What do the Dolphins expect from Patriots QB Mac Jones? ‘He’s not like your typical rookie quarterback’
There was collective shock across NFL circles last week when the New England Patriots decided to release 2015 league Most Valuable Player Cam Newton and go with Mac Jones, the No. 15 pick in the year’s NFL Draft, as their starting quarterback.
The Dolphins weren’t exempt from that. The nature of New England’s quarterback situation throughout training camp was a mystery, but defensive players such as cornerback Xavien Howard were watching film of the Patriots with the assumption that Newton, a 10-year veteran, would be under center for their season opener in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Sunday.
“Just watching film from last year, I also thought Cam was going to be the starter coming into it,” Howard said last week. “I was expecting him. I guess I’ve got to watch film on somebody else, on Mac. I’m just preparing for whoever the starting quarterback [is] and the receivers also. Like I said, it’s the business of it.”
As the Patriots go with Jones as their starter, the Dolphins pivot to preparing for the rookie and all the unknowns that come with it.
Since the Dolphins were one of the coaching staffs leading players at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Dolphins coach Brian Flores got an up-close look at Jones, who skyrocketed up draft boards after a record-setting season at Alabama that saw him finish as a Heisman Trophy finalist.
In stints of three preseason games, Jones completed 69.2 percent of his passes for 389 yards and one touchdown, a quarterback rating of 97.4.
“He has a process of how he goes through things throughout the week, and I think it’s a good process. He’s a tough kid,” Flores said. “You can kind of feel that tough mentally, tough physically; you see that in his play and I was impressed by him. … Look, if he’s earned the respect of [Patriots coach] Bill Belichick and [offensive coordinator] Josh McDaniels, then he has my respect.”
Every season opener comes with its set of surprises, and even more so playing a signal-caller who is making his first NFL start. Defensive coordinator Josh Boyer acknowledged having to prepare for the “element of unknown,” but he also mentioned that there’s a history of an offensive system under McDaniels that the Dolphins can refer to as they game plan for New England.
After a 7-9 season in which the Patriots missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2008 season, they splurged in free agency, handing out over $150 million in guaranteed money. Much of that investment came on offense. New England signed wide receivers Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne and tight ends Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry, adding more talent to a depleted receiving corps. The Patriots also fortified their offensive line through the trade acquisition of tackle Trent Brown and signing center Ted Karras, who started his career in New England and spent the 2020 season with the Dolphins.
The Patriots lose some of the rushing ability that Newton may have brought but they’re still expected to run the ball heavily while using their new skill position players to create mismatches in the passing game.
“We definitely expect to see the unexpected,” Boyer said. “We’ll just have to prepare and adjust for that as it comes up, but again, I think just when it comes to preparation that you don’t want to leave any stone unturned so you kind of study the player themselves and where they’ve been and what they’ve done and what they’ve had success with. And then you look at just from a philosophical offensive standpoint of how they may use them.”
Flores said that the defense’s approach won’t change much with Jones in the lineup as opposed to Newton. “We’re always trying to have an effect on the quarterback,” he said.
If anything, players are expecting Jones to perform like anything but a rookie when they see him for the first time.
“He’s smart. He’s not like your typical rookie quarterback coming in and making mistakes,” linebacker Jerome Baker said. “He’s smart, he’s got a strong arm, accurate. He’s a Patriots guy, I guess you can say. We’ve got to come in there and bring our A-game. At the end of the day, he’s a pro player just like the rest of us, no matter if it’s his first year or his fifth year. You’ve got to come in there and really execute at the end of the day.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 1:50 PM.
