First of all, it's May.
Second, it's May 27th.
Third, there was very little competition and it was mostly an exercise in teaching. It was barely a "practice."
Fourth, there were so many veterans missing on both sides of the ball you would have thought the Patriots put up a sign outside Gillette that said, VET DAY OFF.
Finally, the head coach is Bill Belichick, so we have no earthly idea for what his motivations might be to do this or that, especially when it comes to the quarterback position post No. 12.
But if initial impressions count for anything ... in a very quiet voice because it's so, so early ... but psst, the Patriots might be onto something with Mac Jones. And we don't mean later. We mean ... now.
I'm not going to give you any stats. I'm not really going to point out a specific play that, cliche alert (guilty as charged), shows you exactly what Jones is capable of (ok, I lied ... there's one of those ... and play might be a stretch).
When it comes to quarterback play in the NFL, you kind of just know it when you see it. And Jones ... looks like he has it. Or at least something that will turn into it at some point.
This is the part where I throw out all kinds of qualifiers because who the hell really knows what's going to happen or what's in Belichick's mind (like keeping Jones as far away from the Week 4 Armageddon that will be Sunday Night Football with Tom Brady and the Bucs). Jones could get some mysterious hip injury that really doesn't cause him to miss any time a la Jarrett Stidham and be out of the competition tomorrow (who are we kidding, that would never happen to Jones or many other QBs).
But this is what I saw on the practice field on Thursday.
- Jones is smaller than I thought. I mean, I know his official height was 6-2.5 ... but he looks exactly like that on the field. Physically, he is not the second coming of Brady.
- Cam Newton looks like he has trimmed down some, but his mechanics and footwork are still not good enough. He still doesn't square up and throws to his right sail.
- Stidham looks like an afterthought. Jones is light years ahead of him already. Brian Hoyer is Brian Hoyer, and he's good to have around no matter what 98 percent of Patriots fans think.
- Maybe Jones looks a lot more attractive due to the company he's keeping ... we've all been through that before.
- Jones throws the best ball out of all of them. Always consistent, and the spiral is the same every time. He lays the ball off a little more before throwing than I thought he did on film, but the release is still quick. Some tightening to do there, for sure, but it's solid all around.
- Here's the thing that got me really excited, and I might be seeing more than is truly there because I want it to be there because I can not go through another season of watching the Patriots' passing offense operate like it did last season ...
There was some 11-on-11 work late in practice at half speed, and it was against the scout team offense playing defense (no real defense on the field) playing off cards. It looked like Josh McDaniels had the players working off a teaching progression in this practice where some of the things they worked on earlier between QBs and WRs, would come together here for a bit.
Newton got up and identified the Mike linebacker. Great. He did that last year, and it's the very basic part of this passing offense. He delivered a ball in the seam a little late, but it was complete.
Jones came up next ... he identified the Mike and also tagged on a slide by the offensive line.
Ok, now I'm paying attention. That's another step up.
Then, Jones and the receiver, Nelson Agholor, both identified what the defense was doing — a weakside blitz — they looked at each other, Agholor pointed.
Then Jones said, "I know."
The ball was snapped, Jones probably didn't even have the laces and fired the ball on the slant into wide-open space.
Jones saw what the defense was going to do, he and the receiver made a slight adjustment, and the Patriots exploited it for a big gain.
That's the freaking Patriots' passing offense.
If that's any indication, Jones is going to be part of this very, very soon.
Even his new teammates sense something ... something you can't quite define.
"Comes to work and you just can feel his energy and his leadership already," said Kendrick Bourne. "He has a swag to him that I didn't know that he had at first. He's out there confident and that's what you need in a quarterback, and in all our players. You've gotta have confidence. He's come in with that and I think that's going to take him a long way. If you can believe in yourself in all times, for any player, you'll have success anywhere you are. So I can just see the confidence."
Look, I may completely off on all of this. I may have QB goggles on and I'm looking for anything that remotely looks like an NFL QB that has the potential to win before and after the snap. Belichick may have no intentions of playing Jones as a rookie.
But that's not the feeling I got watching Jones in this admittedly nothing practice in May.
Belichick knows exactly what he's doing. He knew some of us in the media would see Jones taking second-team reps in practice and run wild with it. So he's OK with that. Maybe he's testing Jones. Maybe he wants to see how he deals with a little success and praise, and if Jones starts to feel himself. Then he'd get the Jonas Gray treatment. But if Jones stays the same and keep grinding ... I think all bets are off.
I think something is brewing there with Jones. Like now.