Since his early days at Alabama, Mac Jones has at times been described as a ‘lunch pail’ kind of player. As it turns out, instead of a lunch pail, he has two buckets.

Those buckets were the theme of Jones’ press availability on Thursday – the first time he’s spoken to the media since draft night. Asked about how he views his development as a player, the 22-year-old introduced his metaphor.

“I have to make strides every day,” he started, explaining that in his mind he has “two buckets – where things I know, [I] keep in one bucket, and things I keep messing up or things I’m not getting, I have to put them in another bucket and figure out what’s wrong.”

The buckets came up again during a separate answer from Jones. “Every day I’m just trying to get better and learn from the guys that have already done it and have been through it. So it’s the two buckets – one of them is good, one of them is bad, and you have to improve on the bad and keep the good in the good,” he said a few minutes later, in response to a question about self-evaluation. “That’s pretty much how I’m going about it.”

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  Eventually, Jones was asked directly about what the bucket metaphor means to him, and what it takes to move things from one bucket to the other. 
  
  "I think it’s just problem solving," Jones explained. "That’s all life is about. Yeah, you can be mad for a couple minutes. And I’m going to be mad about it, but I have to move on and figure out what works, what I did wrong actually from a schematic standpoint. That’s how every good problem solver works."
  
  Right now, the main problem Jones is working on solving is mastering the Patriots' playbook. " I have to figure out, in this offense, how I can do that," Jones said, in regards to being comfortable in the Patriots' system. "How I can break down the plays, what’s my job, what do I have to do on this specific play, and then slot the plays individually. I did that obviously good in college, or whatever, but this is the pros and I have to figure out how to do it here. So that’s what I’m going to do."
  
  Jones' bucket approach likely served him well under Nick Saban at Alabama, and should transfer well to the Patriots' day-by-day mentality. As for the balance of those buckets - it will be worth watching which one fills up through training camp and into the season.

MORE: News & notes from Thursday’s Patriots practice

Click here for 98.5 The Sports Hub’s complete coverage of the Patriots.

Alex Barth is a writer and digital producer for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Looking for a podcast guest? Let him know on Twitter @RealAlexBarth or via email at abarth@985TheSportsHub.com.

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