Former first-round pick Mac Jones went on the podcast Bussin' With the Boys and reflected on an already eventful young career.
Former Alabama quarterback Mac Jones has experienced everything you could possibly imagine as a quarterback.
From spearheading one of the best college football teams in history to becoming a first round draft pick and a Pro Bowler in his rookie year, to earning the “career backup” title.
As a quarterback, there’s a white-hot light on you at all times, and the mistakes you make get recorded amongst fans and coaches into an imaginary database.
Jones’ rookie year with the New England Patriots was everything Patriots fans could’ve asked for, but in his second and third years, something changed for the worse.
He appeared on the podcast “Bussin’ With the Boys,” with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan and opened up on what exactly led to the rapid downward spiral in Foxboro.
“It was weird,” Jones said. “We did build something cool early, we had a top-10 offense, our defense was really good… [offensive coordinator] Josh McDaniels ended up leaving so that was step one… but I think that really affected me because I felt like if I could just build on the year before, it would’ve really helped me… We didn’t really know who we were going to hire.
“Obviously [then-Patriots head coach] Bill [Belichick] interviewed people and we didn’t click early in OTAs and you could see it trending. And I was just a second year player so I didn’t really say much or do much, but Brian Hoyer was the backup and he was kind of looking at me trying to keep me in it, but we were kind of like ‘this is not going to be good.’”
When Compton had asked who the new offensive coordinator was, Jones was as blunt as possible.
“We ended up hiring nobody. We ended up staying in-house with [then-defensive coordinator Matt Patricia] and [special teams coach] Joe Judge.”
At the time, when Patricia took over and called plays, it was certainly a head scratcher, especially with his reputation around the league as a “defensive wizard.”
“At first Bill was like, going to call the plays,” Jones continued. “Which I was like ‘this is kind of fun, let’s see how this goes.’ But obviously he’s a great defensive guy, so alright. Bill wants to take it over, he’s won six Super Bowls, he can do whatever he wants, right? And I’ll trust it. But we kind of didn’t know where we were going. There was three people in the meeting, like who stands up to talk to the offense?
“It ended up [Patricia] calling [the plays], but we changed up our entire offense a week before the season … I didn’t feel great about it going in.”
After his third season in New England, Jones hasn’t experienced the type of success he enjoyed his rookie year. He’s served as the backup with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and is now the backup on the San Francisco 49ers.
However, any time Jones has had an opportunity to play, he’s done well. When the 49ers’ Brock Purdy was hurt last season, Jones stepped in admirably, going 5-3, completing 69% of his passes for over 2,100 yards, threw 13 touchdowns and six interceptions.
As of now, Jones is on his last year of his deal with the Niners, and will likely look to revive his career after this upcoming season.
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