Mac Jones seems to be enjoying life in Jacksonville, but could Florida’s other AFC team need his services more?
The Miami Dolphins will enter Week 3 with Skylar Thompson as their starting quarterback after Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion in last Thursday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills. Miami recently signed Tyler Huntley from the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad, but neither Thompson nor Huntley appear to be viable long-term options, as Tagovailoa was placed on the injured list and is expected to miss at least the next four weeks.
This is where Jones could come into play – at least if you ask his former teammate on the New England Patriots, Devin McCourty.
McCourty was with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on Tuesday’s episode of PFTLive to list current NFL quarterbacks who could use a “draft mulligan” — that is, they would have benefited from being drafted by another team. McCourty’s first choice was Jones, who had a strong rookie season in New England but failed in 2022 and 2023 due to rampant offensive dysfunction before the Patriots traded him to Jacksonville last offseason.
Regarding Jones, McCourty raised the possibility of a possible trade between the Dolphins and Jones, noting that both Miami and the San Francisco 49ers have been linked to the Alabama product at some point.
“Maybe Miami calls him and he gets traded to Miami – Miami, San Francisco, a lot of teams that were in play as possible places for him,” McCourty said. “I know Mac would love to do the draft (in 2021) again.”
The 49ers’ interest in Jones prior to the 2021 NFL Draft is well-documented, as head coach Kyle Shanahan seriously considered taking Jones instead of Trey Lance. But the Dolphins also have a connection to Jones; amid Tagovailoa’s struggles during the 2021 season, then-head coach Brian Flores reportedly told Tagovailoa to his face that he wished the team had drafted Jones as a backup.
Flores is obviously long gone, but Miami — with its dynamic playmakers like Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and De’Von Achane and a creative playmaker like Mike McDaniel — seems like an environment where Jones could thrive. In fact, our Tom E. Curran argued last season that Tagovailoa and Jones are “virtually interchangeable” in terms of skill sets and that Jones could thrive in the Dolphins’ point guard role, as he did on a loaded Alabama college team.
The question, of course, is whether the Jaguars want to part with Jones, who is just one injury to Trevor Lawrence away from starting in Jacksonville. Lawrence and Jones are the only quarterbacks on the Jaguars’ active roster, so they likely wouldn’t want to trade Jones without adding another viable backup.
But would the Dolphins be so desperate for a QB upgrade that they would make Jacksonville an attractive offer? It’s at least a situation worth watching until Miami makes its long-term plans for the position clear.
