Mac Jones Studying Other NFL Teams To Fix This Patriots Problem

FOXBORO, Mass. — Three weeks into the season, the New England Patriots have been the NFL’s worst team at creating big plays.

Mac Jones is searching around the league for ways to fix that.

The Patriots quarterback said Wednesday that he’s studied other NFL offenses as New England attempts to increase its own explosiveness. He believes they have a viable plan in place.

“I’ve looked at other teams in the league and how they do it,” Jones said, “and kind of gotten a really good idea of how I can improve on it, how we can improve on it as a team. The offensive line’s doing good protecting, so we definitely need to hit (those plays). I’m looking forward to just growing in that area.”

The Patriots have generated just three 20-plus-yard pass plays this season, the fewest in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings lead the league in that category with 17, and 10 teams are in double digits.

Jones also has struggled to connect on deep passes. He’s attempted a league-high 18 of those through three weeks, per Pro Football Focus, and completed just three — a completion rate of 16.7%. Only Joe Burrow (11.1%) ranks lower.

“Those are statistically the hardest passes to hit,” head coach Bill Belichick said Monday. “Completion percentage and all that is true of every team. But we’ve got to hit them, we’ve got to throw them, and we need more production out of the deep balls.

“I mean, not every play is going to be a 40-yard pass, but the ones that we throw during the game 30 yards, 40 yards, 25 yards, whatever it is, we want to be productive on those plays. So we just need to keep working on them.”

Hitting on more chunk plays would be an ideal way to energize New England’s offense, which has shown clear improvement under new coordinator Bill O’Brien but hasn’t had much production to show for it. The Patriots scored 20 points in Week 1, 17 in Week 2 and 15 in Week 3, with two of those coming on a Matthew Judon safety.

They’ll be eyeing a more prolific performance when they visit the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at AT&T Stadium.