The Other McCain

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Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner: So I Guess I’m a San Francisco 49ers Fan Now

Posted on | March 13, 2025 | No Comments

Recall that I wasn’t much of a pro football fan until 2021, when Alabama quarterback Mac Jones got drafted in the first round by the New England Patriots. Four years later, he’s heading to the Golden Gate:

Free agent quarterback Mac Jones, who wanted an opportunity to work with coach Kyle Shanahan, has agreed to terms with the San Francisco 49ers on a two-year deal worth $7 million with $5 million guaranteed, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Wednesday.
Jones, 26, appeared in 10 games last season for the Jacksonville Jaguars, including seven starts in place of injured Trevor Lawrence. He completed 65.3% of his passes for 1,672 yards and eight touchdowns, along with eight interceptions. The Jaguars went 2-5 in his starts, averaging just 15 points per game.
Jacksonville sent a 2024 sixth-round pick to the New England Patriots last March for Jones, who grew up in Jacksonville. He beat out C.J. Beathard in training camp to be Lawrence’s backup.
New England selected Jones, a former star at Alabama, with the 15th pick in the 2021 NFL draft — the same one that saw the Jaguars take Lawrence with the first pick. Jones made the Pro Bowl as an alternate as a rookie after throwing for 3,801 yards and 22 touchdowns and leading the Patriots to a 10-7 record and a playoff berth.
But Jones never duplicated that success. New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to coach the Las Vegas Raiders, and coach Bill Belichick tabbed longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia to be the offensive playcaller and longtime special teams coach Joe Judge to be the quarterbacks coach in 2022. Jones struggled to develop and was just 6-8 in 14 starts, finishing 288-of-442 passing for 2,997 yards with 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
The following season, Belichick brought back Bill O’Brien to run the offense, but Jones struggled again (224-of-345 for 2,120 yards, 10 TDs, 12 INTs) and was replaced by Bailey Zappe after 11 games.

This is an adequate summary of Mac’s pro career to date, but it’s worth remembering that he was the best quarterback Nick Saban ever coached at Alabama, and it’s not even close. His senior year, Jones set an NCAA record for highest completion percentage, completing 311 of 402 passes (77.4%) for 4,500 yard, throwing for 41 touchdowns with just four interceptions, as the Crimson Tide went undefeated and won the National Championship. He had a stellar rookie year, and if things have gone south from there, the question is how much of that is Mac’s fault. The Patriots dumped him and drafted Drake Maye, but then went 4-13 in their first post-Jones season, which was the same record the Jaguars had last year — and Mac was the starting quarterback in two of Jacksonville’s wins, which makes him even with Trevor Lawrence. In terms of completion percentage, Jones was at 65.3% compared to 60.6% for Lawrence, so obviously Mac still has potential at quarterback.

The San Francisco sports media sees the Niners’ acquisition of Jones on a cheap two-year deal as a signal to their young starting QB Brock Purdy that he shouldn’t consider holding out in his current negotiations for a contract extension. Purdy “was selected by the 49ers with the final pick in the 2022 NFL draft, becoming that year’s Mr. Irrelevant,” as Wikipedia says, and Purdy was outstanding in 2022 and 2023, but San Francisco went 6-11 last year. Talk of Purdy getting a fat contract — the number $40 million has been thrown around a lot — looks kind of silly now, with a former first-round pick like Mac Jones signing for a paltry $7 million to be Purdy’s backup QB. It is by no means certain that Purdy will even keep the starting job; when you compare the two quarterbacks statistically, they’re quite similar. I’m not the only one who sees it this way:

In fact, how do we really know that Purdy is better than Jones? He’s more mobile than Jones, but he doesn’t have a better arm than him. All we know for sure is that Purdy has played on better teams than Jones.
If Purdy holds out and decides not to show up to OTAs without a contract extension, the 49ers would have an opportunity to see what Jones looks like running the first-string offense.

So there you go — we’re still 175 days away from the start of the NFL season, and anything could happen before then, but for now, I’m a San Francisco 49ers fan. We’ll wait and see. Roll Tide!



 

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