Mac Jones Still An Underdog For Week 1 Starting Role

• Mac Jones was the first draft pick made by the New England Patriots.
• Many regard him as the future of the franchise and want him to start over Cam Newton.
• Jones has +180 odds to be the week one starter for the Pats.

FOXBOROUGH - Mac Jones demonstrated some potential value in the first preseason game for the New England Patriots. Jones did not start the game, but he played in most of it, and was seen deep in conversation with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels during the run of the game.

Preseason is famously not indicative of live NFL performance, but it’s enough to get people talking about the potential for Jones to take over from Newton before the season starts.

Patriots QB Week 1 Odds

• Mac Jones +180
• Cam Newton -250

Jones is still the underdog according to the online sportsbooks, which makes sense given coach Bill Belichick’s statements that Newton remains the starting QB.

"We'll take a look at the whole situation," said Belichick. "I don't think you want to evaluate players at any position off one or two plays, or maybe a day. So from a consistency standpoint, that's always important. And obviously production. So hopefully those things will be good, and I'm sure it will be a hard decision."

So, on the one hand, Belichick has seemed strongly behind Newton as the NE Patriots starter. On the other, Jones received much of the attention from the coaching staff in the Patriots’ preseason game against the Washington Football Team. Of course, that could be explained by the fact that Jones has much more room to grow than Newton does, and could benefit more from a preseason game.

Jones looked solid, completing 13 of his 19 pass attempts, although his best pass of the day was dropped by Kristian Wilkerson on what would have been a touchdown.

His pocket presence and awareness were on full display, although he initially seemed to struggle with velocity and ball placement in the short passing game.

Those struggles may not show up on the stat sheet, but they may be enough to give Bill Belichick pause when it comes to replacing Newton with Jones - at least on day one.

Jones may be the future of the New England Patriots - and who can forget the last time a young Pats QB stepped up to overtake a solid veteran, leading them to a Super Bowl - but he might not be the present.