Former New England Patriots origination quarterback Mac Jones had a journey looking forward to him then he handed his bodily with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday.
And there used to be a common face at the back of the wheel.
“It’s kind of nice when your mom can pick you up from work,” Jones mentioned.
Jones is embracing a go back to his place of origin then a depressing season in Fresh England that price him his origination activity and put his long-term occasion within the league in confusion.
The previous Alabama quarterback, the fifteenth total select within the 2021 NFL Draft, isn’t somewhat on the level the place he’s making plans to journey again in along with his folks. However he’s in a position for a new get started that he hopes “can get the train back on the tracks and get it moving in the right direction.”
“It’s about confidence,” Jones mentioned. “It’s about putting in the work and doing everything right that you can. I feel like I did that, and I’m going to continue to do that.
“The consequences can have been there some days and can have no longer been there others. However I believe the remarkable phase for me is sticking to that procedure like I’ve at all times completed, simply seeking to get again to that, however on the similar date, simply understanding my position, understanding the place I’m at and simply working out that it is a superb spot for me in my place of origin.”
The Patriots traded Jones to the Jaguars for a sixth-round pick in next month’s draft. The deal became official Thursday once Jones passed his physical.
Jones will vie with 30-year-old C.J. Beathard for the group’s supplementary spot at the back of Trevor Lawrence. Jones will count $4.96 million against the team’s salary cap in the final year of his rookie contract. Beathard is scheduled to count $2.4 million in the final year of his deal.
The Jaguars are unlikely to keep both on their 53-man roster to start the season.
Jones took the high road while talking about how things ended in New England. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2021, but regressed from there and ended up getting benched in favor of Bailey Zappe last season. Jones had 24 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions in his final two seasons with the Pats.
“A batch of superb finding out reports,” Jones said. “I discovered from a superb head trainer, clearly some of the biggest of all date. Been lucky to more or less paintings with some superb head coaches and discovered a batch, performed a batch of video games, began a batch of video games. Clearly, issues went the best way they did, and my function is to more or less get the teach again at the tracks.
“I think I can do that here, and the coaches here have talked to me about that and just how I can help the room and how I can learn from Trevor and everybody here.”
The Jaguars rolled out Jones and 4 free-agent learners Thursday: receiver Gabe Davis, protection Darnell Savage, cornerback Ronald Darby and kick returner Devin Duvernay. However the group declined to produce common supervisor Trent Baalke and/or trainer Doug Pederson to be had.
In lieu, Jones took middle degree and treated himself like a professional. He said that the “mutual parting of ways” that he and the Patriots correct to “was the best decision for both of us.”
“I have all the respect in the world for those guys up there,” he mentioned. “My first team, drafted me in the first round, can’t thank them enough. … For me, it was just about moving on and getting back home, and I can’t be more excited. For them, it’s about moving forward and turning the page. So really that’s kind of what we decided, and I think it’s a great decision.”
And now he’s house, the place he hopes to get his grandmother to her first NFL recreation and spend extra date with alternative crowd participants.
“I don’t think I’ll be staying with my parents, though,” he quipped. “Maybe. We’ll see. … But it’ll be good.”
Reporting through The Related Press.
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