Alabama, then win a national title, then get drafted and start for the Patriots, the right to succeed Brady belongs to Jones.
His reward is now the hardest problem he’s ever encountered. He sounds ready.