49ers QB Mac Jones Opens Up on Injury Heading Into Buccaneers Game
The San Francisco 49ers won’t have starting quarterback Brock Purdy available for Sunday, and their backup’s status is suddenly in doubt as well.
Yet, Mac Jones detailed what he is going through to get ready to play and what the Niners’ plan is to get him ready for their showdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida.
Brock Purdy has not practiced this week yet is on the injury report as questionable. It’s likely Jones will be the starter for the second straight week — and fourth time this season.
Mac Jones Is Working Hard To Play In Tampa
The 49ers (4-1) are 3-0 with Jones as their starter this season, and it’s no stretch to say he has kept them afloat over their first five weeks. Jones has a 66.7 completion percentage, a 99.1 quarterback rating and 6-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his outings.
Yet, even despite the mini-bye after the Niners’ 26-21 overtime road win over the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football, Jones is being listed as questionable with an oblique injury after his limited practice Wednesday.
“I’ve been getting treatment every day,” Jones said Wednesday. “Trying to do everything I can — sleep, eat, do the little things — and everyone else is doing the same thing so that’s NFL football.”
Jones confirmed he was injured on the Niners’ final offensive play — when he was hit by Byron Young on a third-down incompletion. Eddy Pineiro kicked the go-ahead, 41-yard field goal, and the Niners stopped the Rams to end the game.
“That was the last snap, so I guess I didn’t have to find out [if he could play through the pain],” Jones said. “We’ve got a plan in place and just gotta work through it and make sure you can protect yourself.”
When pressed to offer more specifics, Jones said he was trying to spare his aching body during practice so he could air it out Sunday.
“I was trying to save some throws,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, I’ve got to be ready for Sunday, and we’ve got a plan. So I’m taking it day by day.”
Adrian Martinez Would Start If Mac Jones Can’t Play
Fans of the 49ers know they have been ravaged by injuries this season. They likely don’t want to even think of a world where San Francisco has to go into Tampa — against the 4-1, NFC South-leading Bucs — without at least Jones playing.
But rookie quarterback Adrian Martinez is in line to make his NFL debut if both Purdy and Jones can’t play Sunday — or if Jones sustains an injury against the Bucs.
But Jones feels he has the perfect skillset and demeanor to step right in and play.
“I think he’s really cool,” Jones said. “Just a laid-back dude. Doesn’t let a lot get to him.”
Though Martinez has never taken the field in the NFL, he will turn 26 in January and is no stranger to pressure. He played his first four seasons at Nebraska — while feeling the weight of trying to guide that program back to prominence — before playing his COVID year at Kansas State.
“I feel like he’s had an interesting journey,” Jones said. “He’s the same guy every day, and those are the guys you want in your quarterback room.”
Noah Cates’ line simply dominated in Flyers season opener
There weren’t many bright spots for the Philadelphia Flyers last season. There was the arrival of Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny having one of the best seasons of his career, and, well, Travis Sanheim being slightly more recognized for the workhorse he is? Within that group though, the creation of a certain forward line that ended up being the only truly consistent threat.
Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster, and Bobby Brink were jammed together and has been virtually inseparable since. So much so that that line’s creator doesn’t even work for the team anymore and his replacement in Rick Tocchet, has decided to keep it going and accepted that it was a good idea to do that.
For the Flyers’ season opener Thursday night against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (in Sunrise, no less), the trend of this trio being able to cycle and apply consistent pressure in the other team’s zone — to just always be a scoring threat or at the very least keep the puck out of their own zone — continued.
Cates did end up scoring the only Flyers goal during the first game of the season, on a little bit of a jammy play that had the centerman beat Panthers pivot Sam Bennett to the netfront, but it went beyond that. Simply put, when that forward line was on the ice, the Flyers were impenetrable.
During the 10 minutes and 36 seconds that the three of Cates, Foerster, and Brink were on the ice at 5-on-5, the Flyers had:
- A 6-2 advantage in shots on goal
- A 13-6 advantage in shot attempts (68.42 CF%)
- A 7-0 advantage in registered scoring chances
- A 6-0 advantage in high-danger shot attempts
- A dominating 1.06-0.06 advantage in expected goals (94.32 xGF%)
- And outscored the Panthers 1-0 (duh)
Not only is that some of the most one-sided hockey possible, but they did it while starting just 37.5 percent of their faceoffs in the offensive zone, fewer than any other forward line for Philadelphia Thursday night. With their deployment alone, the Cates-led trio was starting a step behind most to get the most out of their minutes. They didn’t get to take advantage of being able to start so many shifts in the offensive zone and then all they had to do was stay there and not lose possession — this line had to repeatedly win the draw (or win back possession before the Panthers got a real scoring chance) and then travel a 100 or so feet up the ice to then get their own. Just absolute possession workhorses.
And that’s what Rick Tocchet wants. The new Flyers head coach has repeatedly mentioned wanting to be more of a possession-based team, compared to their on-the-rush approach under John Tortorella. Not trying to score off counterattacks and squeeze the most out of temporary appearances in the offensive zone — sustained, continued pressure leading to second, third, and maybe if we’re lucky, fourth chances.
If the Flyers want to do that as an entire team, they’re going to need a whole lot more cohesive efforts like the trio of Cates, Foerster, and Brink are able to do almost every single game. It felt rare to say a line was leading the Flyers to a whole lot of wins last season, since they finished with the fourth-worst record in the NHL, but outscoring opponents 30-23 when that line was on the ice, was certainly no fluke.
As Tocchet continues to learn just how to deploy this group of 23 players and where to slot them to get the most out of them, we can at least say that there is a pre-fabricated forward line that is doing a whole lot of work and makes them a much better hockey team.
