PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Who’s coaching Mac Jones and what are they doing right now to help him make the second-year leap? Jones’ former offensive coordinator said Monday morning that, at this point in the season, Mac Jones is responsible for Mac Jones.
"With the rules such as they are now, we can’t work with them anyway until we get to late April and the end of May," Josh McDaniels said during the AFC Coaches Breakfast at The Breakers. "Then you get a handful of weeks to work with them then they’re off on their own again. So I think the way the rules are, you've got to do a lot of work on your own anyway.
"And I think for a lot of young players, if you can digest that and understand, ‘I have a lot of responsibility to improve myself. I can’t just wait for somebody else to do it,’ I think that’s a big thing. And I’m sure Mac is doing that as we speak."
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McDaniels helped shepherd Jones to the best rookie season of any of the 2021 first-round quarterbacks, throwing for 3,801 yards with 22 TDs and 13 picks and a 67.6 completion percentage. Jones was a godsend at No. 15 and delivered the Patriots from a second season of Cam Newton under center.
With McDaniels now head coach in Las Vegas, there’s a significant void the Patriots plan to spackle over with an as-yet unannounced array of coaches.
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Bill Belichick indicated Monday that Joe Judge and Matt Patricia will be taking on some offensive responsibilities (as has been reported). It’s believed that former tight ends coach Nick Caley is the frontrunner to be the play-caller.
Belichick alluded to "building around" Jones with the offensive system this year. Asked who’ll be involved with the shaping of the new offense, Belichick said, "Ultimately, it’s my responsibility so whatever happens under that, whatever happens happens."
Belichick was pretty blasé when asked about the drop-off from McDaniels to Patricia, Judge and whoever else is charged with crafting and running the offense.
"Matt and Joe are pretty good coaches," said Belichick. "We’ve gone through (turnover) multiple years, so ..."
But McDaniels, who developed Jones, Jacoby Brissett and Jimmy Garoppolo, fashioned an offense around the one-dimensional Newton and spent more than a decade working shoulder-to-shoulder with the greatest quarterback of all time, is a significant loss. Especially when it comes to Jones’ development.
Belichick and McDaniels both said the most important thing for them when coaching Tom Brady was to always give him something new that challenged him. How will the coterie of offensive coaches make sure that Jones’ development isn’t marred by a post-McDaniels drop-off?
One fortunate thing for the Patriots is the fact Jones has emerged as such a student of the position. Which McDaniels said will serve him well right now.
"I don’t want to place unrealistic expectations on somebody on a different team, but knowing Mac the way that I did last year, I would be surprised if Mac doesn’t have a tremendous routine right now and isn’t attacking every single thing he wants to get better at," he said.
"From the offseason study, from the self-scout, there’s probably a lot of things he’s targeting and saying, 'I’m gonna be better at those things this year.'"