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What Mac Jones said about QB competition, Demario Douglas & Julian Edelman’s appearance at Gillette
"I think the important thing there is to accept the challenge. He’s trying to make it hard on us."
FOXBOROUGH — After another productive, competitive practice at Gillette Stadium, Patriots quarterback Mac Jones discussed several topics with the media on Thursday.
Along with the state of New England’s offense, Jones discussed a promising rookie on offense, his own growing role within the organization, and more.
Here are a few highlights from Jones’ latest media scrum.
Jones, Patriots offense accept ‘challenge’ thrown their way by coaching staff
After a dominant offensive performance on Wednesday morning where Jones completed 13-of-15 pass attempts, New England’s coaching staff opted to ramp up the difficulty for New England’s QB1.
During 11-on-11 drills Thursday, Jones worked primarily with the second-team wideouts and tight ends against the first-team defense. Rhamondre Stevenson did work with Jones, as did New England’s first-team offensive line, although that unit was still missing three starters in Mike Onwenu, Trent Brown, and Cole Strange.
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Jones got picked off by Kyle Dugger off of a miscommunication with Tre Nixon, but it was still a pretty impressive day for New England’s top signal caller.
Jones completed 19-of-25 passes on Thursday, and tossed two touchdowns to Kendrick Bourne and JuJu Smith-Schuster during red-zone drills after being reunited with most of his top offensive weapons near the end of practice.
Post-practice, Jones welcomed the adversity that Bill Belichick and the coaching staff threw his way with the personnel reshuffle. For Jones, it’s no different from the challenges he faced during his time in college.
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“I think it’s great,” Jones said. “I actually had to do that a lot at Alabama. I was on the scout team and we would go against 11 NFL starters. Nothing new there. I think the important thing there is to accept the challenge. He’s trying to make it hard on us. That’s a good thing, so you get to the game, it’s always harder whether it’s a wet ball or the clock is run down fast.
“Regardless of who’s in there, I think those guys did a great job today and I told them to go out there and play and have fun. It doesn’t really matter where you are on the depth chart. It really doesn’t. Everything is important to go out there and play and line up and execute your assignment. From there, be free and go play.”
Jones not dwelling on any talk of QB competition
Despite all of the talk leading into this 2023 season about a potential quarterback competition, that narrative has quieted with each passing day during training camp in Foxborough.
Beyond Thursday’s personnel tweak, Jones has almost exclusively spent time with New England’s first-team offense, earning valuable reps alongside players situated at the top of the depth chart like DeVante Parker, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Hunter Henry, etc.
Bailey Zappe has been a step behind Jones in passing drills, and has spent most of his time with the backups and reserves.
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Even though Bill Belichick has been mum in terms of definitively appointing a QB1 at this stage of the preseason, the writing is on the wall that Jones will be the man under center throughout the 2023 season — barring injury or other unforeseen circumstances.
As such, Jones didn’t spend much time speaking about his battle against Zappe on the depth chart on Thursday, opting instead to focus more on how the competitiveness forged during July and August can pay dividends when the calendar flips to the fall.
“I think every year you have to have the mindset that you’re competing, not only against yourself, you’re competing against the teams you’re about to play, which is really important for me,” Jones said. “Understanding that it’s the NFL, and every week you’re going to go against a great quarterback.
“So that’s my biggest concern and just trying to lead the team every day and bring everybody along. You know, I’ve been fortunate to be in a lot of quarterback rooms that are really good. So, just trying to learn from everybody, obviously learn from Coach [Bill] O’Brien, and Evan [Rothstein] and Coach Belichick. At the end of the day, it’s all about improving each day. When you go out there on Sunday, you want your guys to be confident in you, and that’s what I’m trying to instill in them right now.”
Jones on recruiting talent to Foxborough
He may not be as active on social media as Matthew Judon when it comes to trying to recruit talent to New England, but Jones is no slouch, either.
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After Ezekiel Elliott’s free-agent visit to New England earlier this week, Jones was spotted having dinner with the former Cowboys running back out in Boston.
For Jones, taking up such efforts comes with the territory as one of the leaders and faces of the franchise.
“I think it’s really important as a leader to just try and go out there and show them that we’re all here to be together and to win. … It’s never a bad thing, right,” Jones said. “You want to have as many great players as you can. I’ve just been really pleased with the guys we have in the room, because it’s plenty enough, and we just have got to come together and make it work.”
When asked for what his pitch would be in terms of luring free agents to Foxborough, Jones once again reiterated his belief in the current roster in place.
“I always say we have a great group of guys already, so coming together as an offense is really important for us,” Jones said. “Anybody that we can talk to, if they have questions, answer their questions, right? That’s all you can do as a player.
“Just try and explain everything to them and the rest is not up to us, right? But, like I said, I’m happy with the guys we have in the room, so it is hard to answer these questions. Because I really do think we have enough and I think we have plenty enough.”
Jones impressed with rookie Douglas
Count Jones as the latest in the growing line of Patriots coaches and players who have been impressed with what they’ve seen from 2023 sixth-round pick Demario “Pop” Douglas.
Douglas’ route running and acceleration have stood out so far during camp, but even with his 5-foot-8 frame, the Liberty University alum was tough to take down during Thursday’s live-tackling drill.
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“Yeah, Pop Shotta. That’s my guy. I’m going to call him Pop Shotta,” Jones said of Douglas. “He’s a great kid, works really hard. I think a lot of the young receivers are really learning from the older guys, which is something that I think is really cool. … Pop just needs to keep working, you know, just keep his head down and work. Don’t listen to any of the noise, good or bad, and he’ll just keep doing his thing.”
Jones welcomes latest Edelman visit
Even though injuries forced Julian Edelman to hang up his cleats before Jones’ arrival in Foxborough, the Patriots QB said that the former wideout has been a useful resource to him through his young career up in the pros.
Edelman visited Thursday’s practice at Gillette Stadium and offered up plenty of advice to both Jones and a number of other players across the roster.
“Jules has been awesome,” Jones said. “I always text him. He sends voice memos; it’s kind of interesting. But, he does a great job communicating with me. He loves the Patriots and he’s just an all-time Patriot.
“We see him on the film all the time and any questions I have for him he always answers. So, I don’t know him that well, but every time I’ve talked to him, he’s just been awesome. So, it’s been a good resource for us.”
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