The New England Patriots coaching staff suffered a major loss this offseason when offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels departed to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. He headed west along with Dave Ziegler, who departed New England’s front office to become the general manager of the Raiders.
Without McDaniels, Mac Jones will be learning his second offense in as many years in the NFL. He was by far the best rookie of the 2021 draft class last season and the franchise is hoping that he can take that next step in his sophomore season.
An adjustment period was expected with a new person leading the offense, as the Patriots don’t have anyone with the offensive coordinator title. Instead, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, who were both fired as head coach of the Detroit Lions and New York Giants, are leading the offense.
While things started slowly, Jones is pleased with developments made in recent weeks. Despite struggling during the preseason, Jones believes that the offense is getting on track during practice leading up to 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.”
Some people may question having Patricia, who was a defensive coordinator previously with the Patriots and Judge, who was a special teams coordinator with New England, now running the offense. However, Jones isn’t worried about who is running the offense as he doesn’t believe there will be a significant difference.
“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.”
That kind of confidence is something that the Patriots and their fans are going to love hearing. Jones has some pressure on him to take that next step in his sophomore season but he sounds ready to take his game to the next level and lead New England back to prominence.
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