The New England Patriots put an end to the Mac Jones era on Sunday, reportedly agreeing to trade him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for just a sixth-round pick.

The move ends what was a once-promising tenure for the quarterback in New England. But Jones' standout rookie season in 2021 feels ancient after how the last two seasons went as he regressed each year. In fact, it felt like he got worse with each game in 2023 as he was benched in four games before losing the starting job for good in Week 13, which put an unofficial end to his time with the Patriots.

As the Patriots move on from Jones and the Jaguars welcome him back to his home city, let's grade the deal for both teams.

Patriots grade for trading Mac Jones

The Patriots had to trade Mac Jones after the way the 2023 season went, but it still has to sting and hopefully serve as a reminder of what not to do when developing a young quarterback.

Jones was arguably the worst quarterback in the NFL last season, throwing for 21,20 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions with a 77 passer rating. It felt even worse than that though as the Patriots scored fewer than 10 points in four games Jones started.

So, the Patriots getting any sort of compensation for Jones could be viewed as a win. It's not often that you get a draft pick for a player who was possibly one of the worst to play significant time and you get to save some money in doing so as the Patriots clear $2.7 million in cap space. If they had outright released Jones, his entire $4.9 million base salary would've turned into dead money, so a neat plus!

But the truth is that this should've never gotten to this point. In simple terms, the Patriots turned the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft into a sixth-round pick three years later. But that ignores just how well Jones played in his rookie season when he threw for 3,801 yards, 22 touchdowns, and 13 touchdowns to help the Patriots make the playoffs.

Sure, Jones' rookie stats aren't the most eye-popping. But very few quarterbacks are able to look as competent as he did his rookie season, and there were moments where Jones looked the part. He went toe-to-toe with Tom Brady in the icon's return to Foxborough. He was more than impressive in a tough game against the Dallas Cowboys that year.

Maybe Jones would've eventually been figured out by other teams as his lack of creativity as a player certainly contributed to his downfall. But the Patriots did their best to expedite that process, hiring Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to replace Josh McDaniels. As expected, Jones got worse, but he wasn't so bad that he was unplayable.

Bill Belichick certainly helped Jones become unplayable though in 2023. He let the wide receiving core get worse, watching Jones' top target over his first two seasons walk to the Las Vegas Raiders on a relatively cheap deal. He had the opportunity to sign a true star receiver, but he let DeAndre Hopkins walk to the Tennessee Titans. Instead, they felt JuJu Smith-Schuster was worthy of a multi-year deal and picked up a hodgepodge of mediocre offensive tackles to fix their offensive line woes.

Jones shouldn't have played as poorly as he did, but are we really surprised that he ended up regressing considering how bad everything around him got?

The Patriots successfully turned what should be one of the best assets in spots (a budding quarterback with promise) into a player who should've been cut, that's why they get a C-minus for this trade.

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Patriots trade grade: C-

Jaguars grade for acquiring Mac Jones

This is as low-risk, high-reward as it comes for Doug Pederson and the Jaguars.

By acquiring Jones, the Jaguars have one of the league's best backup quarterbacks to sit behind Trevor Lawrence, who dealt with multiple injuries last season. Jones' upside is certainly higher than CJ Beathard's as well, giving the Jaguars much more of a chance to win if something bad should happen to Lawrence.

We've also seen the number of quarterbacks to start a game in recent years increase. So, this was really a no-brainer for the Jags.

Jaguars trade grade: A-