Patriots

For the second time this month, Mac Jones improved his former team's possibilities of landing one among the highest picks within the 2025 NFL Draft.

Even though New England lost to the Bills on Sunday, their 24-21 loss in Buffalo kept the Patriots within the running for a top-three spot within the upcoming draft.

But Jones – currently the Jaguars' starting quarterback after Trevor Lawrence's shoulder injury – helped New England clinch one other spot within the draft order on Sunday.

Jones and the Jaguars fell 19-14 to the Raiders on Sunday, giving Las Vegas its first win since Sept. 29 against the Browns.

As a result, the Patriots have overtaken the Raiders within the rankings and at the moment are ranked No. 2 overall within the draft order, behind only the 2-13 New York Giants.

Here's a take a look at the present top 10 order, per tankathon:

• New York Giants (2-13, .554)
• New England Patriots (3-12, .463)
• Jacksonville Jaguars (3-12, .480)
• Tennessee Titans (3-12, .512)
• Cleveland Browns (3-12, .530)
• Las Vegas Raiders (3-12, .545)
• Carolina Panthers (4-11, .500)
• New York Jets (4-11, .502)
• Chicago Bears (4-11, .557)
• New Orleans Saints (5-9, .506)

All in all, Jones didn't have a foul performance for the Jaguars; He accomplished 25 of 39 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown. But Jacksonville still wasn't capable of beat Vegas' lackluster squad, with each Tank Bigsby and Brenton Strange ejected for fumbles.

Jones and the Jags tried to prepare a late-game rally with lower than two minutes left, but Jones couldn't reap the benefits of a 4th-and-11 play to maneuver the chains – completing an 8-yard pass to D 'Ernest Johnson to force a turnover on downs.

New England passing on the Raiders should put them in a chief position to either select a blue-chip prospect like Travis Hunter or potentially trade for a ton of picks, especially for a team in desperate need of a QB just like the Raiders or Titans.

Patriots

Mac Jones appears to be settling in well along with his recent team, the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The former Patriots quarterback delivered an impressive performance for his hometown team over the weekend, completing 16 of 23 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns in a 20-7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It’s only the preseason, but ESPN’s Michael DiRocco notes that Jones leads the NFL in passer rating (120.7) and is third in passing yards (308) and completion percentage (73.5%) during the last two weeks.

Jones, who’s battling for Jacksonville's backup QB spot behind Trevor Lawrence within the rankings, earned Jacksonville's starting spot within the team's final preseason game – and hasn't looked like the identical QB who struggled in New England's broken offense throughout the 2023 season.

While Jones' miserable final season in Foxborough saw the previous first-round pick lose the ball at crucial moments and often get slammed into the turf, the 25-year-old playmaker's early results with the Jaguars were much like those of the promising rookie who earned Pro Bowl honors with New England in 2021.

Although Jerod Mayo was far more open in his discussions with the media early in his tenure as Patriots head coach, he was not too forthcoming on Monday when asked about his opinion on Jones' encouraging play up to now in Jacksonville.

“I wish Mac all the best,” May said.he said Monday during an appearance on WEEI’s “Greg Hill Show.” “He's having a good preseason and I'm happy for him. I always talk about these being long-term relationships, you've heard me say that. I wish him nothing but the best – unless he's playing against the Patriots.”

While Jones has seemingly made great strides in his short time with the Jaguars up to now, it might probably be argued that a fresh start in 2024 could be useful for each Jones and the Patriots.

The Patriots, who traded Jones to the Jaguars in March in exchange for a 2024 sixth-round pick, needed to make room of their quarterback room as a promising recent addition, Drake Maye, was finally on the way in which.

And while Jones showed loads of composure as a rookie in New England, one other season behind the Patriots' current offensive line would likely have brought much more unlucky results for him this fall.

While New England looks to maneuver forward with Maye, a possible franchise player on the roster, Jones appears to be well positioned in Jacksonville.

