The overwhelming silver lining from Sunday's season opening loss for the New England Patriots has been the play of rookie quarterback Mac Jones.
In his debut, Jones completed 29 of 39 passes for 281 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions in the 17-16 setback to the Miami Dolphins.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was upbeat about the play of Jones, but kept things in perspective when analyzing his performance.
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"There's no young player that's ever played in their first NFL game that didn't come out of the game and said 'wow, there's a lot of things I can learn moving forward that I hadn't experienced before,'" McDaniels said Tuesday. "I thought there were some positives to his play but at the same time, I think he knows there were a few decisions that he made and a couple of reads and a few throws."
Curran: Jones' debut performance dwarfs importance of Pats loss
McDaniels, who spent parts of 12 seasons as Tom Brady's offensive coordinator, said that there's not many quarterbacks that play the game in the NFL that come out and say 'man, I had a perfect game.'
"There were some positives in the game for sure, some things he learned, some things that he did well and I think there's also some things that now he's seen them, he sees some things different," McDaniels said, noting the difference in the speed of a regular season game compared with that of a preseason contest. "He'll adapt to that and continue to improve his communication, his ability to see things quickly and the decisions he makes along the way as well."