Mac Jones played his first 42 and his most recent five NFL regular-season games as a starting quarterback. They’re two distinct episodes in his career.

The first 42 came after the New England Patriots chose the former Alabama All-American at No. 15 in the 2021 NFL Draft and chose to go with him as the starting QB instead of incumbent Cam Newton.

The past five came for Jacksonville, including a 26-23 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the Jaguars’ regular-season finale on Sunday, what Jones termed “a tough ending to a tough season.”

In between, the Patriots benched Jones for the final six games of the 2023 season and traded him in March to Jacksonville, where he became the backup for Trevor Lawrence.

Injuries to Lawrence allowed Jones to start seven games in the final season of his rookie contract. Unless the Jaguars sign Jones to a contract extension, he will become an unrestricted free agent on March 12.

“I love this game,” Jones said. “I put a lot of time into it, and so do the people around me. I know the coaches and players felt that this year. Whether I was starting or not, tried to be the first guy in and study and learn the offense and learn the people and all that. I love football, I know that, and eventually it’s going to even out and go my way. I’m looking forward to that.”

Lawrence was the No. 1 pick of Jones’ draft class.

“I learned a lot from Trevor this year,” Jones said. “He’s a great leader and person. For him to get injured was unfortunate. But I do feel like the guys on the team have a lot of respect for me, and, hopefully, I earned everyone’s respect. That’s all I care about – for them to say I was tough, and we were in every game. Wish it could have gone the other way sometimes, I do believe I put my best foot forward, and so did they.”

Lawrence will resume his spot as the Jacksonville’s starting quarterback next season on a five-year, $275 million contract. But Jones did not rule out returning to the Jaguars next season while speaking with reporters in the Jacksonville locker room on Monday.

“I think everything’s on the table,” Jones said. “I think that’s part of the evaluation. I want to put myself in the best position to be a great quarterback and help the team, whether that’s as a starter or not. So I learned a lot this year in being in that backup role, and I’ll continue to learn regardless of the role.”

Jones started a 12-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 1 and a 52-6 loss to the Detroit Lions on Nov. 17. Lawrence’s return to the lineup lasted less than one half, and Jones took the rest of the snaps for the Jacksonville offense after entering a 23-20 loss to the Houston Texans on Dec. 1.

Beginning with that game, Jones completed 134-of-202 passes for 1,395 yards with eight touchdowns and five interceptions and ran for 77 yards on 21 carries. Over the final six weeks of the regular season, Jones ranked eighth in the NFL in passing yards.

The Jaguars won two of Jones’ final five starts – both against the Tennessee Titans – to finish the season with a 4-13 record. The largest final margin in any of the games was seven points.

“I think I just want to evaluate the season,” Jones said on Monday, “and I feel like we had some good momentum on offense the last couple games, even though it went different ways, and a lot of one-score games, but we improved on third down, improved in short yardage, and just being in the games at the end of the year. So that was something that I was going to look back on and see what I can do better and study those one-score situations and see where that leads me.

“But at the end of the day, everything’s been done, and I just know that I can play in this league, and I’m looking forward to just learning how to get better.”

Jones’ return to regular playing time allowed him to become the seventh former Alabama player to surpass 10,000 NFL passing yards. He follows Ken Stabler, Joe Namath, Bart Starr, Richard Todd, Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts as Crimson Tide passers who have reached the NFL milestone.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.