Mac Jones expressed excitement about working with his new positional coach in Joe Judge, even if Judge would not confirm that he has the job title of quarterbacks coach. (He did confirm he is currently coaching the quarterbacks, however) While the Patriots mess around with the media over the semantics of job titles, the team is conducting their organized team activities, a voluntary series of practices.
That’s where Jones has gotten his first on-field exposure to the new era of coaching in New England after his rookie season under offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. For now, Bill Belichick has not replaced McDaniels with a new coordinator. Belichick has instead gone with a coordinator by committee, which seems to include Judge, Matt Patricia and perhaps even Belichick himself.
“Obviously he’s a great defensive mind, but he also has great offensive knowledge,” Jones said of Belichick after practice on Monday. “They’re all helping out and making things really easy for us and just teaching us what they know. It’s been really good just to be able to stand up in the meetings and talk through things with everybody, and everyone’s on the same page, regardless of who’s talking or who’s saying what.”
Jones and Judge met last season during joint practices between the New York Giants and the Patriots. At the time, Judge was New York’s head coach. After the Giants fired him this offseason, he rejoined New England’s staff. Once the special teams coordinator for the Patriots, Judge is immersing himself in the offensive phase of the game, which he apparently favored in New York.
“He’s seen a lot of football, obviously he’s been around football for a long time, whether that be as a head coach, special teams, playing the position himself,” Jones said. “So (Judge) has knowledge that is very beneficial to me as a quarterback and obviously I’m going to learn with him, that’s the goal, is to kind of teach each other and move along and take what he knows and then take the experiences that I have and combine them and work together as a great team.”
