QUARTERBACK MAC JONES

Press Conference
Tuesday, November 16, 2021

On what the veteran players told him about how to prepare for a Thursday night game:

MJ: I think just trust your training and focus on what you can control, and just have the right attitude throughout the week and be ready to go on Thursday.

On if he has ever had such a quick turnaround from week-to-week:

MJ: No. This is the first Thursday night game we've had, so it'll be a good experience just to learn how to play, you know, right after you just played on Sunday,

On how his leadership has developed over the years:

MJ: I think that just happens naturally. You can't force yourself to be a leader, and it comes with time, and, obviously, doing the right thing all the time, and really good leaders, they're themselves. They don't try to be somebody else, and they just do what they are supposed to do, and they do it to the best of their ability.

On the biggest difference between this week compared to previous weeks:

MJ: I think just time. Usually, we play on Sunday, and now we're playing on Thursday, so you just lose a couple of days, and you just have to get it all in while you can, and then just be ready to go by Thursday.

On if he feels like he is up to speed with the game plan right now given the short week:

MJ: Yeah. I think today was good, but definitely some stuff to clean up.

On if he had to shorten his turnaround after Sunday's game to start preparing for the Falcons on Thursday:

MJ: Yeah. For sure. With the quick turnaround, we all made an agreement to focus on Thursday, and nothing in the past matters, and nothing in the future past Thursday matters, so we're all on the same page there.

On if any of his family will be at the game in Atlanta on Thursday:

MJ: Yeah. My family will be there. They come to all the games, so it's always good.

On his conversations with Matthew Judon:

MJ: They're good. I think Matt's a funny person. He's always having fun with it, and like we talked about earlier with leadership, he's just himself, and yeah. That's just who he is. He's a fun guy, and you can tell on the field he's just out there playing the game how he knows how to play.

On if his confidence throwing the ball into tight windows down the field has grown lately:

MJ: Yeah. I think just nailing the opportunity when it's there, and there's been times I've missed that, and I can definitely do a better job of that consistently, and it just goes back to sticking to my reads, and on that play, he was open, and I threw it to him, and we just got to keep doing that.

On Dean Pees and the Falcons defense:

MJ: I think they're a really good defense. They play with a lot of effort, and they do some stuff to confuse the quarterback, and, you know, they've done a good job of disguising and all that, so we just got to go out there and stick to our rules, and they're a good team. They have really good team speed, and he's a great defensive coordinator who has been around for a long time, you know, here, Baltimore, Tennessee, et cetera, so he's been a lot of different places, and he's done a good job at every stop.

On if he has a favorite Matthew Judon story:

MJ: Not really. Just every day there's something new, so he just likes to have fun, and he always has the music on in the locker room and stuff, so he's the DJ, I guess, if you want to call them that.

On if he has ever requested a song in the locker room:

MJ: No. They can do that, and I just listen just like everybody else.

On if it is different preparing for this week's game coming off a big win as opposed to a loss:

MJ: Not really. I think that's a lot of like outcome thinking, and you can't really focus on that. It's hard to, but you shouldn't have to let something bad happen to you to be good, if that makes sense. Like, you should just demand yourself to be good all the time, regardless of if your last play, your last game was good or bad. That's something that you just have to take for a grain of salt and just keep moving forward and don't focus on the past and don't focus on the future.

On how he has prepared himself for the cold weather games coming up in a couple weeks:

MJ: Yeah. This game will be inside, so we don't have to worry about any of that, and when the other stuff happens, it'll happen, and we always practice outside, so it's always good to get the reps there outside.

On how his relationship with Josh McDaniels has evolved since training camp:

MJ: Josh is a great coach, and he's been close with me ever since I got here, and he knows that. He wants me to be the best player I can be just like everybody else on the offense, so communication is definitely important, and we've done a good job of that all year, and, obviously, he's done a great job putting me in a position to lead the offense, and for the other guys to make the plays, so he does a great job of that, and hopefully we can just continue to do that.

On his confidence checking out of plays at the line of scrimmage:

MJ: I think it just goes back to applying the coaching to the game, and when you're out there, and they give you the look that you want, then keep it, and if they don't give you the look you want, then change it, but we practice those, and at this point we've had a lot of experience throughout the past couple of months, so it's just a lot of the ins and outs of the offense and doing what you're supposed to do based on the knowledge that you already have and like the baseline rules that you already have, so I'm just trying to get the right plays called at the right time.

On if he is allowed to change the play whenever he wants:

MJ: That's top-secret information. You'll have to ask Josh [McDaniels] or Coach Belichick about that one.

On if Jakob Johnson's performance has improved since dying his hair red:

MJ: Yeah. Maybe he should become a 'Bama fan or keep it, I guess.

On playing at Mercedes-Benz Stadium:

MJ: I mean, I always say just the field is a hundred yards long and fifty-three and a third wide, so just focus on that, and everything else will change every week, so that's all you can really focus on, and a lot of people have played here, and I think it's a great stadium, but it's not the most important thing, you know, so.

On locating the play clock in the stadium:

MJ: I think there's familiarity there, but, you know, I always do that, and the quarterback's job is to find the play clock. Whatever stadium you're at, get there and find them, and then just kind of play the game on the field that you've always played on, so.

On if David Andrews has been talking to him about the Georgia Bulldogs football team being ranked higher than Alabama:

MJ: Yeah. A little bit, but yeah. We talk about it every once in a while, but nothing crazy.