FOXBOROUGH -- Mac Jones earned the Patriots' starting quarterback job this summer, beating out veteran Cam Newton.
The rookie has done everything right so far, but Patriots captain Dont'a Hightower pointed out Thursday some of the veterans on the team are trying to do what they can so his plate isn't too full ahead of the season opener Sunday against Miami.
“You still don’t want to put too much on Mac’s plate," he said. "As good as he is, you don’t want to stunt his growth with putting too much on his plate. That’s where a lot of us older guys come in. Whether it be David [Andrews], Trent [Brown], Shaq [Mason] on the offensive side. Or me, Dev [Devin McCourty], AP [Adrian Phillips], or [Ja’Whaun] Bentley, or [Kyle] Van Noy, or [Matt] Judon, or Slate [Matthew Slater], or somebody else on the team.
"So, as fast as he’s going, we just want to be there to help him go as well as he is and not try and put too much on his plate. Everybody else is going to demand a lot of him, so we want to do our job as take as much as we can off of him.”
Hightower did point out coming from Alabama and playing for Nick Saban has helped.
"I think Mac is just being Mac," he said. "I don’t think he’s asking for a lot. I think he’s just kind of going about things how he knows how. And it just happens to marry up with a lot of the ways that we’ve done it here. Obviously with Bill [Belichick] and Nick [Saban] being close, they kind of run their teams in a similar way. He was able to adapt to things a lot easier than most rookies and stuff."
Every player that has spoken about Jones has said how he already has the respect of the locker room. So, how has he been able to do that as a rookie?
“The way he works," Hightower said. "You don’t really hear Mac say much. He’ll crack a joke. He’s got his way about it. He’s got his swag, but more times than not if I don’t see him on the field, he’s either running to or from a meeting or getting treatment. That’s in its own has earned him a lot of respect around here. Him having the production that he’s had it’s easy to respect him and appreciate things like that.”
Jones and the Patriots will take on the Dolphins Sunday at 4:25 p.m.
