Mac Jones Suffers Another Big Embarrassment in First Preseason Game With Jaguars

For as much as Mac Jones truthers want to pretend it wasn't his fault he failed with the New England Patriots, or as much as he tries to convince us life is so much better as a Jacksonville Jaguar, it's been easy for Pats fans to see through that facade. At the end of the day, Jones is still a former first-round pick who other NFL teams only thought was worth a sixth-round pick this offseason.

Now that it's August and real football is being played, we also get to see what's really going to happen with Jones on a new team. And the early results are absolutely embarrassing.

Jones and the Jaguars are playing their first preseason game on Saturday night, and it turns out Mac isn't even the team's top backup for Trevor Lawrence. C.J. Beathard is getting the reps with the second team offense, leaving Jones cleaning up as the number three signal caller.

That's 2017 third-round pick C.J. Beathard, who has gone a career 3-10 across just 13 starts in six pro seasons. The same C.J. Beathard who has averaged 4.93 adjusted yards per pass attempt in his time as a Jaguar.

It was never a question whether the Jags would pick up the fifth-year option on Jones' contract, but even the Jones haters had probably assumed he was going to Jacksonville to serve as the QB2.

Suddenly that's kind of looking like a long shot. If the Jags have liked Beathard enough to keep him around as the backup for three straight seasons and the Jones trade didn't mean they actually wanted him number two on the depth chart, he's fighting a major uphill battle.

The chances the Jags carry three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster are incredibly slim. That means Jones will presumably end up being waived if he can't climb out of this number three spot — and that he'll land on the Jags practice squad if he clears waivers.

Considering he wouldn't hit waivers until late in the offseason, without enough time to learn a new offense or compete for another backup role, chances are that he would, in fact, clear waivers.

Some distance from Jones may actually help Patriots fans get back in his corner though. If he can't even cut it as the backup in Jacksonville, suddenly it kind of becomes a feel-good underdog story if he can turn his career around and stick around in the NFL for a lengthy career. But Pats fans certainly won't be calling for that to happen in New England any time soon.

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