Tag: Mac Jones

Jaguars trading for QB Mac Jones from Patriots

Mac Jones, who was taken 14 picks after Trevor Lawrence in the 2021 NFL draft, is headed to Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have reached a deal to acquire quarterback Mac Jones from New England Patriots in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The Jaguars’ No. 192 overall selection (one of the team’s two sixth-rounders) is headed to the Patriots, although the trade won’t be official until the new league year begins on Wednesday.

Jones, 25, was picked by the Patriots in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft, 14 selections after the Jaguars took quarterback Trevor Lawrence with the No. 1 overall pick.

After beginning his career with a better year than Lawrence — earning Pro Bowl honors as a rookie with 3,801 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions — Jones regressed in the following two seasons and was benched for much of the 2023 season. He finished last year with 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 11 games.

The Jacksonville native, who attended The Bolles School, will presumably compete with C.J. Beathard to be the No. 2 player on the depth chart behind Lawrence.

With Lawrence dealing with several injuries in the final weeks of the 2023 season, Beathard stepped into the lineup and finished the year with 349 passing yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Beathard is under contract for the 2024 season with a $2.42 million salary cap hit. The Jaguars would save $1.92 million if they release him. Jones will come with a $2,785,410 cap hit and is also due to become a free agent in 2025.

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New England Patriots open to trading Mac Jones per NFL Network Insider

Mac Jones may be a name to watch in trade rumors in the coming weeks

Former Alabama quarterback [autotag]Mac Jones[/autotag] was given the impossible task of replacing the legendary [autotag]Tom Brady[/autotag] in New England after being selected No. 15 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. Things appeared to be working as Jones was named as Pro Bowler for the 2021 season and posted a 10-7 record while completing 67.6% of his passes for 3,801 yards and 22 touchdowns to 13 interceptions.

Unfortunately, the next two seasons have not quite gone according to plan in Foxborough as the team has gone 12-22 over that span and fired long-time head coach Bill Belichick. As the quarterback, most of the blame has fallen on the shoulders of Jones, despite the fact they have had one of the poorer rosters in the league for a few years now. In fact, it was part of the reason Brady left the Patriots in the first place.

Jones has been in and out of the lineup for the past season or two in favor of backup Bailey Zappe and it is getting to a point where both sides could probably use fresh starts. There have been stories of Jones getting into arguments with players and coaches, while the team has also not done him any favors. Now, with a new coach in town Jerod Mayo, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport is reporting that both sides are trending in the direction of a fresh start.

There are no shortage of teams in the NFL who could use a quarterback right now and I believe there is still a lot to like about Jones. He is still on a rookie contract, you wouldn’t have trade much for him and he still has the upside of a first round pick.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.

Report: Patriots taking trade calls on former starting QB Mac Jones

The Patriots could be on the verge of trading former starting QB Mac Jones

The New England Patriots are reportedly taking trade from other teams for quarterback Mac Jones, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Jones was drafted in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft. He was thought to be a franchise-caliber quarterback, and he appeared to be on his way after having a Pro Bowl rookie season. However, inconsistent play and frustrations with the offense hampered him in 2022 and 2023.

He was benched for Bailey Zappe late last season, finishing the year with 2,120 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

Now, it appears that New England is at least exploring the possibility of trading him, as reported by Rapoport.

A change of scenery could do some good for both team and player in this situation. The Patriots are also in a prime position to select a quarterback with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

That could impede Jones’ development even further if he stuck around for another year. This might be a situation where the relationship has simply ran its course.

Full 7-round 2024 NFL mock draft: First projections after NFL Scouting Combine

The first full seven-round 2024 NFL mock draft for the Patriots after the NFL Scouting Combine

The NFL Scouting Combine has come and gone, and many people are excited for the NFL offseason with free agency and the 2024 NFL draft right around the corner.

In New England, fans are itching to see the offensive talent the new regime will target. These are exciting times, but it’s also worth prefacing: The NFL combine is not a way to evaluate talent, but it is a way to finalize your draft board.

