The New England Patriots entered training camp with a number of question marks throughout its team, but the quarterback position appears to not be one of them.
After spending a first-round pick on him last season Mac Jones has been the answer the Patriots have looked for after the departure of Tom Brady. Although Jones is far from what Brady is, he has continued to show progress throughout the team’s minicamp despite the turnover on the offensive coaching staff.
Today there were several reports of Jones turning in an impressive outing on the field where the former Alabama quarterback nearly had a perfect competition percentage during team drills.
#Patriots QB Mac Jones was dropping some dimes during team drills at minicamp. Best throws of the day came on completions to DeVante Parker and JJ Taylor. I had him 24-25.
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) June 7, 2022
Mac Jones was dropping dimes today. He was really, really good. We saw nice deep passes and a lot of throws in tight coverage. He completed 23-straight passes in team drills at one point
It was probably one of the best practices I’ve seen from him in this non-contact setting.
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) June 7, 2022
Mac Jones spent 45 minutes on the field after practice. Probably threw an extra 100 passes, focusing primarily on footwork. He then appeared to run through the script of the final two practice periods by himself, calling plays, making signals at the line and pacing the field.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) June 7, 2022
Along with his impressive play through practice, Jones is also said to be in the best shape of his life and has been showered with praise by his teammate which continued on Tuesday with running back Damien Harris.
“I just feel very fortunate to share the field with Mac,” Harris said according to The Providence Journal. “He’s an incredibly hard worker. That’s what I appreciate about him the most – just coming out here, seeing the way that he leads, the way that he works his butt off to be the best, to be his best in order to help all of us be our best. He does a great job every day just coming out with that mentality, working hard, doing his job and that’s the mentality we’ve all got to have. We all have to embody that.”
One of Jones’ passes went to tight end Tre Nixon for 40-yards which is an area of his game he’s has made an emphasis to improve upon.
One thing I liked about Mac Jones’ best throw of the day today — a perfect deep corner to Tre Nixon agains tight coverage from Jon Jones — was that Mac came to Nixon late in his profession and cut it loose. Last year, he checks that down even in 7-on-7s. #Patriots
— Khari Thompson (@kdthompson5) June 7, 2022
“Amazing,” said Nixon about the pass from Jones. “You can’t complain. He put it right on the money…. He’s a great player… As you can tell on the field watching him, (he’s) making tremendous strides for sure.”
Jones reportedly completed 14-of-14 passes during the team’s 7-on-7 period and later completed 11-of-12 passes during the 11-on-11 period.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
