Jaguars' Mac Jones discusses fresh start after failed Patriots stint

The New England Patriots and quarterback Mac Jones clearly needed to go in different directions even before the club traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars in March.

Jones, a Jacksonville native, is welcoming his fresh start this summer.

"The whole change of scenery definitely helped," Jones recently told Jeff Howe of The Athletic. "I’m just having fun playing football. I’m at my best when I’m keeping it loose, letting it rip and having that gunslinger mindset that I maybe had lost a little bit of. But I got it back here, and you’ve just got to be consistent with it. It’s good days, bad days and everything in between."

Jones' working relationship with former New England head coach Bill Belichick reportedly deteriorated long before Belichick pulled the 2021 first-round draft pick from games four different times during the 2023 season. Jones didn't play across the Patriots' final six contests of what became a 4-13 campaign, and New England ultimately used the third pick of this year's draft to land North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye.

Jacksonville declined the fifth-year option attached to Jones' rookie contract this spring before the club locked starting signal-caller Trevor Lawrence down via a five-year extension worth up to $275M with $142M fully guaranteed at signing. Lawrence received that deal coming off a difficult season that featured the Jaguars going from 8-3 to 9-8 en route to missing the playoffs.

"We’ve both been through a lot in our own ways," Jones said about his new teammate. "(Lawrence) has done a good job getting back on his feet, obviously, with the contract, taking them to the playoffs (in 2022) and playing really good football. I think it just shows you football is a game of ebbs and flows. At some point, it’s going to come your way if you just keep working for it. I know that’ll happen."

Jones likely won't spend more than a season with the Jaguars. He showed during his rookie campaign he can play at a Pro Bowl level, and he'll turn just 26-years-old in September. How he embraces this career reset through January 2025 could go a long way in determining if he's atop a different team's depth chart at this time next year.