How Mac Jones is preparing for his first cold weather football season

Mac Jones grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. The daily mean temperature there is 57 degrees is December. He then played his college football in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the daily mean temperature in December is 48 degrees.

All that is to say that Jones is in for something new as the calendar flips to December in Foxborough, where the daily mean drops down to 27 degrees – and it only gets colder after New Years. Yet Jones is taking the same methodical approach to this challenge as he has to the rest of his young NFL career.

“I think just take each day day-by-day and try not to focus on it too much and just wear whatever you’re supposed to wear and take the advice from the older people that have played a lot in the cold and just trying to figure it out,” he said when asked on Wednesday about adjusting to the New England chill.

In particular, he has leaned on one veteran in the quarterback room who is not stranger to the cold. “Just asking Brian [Hoyer] a lot of questions, really,” Jones said when asked how he’s learning what he needs to do to prepare for the cold. Hoyer has spent six football winters in New England, plus one more each in Pittsburgh and Chicago, and two in Cleveland – where he also played in high school.

“Just that, and then, you know, you can’t wear too much, but you also don’t want to wear too little, but at the end of the day, it’s just a mental thing, and you got to just battle through it and take each experience and see what you can do better,” Jones continued. “If you think you’re too cold, then put more on and vice versa.”

Last week against Cleveland, Jones wore a hand warmer around his waist for the first time. The temperature for that game was in the mid-40’s.

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  One thing Jones doesn't plan on doing to adjust - wearing a glove on his throwing hand. When asked about it, he replied, "No. I don't have any experience with that, and, I mean, you just grab the ball and throw it regardless of the conditions. Just do what you've always done as a quarterback."
  
  It was just under 40 degrees when the Patriots took the field for practice on Wednesday. Although that's well below what Jones may be used to, he told reporters it's not the coldest temperature he's ever thrown a football in.
  
  "I don't remember, but not a lot of days when it's really cold, but I've thrown in colder than that," Jones replied when trying to recall his coldest football experience. "It's going to get even more cold, so just getting ready for that. I mean, you can't really predict or prepare, it's not like you can go throw it in a refrigerator or something or freezer. You just got to go out there and do it, and it is what it is."
  
  'It is what it is' seems to be a common line of thinking for Jones early in his Patriots career. The cold weather, like trying to learn the playbook or playing with all new teammates, it just one more thing he needs to move from one bucket to another.
  
  "It's just another challenge, but you just have to look at it positively, like as if it was raining or really windy or whatever the situation is. It's football, and you're going to have days where it's cold and days where it's windy and days when it's raining, so you have to be ready for all situations."
  
  The forecast for Sunday's game against the Titans looks to be about 40 degrees and sunny for kickoff. After that could come the next big challenge, with next Monday's game in Buffalo looking like it could be played in below-freezing temperatures...and snow.

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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.