FOXBOROUGH — There were a lot of positives in the New England Patriots‘ 42-13 win over the Carolina Panthers. But the one that stood out the most was Marcus Jones.
The veteran cornerback has excelled on special teams over the years, and on Sunday, he cemented himself in Patriots history.
After the Panthers jumped out to a 7-0 lead, followed by a three-and-out by the Patriots’ offense, Jones took it upon himself to get some points on the board, returning the punt for an 87-yard touchdown.
Catch him if you can 😮💨@MarcusJonesocho | #NEPats
📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/SmOcSPosDL
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 28, 2025
Jones went on to finish the day with 167 punt return yards, which was the most by a Patriots player in a game in franchise history.
“First off, it’s a blessing. They told me about that after the game and I wasn’t thinking about that, but that’s crazy,” he said. “The first punt, the main thing I always think about is getting the first down. That’s the first thing I was thinking about and just getting the offense in a great position. I had someone on my leg for a little minute, but then I got out, and I tried to find some blocking and everything. But I commend my teammates because they never stop whenever they could and they blocked the guys they needed to block, for sure, and opened up lanes.”
And with that, his teammates had nothing but praise for Jones after the game too.
“He’s a playmaker, everybody knows he’s a playmaker,” cornerback Christian Gonzalez said. “I feel like once he took that first one back, it felt like he took all that energy from Carolina away, just turned everybody up. It was great to see him make those plays because he works so hard. But we all know what he’s capable of and it was awesome to see it.”
“Man, it felt good. He called it, too. He might not say it, but he called it. He said, ‘I’m going to get me one,'” DeMario Douglas added. “Because we were talking about punt returns, kick returns, and we said how AG [Antonio Gibson] had a kick return. And then we were talking about, when are you (Marcus Jones) going to have yours? When are you going to get a punt return? I want to see it in-person, because you know he had the Jets the year before I came here, and he got hurt the [first] year I was here. Just to see him keep going, and the obstacles that he went through, and just to see him doing this, praise to him. He’s been doing his thing.”
“That was big. I was just saying, I was trying to block the punter. I think I hit one of my own guys, so I got to go back and look and see exactly who it was [Charles Woods],” Milton Williams stated. “Oh, I was trying to get the punter. I was tired, I was just hitting somebody. We scored, so that’s all that matters.”
“Marcus Jones, can’t say enough about him,” Drake Maye explained. “Shoot, he’s the best in the game at it. I feel it was a full team effort and proud of the guys.”
Follow Patriots Wire on Twitter and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: Patriots’ Marcus Jones reacts to career day in 42-13 win over Panthers
