Mac Jones speaks on Bill Belichick's new "hands-on" role with Patriots offense

BOSTON -- The new structure of the Patriots' offense has been talked about quite a bit this offseason. Really, it's been the biggest story surrounding the team, with Mac Jones entering a critical second season and with Josh McDaniels leaving his post as offensive coordinator after 10 years in his second stint with that job.

While the exact identity of the eventual offensive play-caller has yet to be announced, there's been no doubt that head coach Bill Belichick has taken a much more active role in the offense this season. That's been evident in the few practice sessions open to the media, when Belichick has been involved in several aspects of the offense that previously didn't fall under his day-to-day purview.

That was unmistakable this week, when Belichick was seen delivering shotgun snaps to Jones on the practice field on Tuesday. Jones was asked in a lighthearted fashion about taking those snaps from the 70-year-old head coach, but the quarterback gave an extensive answer about how much more involvement Belichick has had in the offense thus far.

"Yeah it was good. I know you guys saw that. I'm sure you enjoyed it. But it was fun for me to get snaps from him," Jones said via Zoom on Thursday, after the Patriots canceled their third and final minicamp session. "But we were just talking through something with the running backs. Like you said, he's very hands-on. Last year, he was more with the defense and stuff, but now it's like, 'OK, let me show you this.' And he's kind of coaching us and the running backs in that drill about the way that they need to get through the line of scrimmage. So he's very hands-on, and I feel like we've made a lot of growth together as an offensive unit with him and then obviously personally with him and as a quarterback group."

While Belichick's primarily made his bones as a defensive coach, Jones spoke to Belichick's vast knowledge of football in general, and how that will help the offense.

"We're all on the same page, and like I said, he's seen the most amount of football of any of our coaches, and he's seen offense, defense and special teams," Jones said. "So having his input is always gonna be very beneficial to me, because he knows what puts stress on the defense. And now with him being very hands-on, he knows how we can stress the defense and how it's going to play into our hand."

Jones also spoke at length about the new terminology being used in the Patriots' offense. While the Patriots have been careful to not give too much away about their changes, Jones noted that the main focus has been about simplifying matters to allow everyone on offense to process plays faster.

"Yeah, I think the idea for every offense is to have an identity and to be able to play fast and play quicker, and putting stress on the defense is important for any offense. We want to be able to do that consistently," Jones explained. "And we want to be able to do whatever we want to do at any given time, whether that's a run, pass, play-action, short, medium or long. We're trying to be able to have a little bit of variety, and just grow together with the young guys and the old guys. We have guys that have been in this system for many years and we have some younger guys like myself who have kind of seen both sides. So there's finding a good balance and then growing together as a unit is the most important part."

Jones added: "You know, at the end of the day, football is football. You know, offensive football, there's only so much you can do. You can't recreate the wheel with every different system. I think you either run it or you throw it. It's really that simple. And that's pretty much all there is to it."