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Matt Cassel: ‘Fresh start’ with new team is best option for Mac Jones originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
There’s a chance we’ve seen Mac Jones throw his final pass as a quarterback for the New England Patriots. If that’s the case, former NFL QB Matt Cassel believes that will be to the third-year signal-caller’s benefit.
Amid an abysmal 2023 season, Jones was benched four times before finally losing his starting job to Bailey Zappe in Week 13. He amassed 2,120 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions and went 2-9 as New England’s starter.
Jones could return to the field sometime in the final five weeks of the campaign but for now, his job is simply to be a good teammate. On Thursday’s Patriots Pregame Live, Cassel recalled being in a similar situation during his playing career.
“I’ve been in that position when I was in Kansas City my last year,” Cassel said. “We were going through struggles midseason and I was actually benched and they started Brady Quinn for a week and then he got hurt, I went back in and then got benched later on that year.
“It’s tough, and it’s tough for you mentally and you’re looking at yourself, but I think it’s all how you handle it as a person, how you handle it as a quarterback of the team. If you’re sitting there moping around, guys don’t want to come near you. But instead, you have to embrace the challenge and say, ‘Look, guys, I’m still part of this team, I’m still a leader on this team despite that it hasn’t gone the way that I’ve wanted it to.’
“So it’s how you react and respond to those times of adversity, which is going to be important for Mac Jones because no one feels it more than Mac Jones. Nobody’s more embarrassed about how it’s gone than Mac Jones. You can play the ‘what if’ game all you want and you can feel sorry for yourself, but at the end of the day, that’s not going to get you through the rest of this season and make you the best teammate that you can be.”
After the Patriots’ 10-6 loss to the New York Giants…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/matt-cassel-fresh-start-team-013937398.html
Author : NBC Sports Boston
Publish date : 2023-12-08 01:39:37
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