How Mac Jones Feels About Being Reaffirmed As Patriots Starter

FOXBORO, Mass. -- For now, Mac Jones' job is safe. And the struggling third-year quarterback is grateful.

On Tuesday, Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien said he expects Jones to start this Sunday's road game against the Las Vegas Raiders. The next day, Bill Belichick confirmed Jones will start for New England in its must-win Week 6 contest.

That doesn't mean Jones' job is safe -- because it's not. The 25-year-old played terribly the last two weeks, and all signs point toward Sunday's game being his last chance to prove himself. And Jones probably knows it.

Nevertheless, he sounded genuinely enthused Wednesday morning when asked about being reaffirmed as the starter for at least another week.

"Yeah, I appreciate that," Jones said during a news conference. "I think a lot of that is really good and a lot of things that I need to improve on as a quarterback. So, that's what I think of. What can I do better? You know, what are the actual issues? Instead of just throwing stuff up in the air, let's look at the tape, you know, like the plays in the game, 11-on-11, and really see what's going on. That's the important part to me because you can always try to problem solve that way.

"But, when you are kind of just chasing different things and narratives and things like that, it's hard, right? But, when you sit in the room together and look at the tape, there's a lot of things that you can be like, 'OK, I'm going to do this or I'm going to try to do this drop on this play or read it this way,' or whatever. So, it's all about trial and error. At the same time, you want it to be really good on game days. That's where I've been disappointed with myself, because it hasn't been great on game day. So, why hasn't it been? That's something I'm focused on."

Maybe Jones will turn things around in Vegas. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he lands somewhere in between, doing just enough to hold onto his job.

But if he struggles again, it reportedly won't be Bailey Zappe whom the Patriots turn to.