From fifteenth overall pick to rookie Pro Bowler to, just two seasons later, the bargain bin in what used to be Bill Belichick’s basement.
The fall of Mac Jones is stunning. The future was bright. It’s now murky, and the present is competing for the No. 2 job behind Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville.
Yes, Jones needed a fresh start. The trade means that the Patriots couldn’t place him anywhere as a potential starter. Which means no one views him that way.
He’ll make $2.785 million this year, guaranteed. The Jags now hold his fifth-year option of more than $25 million. It certainly won’t be picked up.
The collapse for Jones started in his second season, when Belichick made Matt Patricia the de facto offensive coordinator in New England. The move not only delayed Jones’s growth but stunted it, sparking a regression that the Patriots under new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien spent all of 2023 trying to undo.
It couldn’t be undone. And now it’s done. Jones will finish his rookie contract in Jacksonville, hoping for a chance to play enough to get someone’s attention for 2025.
Currently, he couldn’t get a sniff as a potential starter — even for a team that would need a placeholder until its inevitable rookie first-rounder is ready to go.