Throughout the preseason, the Patriots’ offense appeared to be struggling to adjust to the loss of longtime coordinator Josh McDaniels, who left to become head coach of the Raiders. But Patriots quarterback Mac Jones says the offense is making progress that the public isn’t seeing.
Jones said that progress has continued on the practice field even after the end of the preseason, and he’s confident heading into the start of the regular season.
“I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made, especially in the past couple of weeks,” Jones said on WEEI, via the Boston Herald. “We just have to put it onto the field.”
The Patriots didn’t name a new offensive coordinator, but former Lions head coach Matt Patricia and former Giants head coach Joe Judge appear to be the primary architects of the offense. That’s surprising, given that Patricia has primarily coached defense and Judge has primarily coached special teams, but Jones said he doesn’t think there’s going to be a significant difference this year.
“I think nothing changes,” he said. “We have a bunch of really smart, not only players, but football coaches. I think that’s something we’ve done a good job of, coming together . . . just coming to a middle ground, and going out there and executing. I think the really good teams do that, and the really good quarterbacks do that.”
Patriots fans would love to think Jones will come back from a promising rookie season and make even more progress in Year Two. It didn’t look like that was happening in the preseason, but Jones isn’t concerned.
