New England Patriots: Mac Jones vs Cam Newton a battle to the end

Before the start of training camp, we heard New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick say time and again that Cam Newton would be the starting quarterback come Week 1. But with training camp practices in the book, the Patriots have still yet to officially name their Week 1 starter.

So what gives? Why the change of heart?

The answer: Mac Jones.

When drafted by the Patriots back in April, Bill Belichick clearly saw a promising young quarterback that needed a lot of fine-tuning to translate his success from college to the pros. Considering he’s primarily a pocket passer, it was clear Jones would need to really impress in order to make a case to the Pats Week 1 starter.

New England Patriots QB battle: Mac Jones earned the upper hand

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Since then, Mac Jones has been surgical in the limited action we have seen him in during practices and pre-season games. We’ve seen the rookie throw for 233 yards through two preseason games while completing 68 percent of his passes. With those numbers in limited action, Jones has surely put himself on the rise.

Then the Jones vs. Newton debate took an unexpected turn when Newton got reprimanded for getting a COVID test from a disapproved site by the NFL. This led to him being away from the team for five days.

The bad news here was the Patriots’ “starter” missed five critical days of practice, which also included the first day of joint practices with the New York Giants. The good however, was Jones would be taking the majority of the first-team reps.

So with the stakes now being a tad bit higher, Mac got even better. He torched the Giants in the first joint practice, completing 35-40 passes, with a streak of 18 straight completions between 7-7 and 11-11 drills against the Giants’ starting defense.

Yes, only practice. But Mac Jones has commanded much attention from people across the organization, especially veteran defensive players like Dont’a Hightower who has been impressed by how the rookie has been studying the playbook and performing on the field.

"“Mac is a terrific kid He works hard. Real smart dude. He’s going to go over the edge. I’ve been impressed with him since OTAs and how hard he works,” Hightower said of Jones, as transcribed by MassLive.com. “I actually found out yesterday he’s been looking at some of the defensive plays so he can assess what he sees and how we kind of work. I give him credit for that. Not a lot of young guys would see that as an opportunity. If you take that for what it’s worth, the kid works hard.”"

With Cam now set to return to practice, how pivotal will the preseason finale against the New York Giants be in determining the Week 1 starter?