Perry: What Mac wants to improve after 'full audit' of himself originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
FOXBORO -- Mac Jones went to work during the bye week, executing "a full audit" of himself, he told reporters on Wednesday.
One particular area of focus? "Just making sure my feet and eyes are in the right place," he said.
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How Jones has seen the field has been the subject of much discussion over the course of the first half of his sophomore season. He's the 33rd-rated quarterback in the league to this point in the year (76.0). He's 21st in yards per attempt (6.8). He has the highest interception percentage (4.2) among qualifying quarterbacks, per Pro Football Reference.
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His rating (92.5), yards per attempt (7.3) and interception percentage (2.5) were all better in 2021. Is he somehow seeing the field less clearly than he did as a rookie?
If he is, it might not be solely attributable to some in-a-vacuum individual regression.
He's in a different offense. He's playing behind an offensive line that has had its issues in pass protection. He was injured twice in the pocket inside his first three games of the season, the second of which was a high-ankle sprain that forced him to miss three games.
Then there's the timing of the offense itself that may be impacting how Jones views what's developing in front of him. He was asked on Wednesday if the timing of the passing game -- how his footwork marries up with the routes being run by his pass-catchers -- is vastly different than it was a year ago under offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
"I wouldn’t make comparisons," Jones said. "Just two different offenses and different coaches, different players. We’re doing some similar things, which is really good, and every offense is different, right? You watch another team, their quarterbacks’ feet might be a little different than where it matches up with us. It’s just specific to us, and I think we’re really doing a good job there for the most part and practice is where it starts.
"Like I said, the only way you can tell is through full-speed reps. We’ve gotten a lot of those, obviously in training camp and in the spring too, so just going back on those reps that we’ve had and making sure that everything times up."
But things haven't lined up well, according to some who've played the game at the highest level.
ESPN's Dan Orlovsky, who spent over a decade in the NFL as a quarterback and has parlayed his understanding of the game into a successful career as an analyst, highlighted some odd timing in the Patriots passing game on Wednesday during an episode of NFL Live. He pulled three plays from the Colts game in Week 9 where things looked off. Jones' feet and eyes didn't match up with the way his teammates ran their routes, Orlovsky explained.
On a third-and-10 sack deep in his own territory, Orlovsky highlighted Jones' drop behind center.
"You're going to see him go 1-2-3 (steps), hitch, hitch," Orlovsky said. "Now he's in his second hitch. There is not a person, wide-receiver wise or pass-catching wise, that is actually ready for the football. But his clock is going, 'Hitch, hitch,' in the pocket. To us quarterbacks, we're like, 'Man, I've held the ball forever, I gotta go.' He decides to take off... runs himself into a sack on third down."
On a throw over the middle to rookie Tyquan Thornton, which ended up as an incompletion after it buzzed low by Thornton's knees, Orlovsky again pointed to the lack of rhythm to the play that seemed to be rooted in its design. Orlovsky paused the video as Jones was about to throw.
"Mac is throwing that football," Orlovsky said. "That football is coming out of his hand. This receiver is nowhere near ready getting into the top of his cut. The ball is already out of Mac Jones' hands. [Thornton] is still looking at the corner!... If the synching of that was a little bit better, that's a completed pass."
Orlovsky added: "That would be the focus that I would've had in the bye week, figuring out, 'Is the quarterback's drop too fast? Are his hitches too fast? Are the receivers too deep in their concept?' There's a disconnect with the synching of it."
Longtime NFL wideout Keyshawn Johnson chimed in from his seat on the ESPN set.
"You cannot win football games with that," Johnson said. "That was amazing... Based on what Dan just showed us, that, to me, that's on the coaching. Unless Mac is not doing what they're telling him. We don't know that."
There are a variety of ways in which the Patriots can change offensively to try to come up with better results without overhauling their entire offense. More gap runs. More first-down passing. More variety with their RPOs. More no-huddle.
But if there is a timing issue with their passing concepts, perhaps that should've been given top billing on their list of bye-week adjustments.
