Patriots

‘That’s what you want out of your quarterback’: David Andrews praises Mac Jones’s leadership ability

Jones held another private workout session as the Patriots have down time in the weeks ahead of training camp.

By Conor Roche

July 3, 2022

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Mac Jones earned the respect of his veteran Patriots teammates in his rookie season in 2021. Entering year two, he’s now stepping up as one of the leaders of the team.

When the Patriots haven’t had practice sessions in Foxborough, Jones has held workout sessions with the receivers and tight ends in various locations all over the country. While the Patriots are in their last break session a few weeks ahead of training camp, Jones continued his private workout sessions this past week. He had a throwing session with receivers Nelson Agholor and Tre Nixon in Carlsbad, California.

Patriots center and captain David Andrews said that it “doesn’t surprise me” that Jones is still holding private workouts this close to the start of training camp.

“The kid’s a hard worker,” Andrews said on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Bertrand” on Friday. “He works his butt off, day in and day out. Sometimes I just try to get him to take a deep breath. But that’s what you want out of your quarterback.

“He works really hard. He’s a tough kid. It’s been fun for me the last year, year and a half, to get to know him. I’ve got a lot of respect for how he does things and how he carries himself.”

Year two for Jones adds some new wrinkles. He has a couple of new faces to throw to in the receiver room. Veteran receiver DeVante Parker was acquired in a trade with the Dolphins and in April, the Patriots selected speedster Tyquan Thornton in the second round of the NFL Draft.

With the additions come subtractions, though. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to become the head coach of the Raiders over the offseason, causing the Patriots to revamp their offensive coaching staff. Former head coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge will be coaching on the offensive side in undefined roles as New England hasn’t named an offensive coordinator for the 2022 season.

While the offensive coaching staff is in flux, Andrews said he and Jones are just focused on one thing.

“We’re all working to be the best we can be,” Andrews said. “Whether it’s Mac, me, we’re all professional athletes, whoever it is on this football team. We have a job to do. We’re going to go out there and try to do that to the best of our abilities and be the best we can be.

“We’re all here for the same common goal. It starts whenever we report [for training camp], that’ll be day one. We’ll keep working on it and keep improving it. We’ll try to keep getting better throughout the season and not have that kind of lull that we had last season.”

As Andrews mentioned, Jones and the Patriots had a good stretch in the middle of the season, winning seven straight games to lead the AFC at one point in December. But they peaked too soon. They lost three of their final four regular-season games before getting blown out by the Bills in the opening round of the playoffs.

With the Patriots putting the disappointing finish to last season behind them, Jones’s leadership appears to be helping them going into 2022.

“It’s just at another level now,” wide receiver Kendrick Bourne told ESPN’s Mike Reiss in June of Jones’s leadership. “He’s more comfortable, more confident. He knows what’s going on, and the muscle memory is there [from having gone through it] — OTAs, then camp, and the season. He’s just more locked in, more secure in his position.”

Jones and the Patriots report to training camp on July 26 and will hold their first practice session the following day.