FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Listening to Mac Jones week-to-week for the past month, it’s like he’s been through the five stages of grief.
What was he mourning?
The old offense.
But after the Patriots’ second joint practice session against the Panthers on Wednesday, Jones appears to have hit the final stage.
After going through denial, anger, bargaining and depression with all the trials and tribulations of trying to adapt to a new offense — not to mention a new set of coaches handling both him and the offense — he’s on to acceptance.
Let’s just say Jones has come a long way from flinging his helmet, and then bolting from a bad practice moments after it ended.
He’s come to terms with it. And as Jones said last week, he’s determined to make it work.
Three weeks into training camp, Jones really doesn’t have much of a choice. Making the change seems inevitable.
While Jones had a good handle on the previous offense, one that highlighted his strengths, the Kyle Shanahan-style offense, which is where the Patriots are headed, can also allow quarterbacks to thrive.
That’s assuming, of course, that the staff knows how to teach it, and the players are able to adapt.
So right now, for better or worse, Jones is dialed in to the process. The good news is he’s seen some signs of life.
With the two days of joint practices, there’s been some progress made with the passing game. Jones has had more time to throw, players are getting open, and plays are working for the most part.
DeVante Parker, Jakobi Meyers and Nelson Agholor, who made several incredible catches Wednesday, stood out against the Panthers. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s all good.
The running game still doesn’t look close to being on track. But overall, it’s a step up from the train wreck that was on display last week.
“It’s good. I think we’ve done some good things, made some adjustments and stuff and are moving in the right direction,” an upbeat Jones said following practice. “That’s all you can ask for is just for me to be able to step up in the pocket and make the throws. That’s all it is for me, or hand the ball off to the right guy, or hit the check-down, hit the deep ball, it doesn’t matter.
“I think we have guys that can make plays all over the field,” he went on. “So regardless of how we call the play or do it, it doesn’t matter if the guys are open, and if they’re not, I just have to be smart and throw it away. But they’ve been open a lot and those 50-50 balls have been really good for us.”
During a few breaks for the offense, when the special teams sessions were taking place, Jones could be found sitting next to a kneeling Matt Patricia, who scribbled on a white sheet of paper, after getting feedback from his young quarterback.
It’s fair to guess this is part of “the process,” too; Jones offering his two cents on the validity of plays to Patricia, the offensive line coach and presumed play-caller.
“I think we laid our foundation of what we want to do and what the coaches want to do. We’ve definitely bought into that,” Jones said. “There’s things that I’ve done in the past. There are things that I like, and we’re trying to incorporate them more. Or things that coach (Bill) Belichick sees on film and he’s like, ‘hey what do you think about this?’ So it’s very fluid and for them to be able to take some of our thoughts is really important.
“I think the really good offenses in the NFL, you can tell that the play-callers and the quarterback are on the same page. So I think we’re getting there and that’s the progress we need, and I’ve been really pleased with that.”
Jones, however, wouldn’t acknowledge if Patricia was going to be his play-caller on Week 1, deferring the answer to Belichick.
Perhaps, that’s because the answer to that question is still unknown. Belichick appeared to be the one calling the plays toward the end of practice, not Patricia. So who emerges after the dust settles remains anyone’s guess.
“I think that’s up to coach Belichick to make the decisions. At the end of the day, I’m going to do whatever they tell me to do and do it to the best of my ability, as is everyone on the offensive line and the skill players,” said Jones. “That’s all we can control is doing our job, and our attitude and our effort. We’ll get there, hopefully this week, when we get a chance to play it’ll be really good.”
On the day, Jones went 11-for-15 during full-team periods, and 5-for-7 on 7-on-7s.
There were still a handful of times with no-chance plays, where he basically had to eat the ball.
It was, however, good to see that after the couple of skirmishes that broke out, Jones threw touchdown passes on the following two snaps when play ensued. One went to Jonnu Smith, and the other to Agholor, who made a terrific catch on a back-corner throw.
At this point, the good plays are outweighing the bad. It wasn’t that way last week, or the week before.
The offense isn’t out of the woods just yet, far from it, but Jones seems in a much better place with how it’s shaking out.
“If you really know football, you can see there was only a handful of bad plays out here,” he said. “So, you take away those bad plays, whatever it is — four or five a day — and then everyone’s saying it’s a great day.
“So, at the end of the day, we play each play as if it has a life of its own. Slot each play, and don’t look forward and don’t look back. But, at the same time, you want to make the adjustments like I talked about, and we definitely did that pretty well.”
Small steps, but steps nonetheless. And that has given Jones a little more hope about the new offense working eventually.
