There’s no sugarcoating it. Super Bowl LX was painful for the New England Patriots and their fans, and the fallout from Sunday’s 29-13 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks has only made it worse.
Drake Maye struggled under the bright lights and immense pressure from another elite NFL defense. The offensive line couldn’t protect him. The experienced coaches in New England’s corner surprisingly had no answers.
Aside from a glimmer of hope midway through the fourth quarter, that game was brutal, and Patriots fans could use a smile right now.
For this Patriots fan, that smile came from an article published Tuesday by MassLive.com, whose staff predicted all 32 starting quarterbacks for the 2026 season.
Maye obviously swept all seven votes for the Patriots, led by beat reporter Karen Guregian, but it’s the rest of the AFC East that should grab fans’ attention. Aside from Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills, both the Dolphins and Jets had several different quarterbacks predicted as their 2026 starter, including two surprising votes for Mac Jones as QB1 of the Jets.
Mac Jones and the New York Jets are the match Patriots fans need right now
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported over the weekend that the San Francisco 49ers are not expected to trade Jones this offseason. Brock Purdy was limited to nine starts in 2025 due to a toe injury, and Jones stepped in and kept their season afloat, going 5-3 as a starter.
It’s also well known that Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers were interested in selecting Jones early in the 2021 NFL Draft, but opted for Trey Lance instead at No. 3 overall, leading to Jones falling to the Patriots with the 15th pick.
The 49ers also signed Jones on a two-year, $8.4 million deal in 2025, so his team-friendly contract could offset the value of a mid-round draft pick coming back in a trade.
That's why it was surprising to see two of MassLive’s experts, columnist Matt Vautour and reporter Lauren Campbell, both predicting Jones to land in the dysfunctional pit that is East Rutherford and the New York Jets.
For full transparency, Guregian predicted Kyler Murray for the Jets, and the majority vote went to Kirk Cousins. But those two votes for Jones jump off the page. Patriots fans were so fed up with Jones’ sideline antics and poor play that they chanted for Bailey Zappe during just about every home game from the middle of the 2023 season on.
Let’s just say that Jones was ready to leave Foxboro, and no Patriots fan shed a tear when that experiment finally ended at the start of the Jerod Mayo era in 2024. Jones was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars that offseason for a sixth-round draft pick, and he left for the 49ers as a 2025 free agent.
Jones hasn’t yet played in a game against the Patriots, and that would be a fun one for fans to sink their teeth into if it ever happens. A blockbuster trade to the Jets this offseason would set that stage, and Patriots fans would be buzzing like it’s 2025 all over again if that somehow went down.
For now, anything to emerge from this Super Bowl fog is much-needed, and the thought of Jones mean-mugging people in Jets green certainly helps.