Out of Nowhere, Mac Jones Has Become the QB We All Thought He Would Be

I believe I had the same experience of millions of New Englanders last night. That once we were done watching the Red Sox experience a quick, merciful death at the hands of a 23-year-old from Walpole who had turned their bats to tubes of wrapping paper, we flipped to Thursday Night Football to experience this:

And just to make it even more surreal, this:

To go along with Mac Jones' 33-of-49, 67.2%, 342 yard, 2 TD, 0 INT 100.9 passer rating night in front of a national audience, Kendrick Bourne had a career game, with 10 catches on 11 targets for 142 yards. Against a Rams team that came into the game Top 10 in the league in points and yards allowed. And yet these two Patriot rejects chased them screaming all over SoFi Stadium wearing leather masks and aprons, carrying a running chainsaw over their heads.

Jones was exiled out of Foxboro in disgrace. Bourne couldn't crack the bottom of the Pats' wide receiver depth chart. And I'm not even mad about this or the fact that they're doing so well. Jones had to go, for his own sake and the sake of the Patriots. Bourne wasn't much of a factor in the worst WR room in the NFL the past couple of years and turned 30. The Patriots the best young quarterback in the game. And one of the better offenses in the league after adding Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins as veteran presences to a WR youth movement. It's working out best for all involved. When you've met the right person you can see your ex doing well for herself and be happy for you both. This is one of those situations. 

It's just hard not to take a moment like this, and the way Jones is playing, and not have a lot of regrets over how we acted. 

It's hard to compare his numbers to the other QBs in the league because he's only made three starts. But he leads all passers with 301.7 yards per game. And his 99.1 passer rating is 12th in the league, ahead of such names as Patrick Mahomes, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert and Jayden Daniels. This despite the fact he's been passed around like Lilly Phillips the past three years. 

This is how Jones was being discussed at the beginning of last year when he was shipped to Jacksonville:

This is where he was at last December:

Yards per attempt: 37th

TD%: 35th

INT%: 2nd highest

Yards per attempt: 37th

Big time throw %: 36th

Passer rating: 41st

And now he's tearing it up in San Francisco. A 3-0 record. A TD-to-INT ratio of 6-to-1. The highest numbers of his career across the board in every metric. Showing all the promise did as a rookie when he took his team to the playoffs and the SIXTH most points in the league. If you asked me in 2021 what I wanted him to be doing for the 2025 Patriots, it would be exactly what he's doing for Kyle Shanahan right now. 

I mean, sure there's often a little drama with Jones. He writhed around in pain like an amputee in a Civil War medical tent in a way that made it look like his season was over:

… before jogging off the field and not missing a snap. But the fact remains his team loves him. 

Which brings us back to New England. And how dirty he was done here once Josh McDaniels left for Las Vegas at the end of his rookie season. Rather than hire a replacement offensive coordinator or promote one of McDaniels' assistants, Bill Belichick decided anyone could run his offense and mentor his young QB. And to prove it, he named Matt Patricia his OC and Joe Judge as his QB coach. In the same way that Caligula appointed his horse to the Roman Senate. And with the same results:

Source -  According to multiple sources, Belichick became upset when Kraft told him he couldn’t retain Matt Patricia as offensive coordinator following a disastrous 2022 season. Instead, the Patriots hired veteran offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien. If Belichick had his way, Patricia would’ve been retained.

That season, Belichick grew so frustrated with quarterback Mac Jones that he actually stopped talking to the 2021 first-round pick altogether. At the time, a source told MassLive that Jones told people around him that the Patriots stopped coaching him and Belichick refused to talk to him. 

In 2023, I naively thought Bill O'Brien would be the perfect solution to all of Jones' problems. Clearly I was wrong. But to be fair to me, which I always am, I had no idea the man who drafted him was giving him the Dwight treatment:

Anyway, all of this just points to how important getting the right coaching is for a young, developing quarterback. Just look at what Sam Darnold has done once he escaped the accursed Jets. 

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If things had been handled differently, Jones might have spent the past three seasons a perennial Pro Bowl candidate, Belichick might have passed Don Shula, and Foxboro might have hosted a playoff game or two. That's a counter-factual that can't be proven. And now that he's in San Fran and Drake Maye and McDaniels are both in New England, those past mistakes might end up creating the best case scenario for everybody involved. 

Except maybe Belichick. But then, he seems like he's doing just fine: