Mac Jones is capable of doing a lot of good things to lead his New England offense.
The second-year quarterback is an accurate thrower. He’s also a passionate, intelligent leader and field general.
But Jones’ competitive fire sometimes leads him to do things that some Patriots’ fans and even his coaches would probably prefer he didn’t.
There were a couple examples of that in last Sunday’s loss in Miami in which Jones threw his body in front of backside pursuit Dolphins’ defenders in an admirable effort to give his ball carriers a better chance to gain yards.
Asked about Jones’ blocks and whether that was something the team wanted him doing, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick pointed to an example from a year ago when his quarterback similarly put himself in harm’s way in the heat of the competitive moment.
“It was the same conversation we had last year in the Jets game,” Belichick said. “He ran like 30 yards and pushed Damien [Harris] into the end zone. Should he have done it? Shouldn’t he have done it? I don’t know. Again, there is a competitive play out there that every player has. Sometimes it’s not really part of the normal play or assignment.
“I mean we’re not looking for him to be a lead blocker on plays. That’s not really his primary role. But I mean I think everybody respects his competitiveness and his toughness like a lot of other players that do things that are sometimes beyond what their normal assignment would appear to be.”
That said, Belichick acknowledged such plays are discussed with Jones.
“Some things like that are just instinctive plays,” Belichick said. “We talk about all those things. Sometimes after the fact depending on how unusual it is that they would come up. But yeah we talk about them.”
