JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It's easy to spot Mac Jones on Jacksonville's practice fields. He's the one dancing between plays.
Shimmying. Shaking. Strutting.
Smiling. The 15th overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft is clearly enjoying his new role with his hometown team. After being the third Jaguars quarterback to take the field in last week's preseason opener against Kansas City, Jones is expected to start against Tampa Bay on Saturday.
With Trevor Lawrence taking the night off following two joint practices with the Bucs, Jones will get a chance to secure the team's backup job. It's a far cry from being THE GUY for 43 games in New England, but it's also a refreshing reboot for the former Alabama star. "I've competed my whole life and I find great joy in competition," Jones said.
"I try to just be myself. I'm not going to change because of one thing or another." Jones and C.
J. Beathard are expected to split the exhibition. Jones completed 9 of 11 passes for 98 yards against the Chiefs; Beathard connected on 7 of 14 for 125 yards, including a 35yard touchdown pass to Devin Duvernay.
It would be a mild upset if Jones didn't land the No. 2 spot. After all, the Jaguars traded a sixthround draft pick to New England in March in hopes of finding an upgrade behind Lawrence.
Lawrence missed the first game of his professional career following a sprained right shoulder in December. He also missed significant practice time because of other injuries: a sprained left knee in Week 6, a sprained right ankle in Week 13 and a concussion in Week 15. Beathard, 30, won his lone start in 2023 but also dealt with a nagging shoulder injury down the stretch.
He is entering the final year of his contract. The 25-year-old Jones, meanwhile, became available once the Patriots and new coach Jerod Mayo decided they were going to draft a quarterback (Drake Maye) with the No. 3 pick in April.
It was a low-risk move for Jacksonville, which is on the hook for $2.8 million in the final year of his rookie deal. It also gave Jones a fresh start after getting booed, benched and eventually booted.
The Jacksonville native and starter during Alabama's 2020 national championship run doesn't have nearly the same amount of pressure now. But he insists he's approaching everything the same way he did in college and in New England. ENGLEWOOD, Colo.
— Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur hankered for a fight-free joint practice as the Packers and Denver Broncos were warming up Friday. He and Broncos coach Sean Payton agreed to no 1-on-1 drills pitting wide receivers and cornerbacks or linebackers against running backs and that even the pass-rush drills during 7-on-7s would be truncated and tame. "We just want a good, competitive practice and we want to keep it safe," LaFleur said.
"We want to eliminate all fighting if possible." He knew that was a big ask. "It's football.
There's going to be competitiveness, there's going to be chippiness," LaFleur said. "But can you keep your composure? I think that's part of the beauty of the game. When you're in a real-life game situation, it does get chippy, it does get testy, guys start to talk (trash).
But can you keep your composure?" Not 30 minutes later, LaFleur was hopping mad, running onto the field and hollering at Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto after quarterback Jordan Love, who signed a four-year, $220 million extension last month, was knocked to the ground and threw an interception. Pleading his innocence, Bonitto looked back at LaFleur and the Packers' hooting and hollering sideline with a shrug. Love said afterward it was actually one of his own linemen who crashed into him just as he was about to release the ball.
CINCINNATI — "Money Mac" is getting paid. Cincinnati Bengals kicker Evan McPherson has agreed to a three-year, $16.5 million contract extension, eliminating any chance of him hitting free agency in March.
McPherson, who earned the nickname "Money Mac" because of his penchant for making clutch kicks, will earn $10 million in new money in 2025, according to his agents at New York-based Sportstars Inc. That's nearly 10 times his base salary of $1,055,000 for 2024. A fifth-round draft pick from Florida in 2021, McPherson has made 78 of 93 field-goal attempts in three seasons.
He's hit 21 of those from beyond 50 yards and is 126 of 132 on extra points. Bengals owner/president Mike Brown said last month the sides had begun talking about an extension for McPherson, who is the fourth kicker to land a contract extension in the past five months. Kansas City's Harrison Butker signed a four-year, $25.
6M extension earlier this month that made him the NFL's highest-paid kicker. Cleveland's Dustin Hopkins signed a threeyear, $15.9 million extension in July, and Philadelphia's Jake Elliott signed a four-year, $24 million extension in March.
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