QUARTERBACK MAC JONES
PRESS CONFERENCE
November 8, 2023
Q: How much are you looking forward to the trip?
MJ: I think it's cool, right? It's a great opportunity for us to go out there and play the game that we love in front of a different crowd. Definitely looking forward to it.
Q: Multilingual guy, do you know any German?
MJ: Not really, no.
Q: 76 brats eaten in 10 minutes.
MJ: I don't know if I can get that.
Q: Who on the team could beat it? David [Andrews]?
MJ: Yeah, probably David. That was good.
Q: We asked Bill 'what's a phrase you'd want to learn?' What's it for you?
MJ: I guess we'll see, right? I know they're going to ask me if I know any, and hopefully I can learn. I'm a quick learner, so we'll see.
Q: Study up on the plane?
MJ: Yeah.
Q: Have you ever been overseas?
MJ: Yeah, I have.
Q: Do you have a game plan on how to sort of attack the jet-lag issue, and what's your plan?
MJ: Yeah, I have a game plan, and already in effect. They've talked to us about it a little bit, and all that stuff. At the end of the day, stick to your routine and maybe move it up or move it back depending on how that fits for you. So, I've definitely done that.
Q: Have you adjusted your sleeping schedule already?
MJ: Yeah.
Q: Everyone in this locker room is pretty much in unfamiliar territory sitting at 2-7 at the midpoint of the season. In your opinion, what is the biggest reason for your offense's struggles?
MJ: Just being consistent and trying to work together. We've got some young guys playing, and just making sure we're all on the same page and out there executing each week. Like I say, each week's different and it's important to understand what need to do this week and that where our focus is. Communication needs to be up there, make everybody be on the same page and then usually, it's pretty good.
Q: We know J.C. [Jackson] is not going to travel to Germany. It was reported he was late to the team hotel on Saturday. When those two are connected and he doesn't start on Sunday, what kind of a message does that send to the locker room?
MJ: Yeah, look, I think we all try to do the right things. J.C. has done a lot of good stuff. Obviously, I'll let him speak about that, but I have a lot of respect for J.C. and what he does.
Q: Bill was up here a little while ago, talked about Adrian Klemm and his situation. Obviously, you're not an offensive lineman, but at the same time, he impacts what you guys want to get done on the offensive side of the ball. What are your initial thoughts on that?
BB: Yeah, Coach Klemm is a great player coach, and I have a lot of respect for him. He's done a great job this year connecting with the players and teaching us, right, showing college tape and all that stuff that he has great knowledge about. I feel like we have a good coaching staff that works together, and every week they're always working together. I think it's a unit versus one person, and that's important to make sure as players we come together as a unit and as coaches, we come together as a unit, too.
Q: Re-watching games, I always like to go through it and it's always easier when you're re-watching it than when it's live. Sometimes I'd love to ask you, when you're going through a play, 'if I would have held it a little longer and could have let the play develop' but obviously there's something that led to you throwing it a little earlier. I'm curious on how you feel you're doing in that area of the game in terms of letting the plays develop and is that something you feel good about?
MJ: It's always easy to do it with a clicker, right? Sit there and see it. As a quarterback, you just have to make decisions. Really for me, it's just about being decisive. So, even if it's the right decision and you're decisive then you're not going to be wrong. Obviously, there's plays that I could hit or wait a little bit and hit some open guys. So, I definitely want to improve in that. A lot of it is just the timing of the play, like I talk about, and my footwork. So, making sure that those match up and watch around the league and see what other guys are doing, too. That's a great point and definitely something I want to put an emphasis on.
Q: How much do you have to grow? You know what I mean? You've been doing this a while now and you just said there's always things you're looking to get better at, when you look at it how much does it excite you that you can continue to grow and be where you want to be as an NFL quarterback?
MJ: Yeah, for sure. I think that's a great way to look at it. I mean, everyone wants to look at it negatively, but when maybe you're not playing as well as you can but honestly, I am going to look at it as a positive and what can I get better at? What are my weaknesses? Where do I need to improve? It's not going to happen overnight. I've said that before up here, I've got a lot of stuff to work on and every week I'm going to work on something and just try to close the gap on that and get rid of some bad habits that maybe I formed or things like that. It's sports, that happens, right? You might form a bad habit, but it might take a couple weeks, months, years to fix and the really good ones can fix it quickly and stay on top of it.
Q: Do you see signs of it?
MJ: Yeah, for sure. Like I said, working on it. Identifying, is a part of the thing and taking action is the next step. So, I definitely want to improve on certain things and in season sometimes it's hard, but at the same time, you've got to figure out how to keep this thing rolling.
Q: What do you see from the Colts defense, specifically?
MJ: They've got good players. I've obviously played against them. This will be my third time in a row. We played them decently well last year, and I feel like they've got good players at each level, right? Coach [Gus] Bradley does a good job. They are very sound fundamentally, and they've been bringing some more pressures and things like that. It looks like a good defense on film, and they're very sound. We have to bring our A game and really just focus on what we can control.
Q: When and how often do you see them run man-to-man?
MJ: A good amount, but it's kind of like a variable thing. I won't get into details, but that system of coverages and coaches, they have things that they do. Each game plan could be different, right? A lot of times those defenses have evolved and things like that. Each coordinator has their own flavor to it.
Q: You were asked earlier about maybe going through things a little too quickly. What might lead to that? What do you think has led to that when it has happened?
MJ: It's just being confident in the plays and making sure that, like I said, my feet time up with the route and all that stuff. Usually when I've got a lot of confidence in the play, it's better and I've kind of identified that and just making sure, like I said, my feet tie up with the route and then from there you just deliver a confident and decisive decision.
Q: Is the confidence part from practice? Maybe it's a play that you didn't love in practice?
MJ: Yeah, that's part of it. I mean, you have your core plays and you have plays that you want to try and things like that. But, at the end of the day, when my feet are good and they time up with the play then everything's pretty good.
