Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

ESPN Analyst Hit the Nail on the Head in 2023 by Predicting Mac Jones Would Be As Good As Brock Purdy at the 49ers!

Mac Jones looks like a completely different player in San Francisco under Kyle Shanahan!

Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Back in 2023, Mac Jones, the current backup quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers, was playing in his third year as the starter for the New England Patriots. After starting the season 1-4 through 5 weeks, ESPN’s NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky’s take in support of Jones met with severe criticism.

Orlovsky basically suggested that the reason behind Jones’ struggles is entirely on the Patriots, and compared his situation to that of Brock Purdy in San Francisco. As per Orlovsky, had Jones been with the 49ers, he would be as good as Purdy due to the 49ers’ system and way of playing.

Dan Orlovsky says Mac Jones in the 49ers offense would look like Brock Purdy, and Rex Ryan loses it 🤣

🎥 @GetUpESPN pic.twitter.com/JbSmVIut5y
— KNBR (@KNBR) October 9, 2023

While that take was ridiculed by many back in October 2023, Jones is currently with the 49ers and is 3-0 as a starter following the Niners’ win over the Rams last night. So, let us take a look at what Orlovsky was saying back in 2023 and see how the stats stack up for Jones back then vs now.

Mac Jones with the Patriots

Drafted into the NFL with the 15th overall pick in 2021 by the New England Patriots, Mac Jones had a decent start to his professional career. As a rookie under center, Jones started all 17 regular-season games and helped the Patriots to a 10-7 record.

Clinching a playoff berth, Jones’ numbers in his rookie season read 3,801 passing yards on a 67.6% completion rate, 22 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions, with a passer rating of 92.5. In the playoffs, the Patriots got steamrolled by the Bills 47-17 in the Wild Card round, bringing an end to their season.

It was, however, from his sophomore season that Jones’s performance started to decline. The following season, he went 6-8 in 14 starts and had just under 3,000 passing yards with 14 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a passer rating that came down to 84.8.

In 2023, prior to Orlovsky’s take, New England had just lost their fourth game in the first 5 weeks, with Jones under center. In those 5 weeks, Jones had a completion percentage of 60.4, 1008 passing yards, but only 5 touchdowns to 6 interceptions for a passer rating of 66.36. The Patriots were doing horribly, with no upside to look forward to.

Mac Jones under Kyle Shanahan: pic.twitter.com/uT1cfmnSAT
— ESPN BET (@ESPNBET) October 3, 2025

Brock Purdy and Mac Jones with the 49ers

Near the same time as Orlovsky’s take, Brock Purdy was in his second year with the 49ers and had earned the starting quarterback role after his late-season heroics the previous year. Thrust under center for the final 5 games of the 49ers’ 2022 season, Purdy rallied his team and ensured San Francisco’s progression to the playoffs.

Purdy led the 49ers to the NFC Championship game, where they lost to the Eagles that year, but that too after his throwing arm was compromised as he got hit early in the game.

The following season, Purdy and the 49ers were undefeated at 5-0 through week 5. At the time, Purdy had a 73.4% completion rate, 1,271 passing yards, 9 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions for a passer rating of 118.94.

Orlovsky’s argument was that Mac Jones’ struggles in New England were not all on him, but a result of the system. Put him in San Francisco, and things would be similar to what Purdy is doing.

Brock Purdy: Mac Jones:
– 2 games – 2.5 games
– 586 Yards – 723 yards
– 2 TDS – 6 TDS
– 2 INTS – 1 INT
– 85.8 Passer RTG – 111 Passer RTG pic.twitter.com/c3VuieNoLv
— Polymarket Football (@PolymarketBlitz) October 3, 2025

Fast forwarding now to 2025, and Jones finds himself as the backup to Purdy in San Francisco. Due to Purdy’s turf toe injury, Jones has started 3 games for the Niners and is 3-0. He has a 66.66% completion rate, 905 passing yards, 6 touchdowns, 1 interception, and a passer rating of 99.26, a significant rise in overall production.

Now in his fourth year, the verdict on how good a starting quarterback Purdy would be elsewhere is still to be out. There are two camps: the pro-Purdy camp and the other camp that believes it is the Kyle Shanahan system that is the reason for his success.

Looking at how Purdy struggled all of last season with his top offensive weapons suffering multiple injuries, and the current resurgence of Mac Jones with similar problems to starting offensive players, perhaps Orlovsky was not too far from the truth in October 2023.

Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Brock Purdy

Mac Jones

NFL

San Francisco 49ers

Devavrat Kulkarni

nfl

I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!