Before Drake Maye’s late-game heroics against the Tennessee Titans, the New England Patriots’ opponent had a decision to make on a punt play: to kick or not to kick to Marcus Jones.
The Titans opted for the first route, and it cost them. The third-year returner fielded the ball at the Patriots’ 25-yard line, and took it all the way to midfield to set up Maye and the offense in a comparatively manageable position. 11 plays later they scored an improbable touchdown to took the contest to overtime as time expired.
Jones having an active hand in that is nothing new. In fact, he has been one of the Patriots’ best players in his role as punt returner.
Returning to the All-Pro form he showcased as a rookie, Jones ranks second among qualifying punt returners with an average of 15.6 yards per runback; only the Detroit Lions’ Kalif Raymond (16.6) has him beat in that category at the moment.
On the whole, Jones has returned 17 punts for a total of 266 yards. Those include his 25-yarder versus Tennessee, as well as a 44-yarder earlier in the same game. He also broke free for a 62-yard runback against the New York Jets the previous week to set up another touchdown by New England’s up-and-down offense.
What makes him so good, though? According to the man himself, the secret lies in his supporting staff around coordinator Jeremy Springer.
“First off, I would say ‘Spring Show’ has been putting up a great message to us every single time that we come into meetings, letting us know how important special teams is as a whole. And then also just the schemes that we’ve been having, guys blocking,” Jones said.
“[Brenden] Schooler, [JaMycal] Hasty, everyone; the corners — Marco [Wilson], [Marcellas] Dial, all those guys — making sure they’re doing their blocks and everything so that I can end up even having time to return the ball. It’s been a collective effort, for sure.”
The Patriots’ special teams performance as a whole has been uneven this season. Kickoff returns rarely gained significant yardage; the punt coverage team surrendered a touchdown in Week 7 against the Jacksonville Jaguars; Joey Slye has made just 80 percent of his field goals, including one that was blocked.
Jones, meanwhile, has been a bright spot especially as of late. And while he likes to deflect praise onto his coaches and teammates, he himself also does his part — starting with deciding to return a kick in the first place.
“The first thing I would say is always seeing the way the ball’s kicked, whether it’s an over-end punt or it’s going to be a long punt that doesn’t have that much hang time. Hang time has an important factor on whether I return a punt or not,” he explained.
“And then just kind of going from there. Seeing the nose of the ball, and then peaking every once in a while, seeing where everyone is. Whenever I do get the ball, that’s when my offensive instinct, my offensive mind go into setting up blocks and going from there.”
The offensive instinct Jones is talking about has reared its head regularly since he joined the Patriots as a third-round selection in the 2022 NFL Draft — and not just on special teams: Jones also has played 19 snaps on offense, touching the ball four times for 78 yards and a touchdown.
New Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt has yet to use Jones in that capacity. However, given his rare talent in the return game he has been able to have a major impact on the New England offense even without playing a single snap for them so far in 2024.