My 2024 draft kit is coming soon, and I utilized specific combine drills to finalize some matchups where the margins are smaller.

I think 10-yard split, 3-cone and other drills are more important than the 40-yard dash, vertical, long jump and bench press. Those specific drills will showcase what actually happens in a game, as opposed to the latter which happens in rare situations.

In the NFL, short area quickness, explosiveness and change of direction are valuable for evaluations. As I finalize my kit, It’s time we head into the true mock draft realm.

This time of the year is typically when I switch my mock drafts to what I think the Patriots will do, as opposed to what I want them to do. However, without any knowledge of what this regime will be doing in their first year, I am making these selections based on reports out there, who the team has been interviewing and who is on the roster currently.

Without further ado, let’s get right into the latest seven-round mock draft.

Patriots offseason QB plans might have been revealed in recent report

The Patriots reportedly have a three-step plan in mind at the quarterback position

One of the biggest questions this offseason is what the New England Patriots plan on doing at the quarterback position.

They have the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, which guarantees them a crack at landing one of the top-three quarterback prospects—Caleb Williams, Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels. The team is also projected to rank near the top of the NFL in available cap space, if they wanted to sign a veteran.

There’s also the option of keeping things exactly how they are with Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe vying for top quarterback reps in training camp.

Literally, every option is on the table for the Patriots, but according to MassLive’s Karen Guregian and Chris Mason, the team might have a three-step plan already in place to deal with the quarterback position.

Firstly, the Patriots appear to be leaning towards taking a quarterback with the No. 3 draft pick. They also plan on signing a veteran quarterback that could potentially start for the team, depending on the development of the rookie signal-caller. As for Mac Jones, per Guregian and Mason, the former first-round pick out of the University of Alabama is likely done in New England.

A split at this point between the Patriots and Jones feels like the right move. He’d only fall further down the depth chart if the Patriots drafted a rookie first-round pick. A fresh start with an opportunity to truly reinvent himself and possibly even become a starter once again in the future makes the most sense for Jones.

As for the Patriots, they would be better off hitting the reboot button under center, while using a veteran quarterback as a bridge option. There’s no rush for the team to compete in 2024.

So they could bring in a veteran like Jacoby Brissett, Joe Flacco or even Kirk Cousins to take the reins until their rookie quarterback is up to speed and the offense is suitable enough to put a young player under center. The last thing the Patriots need is another Mac Jones situation.

It’s the perfect plan of drafting for the biggest need on the roster without ruining the player in the process.

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Report: Still hope in New England QB Mac Jones can turn things around

While the feeling isn’t unanimous, there’s still reportedly hope in New England that Mac Jones can turn things around

There’s a growing consensus that Mac Jones is on the outs in New England, but according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, there are still some within the organization hopeful that he’s able to make a turnaround.

The former first-round draft pick fell off a cliff in his third year as the Patriots’ quarterback. Things surprisingly got even worse than the catastrophic 2022 season with Matt Patricia as the offensive coordinator.

Yet, despite Jones’ struggles, it wasn’t a situation where everything was his fault, either.

The Patriots failed tremendously in acquiring the necessary offensive talent to be competitive in a much-improved AFC East division. They lacked explosive receiver talent, and the offensive line was an absolute mess. The 2023 Patriots offense would have made anyone look bad.

Reiss wrote:

New offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said Wednesday that “everything is on the table” when asked if he could envision a scenario in which Jones is the 2024 starter. And some within the organization seem hopeful Jones can make a U-turn in New England, but that hardly seems unanimous, which means Jones would have to win over many people.

Perhaps Van Pelt and the new coaching staff believe they can get more out of Jones than Belichick was able to over the years. There’s still a talented quarterback in there somewhere considering he was selected to the Pro Bowl in his rookie season.

But then again, there’s also the possibility that a change of scenery would create the best chances of that player once again resurfacing. Perhaps the relationship in New England has ran its course.

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Twitter reacts to ridiculous ‘rumor’ about Seahawks’ interest in Mac Jones

Let’s take a look at the replies.

