By John Rigolizzo
Mac Jones had one of the best games of his career Thursday night.
The former first-round pick passed for 342 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-23 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams. Jones has won all three of his starts in relief of starter Brock Purdy, who is dealing with a toe injury. After the game, head coach Kyle Shanahan and Jones’s teammates praised him for his grit and competitive fire in leading the team.
“He played his [expletive] off, man,” Shanahan said after the game. “He was unbelievable in the first half, got banged up a little bit there in the second half and battled through it, and protected the ball going against that defense, and throwing the ball that many times and not having a turnover and protecting like he did. I can’t say enough good things about Mac.”
Jones sustained several minor injuries during the game. Early in the third quarter, he took a shot to his knee from Rams edge rusher Jared Verse and came up limping. A few plays later while wearing a knee brace due to a previous injury, Jones took another big hit from edge rusher Byron Young. He was seen writhing on the ground in pain and grabbing at his brace. Jones was also dealing with an arm injury, which Shanahan revealed was cramps in his forearm that cropped up in the second and fourth quarters.
Playing through the pain, Jones put up some of the best single game numbers in his career. He went 33 of 49 passing for 342 yards and 2 passing touchdowns. He also ran 4 times for 5 yards.
Jones’s teammates also weighed in.
“Tough as nails,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “Just an apex competitor, man. He’s one of those guys where it’s not a surprise why people drafted him where they drafted him, why everybody’s so high on him. He has such a high ceiling. Just a really, really cool guy to be around as well.”
Wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, who was Jones’s teammate with the New England Patriots, said he is playing with much more freedom and confidence than he was in New England.
“I think Mac is just built the right way,” he said. “His mental is the right way. He prepares the right way. I’ve seen it for a while now and I’m just proud of him, man. Even when he’s throwing the ball, I tell him in practice, ‘Man, you’re zipping the ball’… you can tell he’s confident and things like that. And it’s just awesome to see him in this space. I saw him in New England. It was a different world for him. So to see him now with the peace he has, and he’s playing free and having fun; I think it’s a big part of the game for him. So, it’s showing.”
Bourne said he struggled under the pressure of being a first-round quarterback in a place like New England—with a championship pedigree and a tough culture. Having played for both Belichick and Shanahan, Bourne observed that Jones fits the system in San Francisco much better.
After leading the Alabama Crimson Tide to a national championship in 2021, Jones was actually considered a potential draft pick by the 49ers. But the Niners went with toolsy prospect Trey Lance out of North Dakota State, and Jones slipped to the Patriots at the 15th overall pick in the 2021 Draft. Jones had a hot start, going 10-7 in his rookie year, while passing for 3,801 yards and 22 touchdowns with 13 interceptions. He was named to the Pro Bowl as a rookie that year. But his play declined sharply after that: he did not pass for 3,000 yards in either 2022 or 2023 and was benched at the end of the 2023 season.
Jones was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2024. Jones appeared in 10 games and had seven starts for the Jags in relief of starter Trevor Lawrence. He went 2-5 in his time there, throwing for 1,672 yards and 8 TDs with 8 picks.
Jones was happy about the win but shut down any talk of taking Purdy’s job.
“They brought me here to play as a backup and that’s my job,” he said. “Brock’s the starter of this team, and right now he’s dealing with something, and for him to go out there last week and play when he probably wasn’t at full health, like, he cares about this team. So I’m just trying to get some wins for him so it helps us down the line,” he said.
“I’ve been in his position. I’ve been a starter, and you want your backup to go in there and win ‘cause at the end of the season, that could be the hit or miss between a playoff or not.”
