One of the bigger questions surrounding the Patriots right now is will Mac Jones be ready to start Week 1 of the regular season?
By all accounts, he looked solid this spring during OTAs and minicamp, but how much value is there in them considering no contact is allowed and players are just wearing t-shirts and shorts?
Former Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia joined The Ken & Curtis Show over the weekend and discussed what the coaches look for during these sessions.
“I think that when you get the new guys in and you’re in these OTAs and the spring sessions and then ultimately minicamp, I think what you’re really seeing is just a couple of things,” Scarnecchia began. “One is how well does the guy take coaching? How well he listens. How well he really applies what you’re trying to get taught. And that’s true for techniques and that’s true for the offensive system that you have put in this spring. Does he act appropriately if the linebacker he’s suppose to squeeze on, he squeezes on? Or not. That along with his mental makeup, not his physical toughness, but his mental toughness. Can he take hard coaching? Can he do the things that you want him to get done?
“You’ll never know how well he can do until you get the pads on and get him out there, but if you spend draft choices on guys that we have there, and I will speak from an offensive line standpoint, like [Isaiah] Wynn and David Andrews and Ted Karras and on and on and on, what you thought of them in the evaluation process will be validated as for as intelligence and as far as the mental toughness and how well they take coaching. You’re not going to know for sure until you get the pads on and you see what the guy can do.”
The pads will eventually come on once training camp begins in late July and then it seems more will be known on what exactly Jones can be.