Mac Jones Gets Fresh Start In Jacksonville

By Steve Atkinson

Mac Jones was officially introduced as an Jacksonville Jaguar on Thursday. Jones was traded on Sunday to the Jaguars from the Patriots for a sixth round pick. Mac Jones looked happy, confident, and refreshed at his press conference today. He sounded relieved to be at a place where they know the offensive side of the ball unlike New England who put a defensive coach and an special teams coach to run the offense in 2022.

“I think what I said earlier, just like the learning part of it. Every experience is a good experience if you learn from it. So the games that we lost, the things that happened, obviously you don’t ever want to lose, you want to win every game you play in. But I understand that sometimes really hard to do in the NFL. I don’t have regrets. I feel like I put everything out there, gave a lot to that organization, and they gave a lot to me. So I’m going to do the same thing here in a good way and be myself, be Mac, and learn from, likek I said Trevor and C.J. and the coaches here that have a lot of offensive background. That’ll be important for me and a big reason why I feel like this was a good fit.”

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson is a former quarterback and knows the offensive side of the ball well. Not only is Mac Jones from Jacksonville but he can learn behind starter Trevor Lawrence who was taken first overall in the 2021 NFL Draft try and revamp his career as a quarterback in the league. Jones will compete with C..J.  Beathard for the backup position. I think Jones can beat Beathard out for the backup position and if Trevor gets hurt throughout the year expect Jones to go in there and prove people wrong that he can’t play.

Jones had to go somewhere that he could really thrive. In New England if he made one mistake the fans would’ve been chanting for the rookie or the toxic backup quarterback they have in Bailey Zappe. In Jacksonville it seems Mac can be himself and be more relaxed without the hard-ass vibe like New England had. I thin the talent the Jaguar have is pretty good. The Jaguars just singed Gabe Davis on the offensive side and just singed defensive tackle Arik Armstead.

The one thing Jacksonville will try and do is build around the quarterback which works in Jones’s favor. This won’t be like New England where there’s coaches that have nothing to do with offense coaching that side of the ball. Mac is a free agent at the end of the season but if he has a good year learning the Jaguars style.

Could the Jaguars move on from Trevor if they think Mac is the better quarterback? The Jaguars have until May 2nd to pick up Trevor’s fifth year option. I really think Mac is there to try and revamp his career so he can get a job as a starter in 2025 whether it’s with the Jaguars or somewhere else.