Patriots owner Robert Kraft 'very happy with' QB Mac Jones

2021 rookie Mac Jones won the starting quarterback job with the New England Patriots over former NFL Most Valuable Player Cam Newton last summer and ultimately performed well enough to help guide the club to a postseason berth in his debut season. Like just about every first-year signal-caller, Jones encountered both ups and downs en route to completing 67.6% of his regular-season attempts for 3,801 yards with 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

While the 23-year-old is seemingly cemented atop the depth chart this spring, multiple big-name quarterbacks made moves to different clubs this offseason and reminded fans this is a new NFL era as it pertains to star QB1s choosing where they will play and for how long. Per Jeff Howe of The Athletic, Patriots owner Robert Kraft offered praise for Jones while speaking at the league's annual meetings this week and suggested he expects to see his young quarterback reach a higher tier by January.

"This year will be very telling," Kraft said of Jones. "To come into something as new as this, as established, I think he got beat up pretty bad, and he kept coming back and getting up and really doing some great stuff. Just the way he handles himself, he took some real beatings and hopped up. He has developed a good relationship with the whole cadre of receivers. I’m very happy with what I’ve seen. But this is a big year, the second year."

As noted by ESPN stats, Jones finished his rookie season 15th among eligible quarterbacks with a 92.5 passer rating and 16th with a 50.9 total QBR. He may have to improve those marks in year two to keep Kraft and company from potentially looking for an upgrade at the sport's most important position as soon as next winter.