James White: Mac Jones Poised for a BIG Year

Former Patriots Running Back and 3 time Super Bowl Champion James White joined CLNS Media’s Pats Interference Podcast with Andrew Callahan this past week. Here’s some of what White talked about including his past and a look into the Patriots future.

On Bill O’Brien Hire

I know he’s a brilliant offensive mind. He was there before Josh [McDaniels] and had a lot of success. I know he’s a hard nosed football coach, he’s, you know, he’s a tough coach, He’s passionate, he’s gonna, you know, demand the best out of his players. I think he’ll be a big help for the offense. I think Mac [Jones] could be in for a big year next year.

On the Patriots in Free Agency

You’ll be interesting what they decided to do offensive line wise, see what they end up doing that they’re still gonna keep both Jonnu [Smith] and Hunter [Henry] see what they do in that situation cause obviously they haven’t used them both at the same time much, which is pretty surprising. And it’ll be interesting to see what they do on the defensive side of things. Especially if Devin [McCourty] decides to retire, what they decide to do on the back end because that’s a big loss if he does happen to retire.

On Mathew Slater Returning

I do the same thing I do every single year wondering if it’s gonna be the last one for him, but I think it’s very important to keep guys like him and [Devin McCourty] in that locker room, especially with a lot of younger guys coming to that building. They keep the culture that’s been there for so so long and make sure those guys staying on the straight and narrow and they’re willing to buy into the process because these young guys are different. Like I said, the social media era, it’s a lot different than 6-7 years ago. Guys come in expecting a lot when they walk into that door, when you got to work for everything that you’re gonna get when you come in that building.

On Pierre Strong Becoming 3rd Down Back

I think he could do third downs, you can do 1st and 2nd down as well. He’s a pretty big guy. Obviously everybody knows he’s fast, he came on strong towards the end of the year. Man Kevin Harris, they’re, they’re very, very talented. Like I said, it takes time to get adjusted to the whole NFL process. Not just playing the game, but just formulating your routine, trusting yourself, getting your confidence. I think he built that confidence as the year went on.

On Toughest Part of his Professional Journey

On my journey is probably my my rookie season, you know, coming to training camp OTAs. I did fairly well whatnot. Aside from preseason games, I didn’t do much of anything in preseason games with the, you know, the limited reps that I got and sitting back and watching, you know, that entire season, aside from those three games, doing some scrap duty was hard. That was the toughest year.

But I knew after that season, seeing that team win the Super Bowl, I saw what it took, you know, to be a champion and saw the hard work that all those guys put in and I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to have my have my own role in team and be a part of helping my team win a championship. So for myself, I had to look myself in the mirror after that year and put my best foot forward and had to show them what I could do as a player and what I could do to help my team.

Like we had like eight running backs that year going to come into that off season.vI thought I was gonna get cut.  I had a pretty good preseason, all that stuff. I thought I was gonna still get cut at the end of everything, but I just want to perform the best. I could never appreciate the game practice, all that stuff, you know, just in case they did cut me, Somebody else was willing to pick me up. And like I said, I still thought I was getting cut after that last preseason game but ended up staying and I said the rest was history.