Mac Jones presumably learned a lot from Nick Saban during his time at Alabama.
He’s using one of his former coach’s lessons as he heads into his second NFL season, and it’s not anything Saban taught him about actually playing football.
Rather, it is what the Crimson Tide leader told him about shutting out the noise and focusing on the day-to-day process to improve that Jones is relying on this summer.
“I’ll reference coach [Nick] Saban here,” Jones recently told NBC Sports’ Peter King. “But if I ever listened to the internet, I would’ve stopped playing a long time ago. You’re always gonna get people who say that you’re not good enough to do something. I still have so much to prove. I’m always trying to be better than I was yesterday and be better than myself, really.
“I just try to compete against myself. I know when it’s a good day. I know when it’s a bad day. It’s more about the routine. What did I do before practice to put myself in position? Can I keep it consistent? Can I do it every day? [I] persevere and work each day. That’s all you can do.”
According to Bill Belichick, Jones has made “dramatic improvement” this offseason after a rookie campaign in which he played well overall but threw seven interceptions in his final five games, including a playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills.
“Everyone recognizes how well he prepares and how much further along he [is] than a year ago,” Belichick told reporters recently.
Jones has changed his body as well, which could come in handy as he looks to build on his first season. If the Patriots are going to leap from being a playoff team to a bona fide AFC contender in 2022, it will likely be because Jones has taken a massive step forward.