“It was a lie—and the more I saw of them, the more I hated lies.”

Martin Sheen as Captain Willard was refering to the casual, arbitrary murder during the war in Vietnam in Apocalypse Now, but the same sentiment might apply for honest people trying to navigate the modern information environment – especially on Twitter.

In addition to a grotesque surge in Russian propaganda, gleeful racism, violent threats, pornbots, cryptoscams and antisemitism, Elon Musk’s stewardship of what was already referred to as a hellsite even before he took over has seen a surge in shameless “NFL rumor” accounts.

If you haven’t been exposed to these users and have no idea what we’re talking about, then consider yourself lucky. Usually these paid blue check accounts are best blocked and ignored, because all they do is make stories up in order to drive up their own engagment numbers, in the hope that Elon will cut them a check. (How’s that going?)

In this case, we found it was more fun to relish in Twitter’s reactions to an absurd “rumor” that the Seahawks were interested in Patriots quarterback Mac Jones on account of Geno Smith coming off a “pedestrian” season.

There’s only so much lying we can take. Even if Smith’s numbers dipped a bit in 2023 there are at least 50 other quarterbacks around the league who we would rather give a chance before coming around to Jones in the rotation.

Anyway, remember to touch grass today. Let’s take a look at the replies.

Predicting where 10 Seahawks players will land in free agency

Patriots OC Alex Van Pelt comments on possibility of Mac Jones returning as starter in 2024

Don’t close the book on Mac Jones just yet

New England Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt has already met with quarterback Mac Jones and wide receiver Demario “Pop” Douglas since being hired by the team.

Van Pelt is working with the rest of the coaching staff to get up to speed with the current roster and help with future roster-building decisions. There have been reports that Jones is likely out of New England in 2024, but Van Pelt didn’t completely write the struggling quarterback off at Wednesday’s introductory press conference.

In fact, the newly-hired offensive coordinator claimed “everything is on the table,” when asked about the chances of Jones starting for the team next season.

“Right now, everything is on the table,” said Van Pelt.

The Patriots should have opportunities in free agency to go after a veteran quarterback. They’ll also have the option of taking one in the 2024 NFL draft. New England currently has the No. 3 overall pick, which puts them in reach of one of the top-three options on the board—Caleb Williams, Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels.

But it also isn’t out of the realm of possibility that the Patriots use their first-round pick to improve at wide receiver or the offensive line. If that’s the plan, they could save assets and money keeping either Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe as the starter.

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Patriots QB Mac Jones shouts out Matthew Slater in Instagram post

Mac Jones responds to Matthew Slater’s retirement announcement

New England Patriots special teams ace Matthew Slater officially hung up his cleats on Tuesday, after 16 years of playing in the NFL.

Current and past teammates have been congratulating Slater on social media since the announcement. One of those players is Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, who claimed Slater was the “best to ever do it” in a tribute post in his Instagram stories.

Jones and Slater have been teammates for the previous three seasons. The level-headed Slater often showed his support for Jones, especially throughout last season, as the Alabama product struggled. Slater was well-liked by his teammates, and that included Jones.

It’s becoming a common theme this offseason seeing a Patriots mainstay leave in some form or fashion. Bill Belichick parted ways with the organization after the season, and the team recently released Lawrence Guy and Adrian Phillips.

It truly is a new era for Patriots football in more ways than one.

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Patriots 2024 offseason guide ahead of free agency and NFL draft

Cam Garrity’s handy guide to get you ready for the Patriots’ 2024 offseason

With the Super Bowl now over—and the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes one ring closer to threatening the New England Patriots’ dynasty—it’s time to shift focus to the 2024 NFL offseason.

This offseason has seen the Patriots clear house offensively, and add some outside voices to their defense and front office to help Jerod Mayo and Eliot Wolf regain control of the building post-Bill Belichick.

This offseason is an important one, and the Patriots hold the third overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft in what should be an offense-heavy draft.

Without further ado, let’s get into this offseason guide for the Patriots with key updates and information surrounding the team.