The Patriots aren’t exactly a big-play offense. And when Mac Jones does throw the ball deep, he typically is rewarded with drops from the likes of DeVante Parker and Jalen Reagor.
But New England’s young quarterback still hopes a deep-passing game can help his team’s struggling offense.
“The biggest thing is, how can I execute the gameplan?” Jones said Friday during a news conference in Frankfurt, Germany. “And I always say, ‘Take what the defense gives.’ So, if they give you that, the deeper throws, then take it. If you’ve got time, then you’ve gotta take it. And I can do a better job with that.”
The Patriots offense needs to crawl before it can run. As much as Jones would like to air it out, he knows he can’t attempt plays that aren’t there to be made.
“But at the same time, you can’t force, right?” he said. “You can’t press or do anything like that. You’ve gotta read the play for what it is based on that play. … I think there’s offenses around the league that you see that do that a lot, and some of them are more, you know, run the ball and do this and that. So it just depends on the day and gameplan and team.”
Again, Jones has seen almost no success this season when throwing the ball downfield. He currently ranks near the bottom of the league in many advanced deep-passing metrics, including fifth-worst in average completed air yards, 12th-worst in average intended air yards, fifth-worst in average air yards differential and second words in longest completed air distance.
Essentially, he rarely attempts deep passes, and when he does attempt them, they usually don’t work.
That doesn’t mean Jones is bad at throwing deep balls. Patrick Mahomes ranks near him in most of the aforementioned categories. However, it does mean a quarterback who loves throwing the ball deep isn’t finding success doing it, which must be frustrating.
“Each year’s different,” Jones said. “I actually threw the ball, you know, pretty good last year deep — statistically. And there’s some things that were good there. But I want to do that every year. And I like throwing the ball deep. I did it in college a lot, and I had a lot of success. It’s definitely in my blood, and I want to do that. So, gotta improve there and make it work.”
Jones will look to author more explosive plays this Sunday when the Patriots host the Indianapolis Colts in Germany. And he’ll look to do it without Kendrick Bourne, who’s out for the season due to a torn ACL, and DeVante Parker, who still is dealing with a concussion.
New England and Indianapolis will kick off at 9:30 a.m. ET on Sunday.
