Mac Jones is in a much different position with the Jacksonville Jaguars than he was in with the New England Patriots.
There isn't much in terms of expectations on Jones, who was traded to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick in March, and he had to wait his turn to see the field in the Jaguars' 26-13 preseason-opening win over the Kansas City Chiefs at EverBank Stadium on Saturday night.
But once Jones took the field -- he was the third and final quarterback to play for the Jaguars -- the 2021 first-round pick looked comfortable in his new uniform.
Jones played the entire second half against mostly third-stringers and roster hopefuls and completed 9-of-11 passes for 98 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He led two scoring drives, both of which resulted in field goals, and finished with a 103.8 quarterback rating.
Arguably Jones' best throw of the night came midway through the fourth quarter when he dropped in a 28-yard pass to Josiah Deguara with a Chiefs safety closing in fast on the tight end.
That's a solid first showing with the Jaguars from Jones, who played behind franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence and C.J. Beathard. Beathard has served primarily as a backup in his six-year NFL career with just 13 starts under his belt.
The 25-year-old has no chance of unseating Lawrence as the team's starting quarterback and is left to battle it out with Beathard for the No. 2 spot on Jacksonville's quarterback depth chart. How the Jaguars rotated signal-callers against the Chiefs suggests Jones is trailing Beathard at the moment.
"Whatever my role is, I'm going to definitely do it to the best of my ability and my goal is to continue to develop physically and mentally," Jones told Demetrius Harvey of the Florida Times-Union earlier in the week, "and hopefully someone can see that, whether it's here or somewhere else... my attention is 100% here, and when it changes if something happens, I'll be ready. So that's my mindset."
