The Patriots’ decision to avoid naming an offensive coordinator while putting Joe Judge and Matt Patricia in prominent offensive coaching roles despite a lack of experience on that side of the ball has been the subject of much discussion this offseason.
That discussion hasn’t died down in training camp. Dispatches from Patriots practices have painted a picture of a confused and disjointed unit being led by second-year quarterback Mac Jones.
Monday’s session was reportedly one of the low points of the summer, but Jones told reporters on Tuesday that he’s confident that everything will come together for him and the rest of the unit as they learn the new system.
“I’m going to figure it out,” Jones said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “I always have. I always will. At the end of the day, you’re going to have your ups and downs with anything new, but I’ve learned a lot of different systems and the guys around me have too. We know what football looks like, we know what a good play looks like. . . . It just needs to be more consistent. We all trust in each other at the end of the day. When there’s 10 people that look into my eyes, I know they’re going to trust me to do the right thing on game day.”
Jones’ progress came up often among coaches and teammates leading into training camp, but the story on offense in New England is now trending in another direction. Thursday night’s game against the Giants will offer a chance to see at least some of the pieces of that offense in action for the first time.