“He's just lively,” Lawrence told DiRocco of Jones. “That's probably the best word to describe him. Lively. Loves football, loves being out there. Guys respond great to him, but he's got great command, too. He's not just a jokester. He's serious and takes care of his business. Really smart player and I'm impressed with how he's handled everything.”

The Patriots will face Jones and the Jaguars in London on October 20.

Patriots

Drake May played only one series against his hometown Carolina Panthers last week during his NFL preseason debut.

The Patriots have approached the rookie quarterback's development cautiously this preseason. Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said the concerns in regards to the offensive line had something to do with how little Maye played last week.

But there’s one other factor that influences the Patriots’ timidity with the No. 3 overall pick in 2024, in accordance with Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston.

The Patriots are hesitant partially due to the end of the Mac Jones deal, and their fears have also affected how they take care of Maye, Curran said during a recent appearance on NBC Sports Boston.

New England drafted Jones No. 15 overall in 2021. He had a successful rookie season before being traded to Jacksonville for a sixth-round pick within the offseason after two disastrous seasons.

“Do I think they're doing the right thing by playing it safe? No,” Curran said. “You can play it out, you can pass it off, you can run draws, you can run screens. You can leave everybody there to block. You can leave him on the field a million percent of the snaps Bailey Zappe took, a lot of the snaps Joe Milton took. None of those guys got blown up.”

“So to me, that's way too cautious, but that's what happens when you look back and destroy a first-round quarterback,” Curran added. “The wreckage is still smoldering.”

The Patriots have been scarred “a million times” by the course of Jones' profession, Curran said.

“The owner, Mayo, and everyone else involved in making decisions, Eliot Wolf, as members of the management team, saw what had happened at Mac Jones and said, 'We're not making that mistake again,'” Curran said.

Mayo said earlier this week that Maye would play more within the Patriots' second preseason game against the Eagles on Thursday. Mayo said he was unsure how much he would play.

“I'm excited to get out there,” Maye told reporters Tuesday. “I'm excited to go out there with the guys and try to make some plays. I'm going to dress up. I don't know how much I'm going to play, but I'm going to go out there and play until they take me out.”

Apple Inc. is planning a new edition of the Mac mini, the corporate's smallest desktop computer ever, as a part of a significant overhaul of the Mac line with AI-focused chips.

The latest model, due later this 12 months, will mark the primary major design change to the Mini because it was redesigned under Steve Jobs in 2010, people aware of the matter said. The device shall be significantly smaller than its predecessor and nearly the scale of an Apple TV set-top box, in line with the people, who asked to not be identified since the work is classed.

The updated mini is considered one of several latest Macs coming in the subsequent few months. The company is preparing versions of the iMac desktop and MacBook Pro with M4-series chips, also for this 12 months. MacBook Airs are in development for spring, and models of the Mac Pro and Mac Studio are planned for the center of next 12 months.

The mass upgrade to the M4 processor is one other milestone for Apple: It is the primary time that the corporate has installed the identical generation of chips in all of its Macs. The M4 chip – which is already installed within the iPad Pro – is meant to power latest artificial intelligence features that Apple will introduce later this 12 months.

A spokesman for Apple, based in Cupertino, California, declined to comment on the corporate's plans.

Despite the general smaller design, the brand new Mac mini could also be larger than the present version. Today's model is about 1.4 inches tall. The updated edition will proceed to have an aluminum chassis.

The Apple TV box has a diameter of about 3.7 inches – currently lower than half the scale of the Mac mini.

Apple has tested models which have at the very least three USB-C ports on the back of the Mini, along with an area to plug in the ability cable and an HDMI port for connecting the device to TVs and monitors.

People involved in the event of the brand new Mac mini say it's essentially an iPad Pro in a small package – an approach that takes advantage of the lower power consumption of the corporate's own chips. The current Mac mini starts at $599. While the brand new model could also be cheaper to supply, it's unclear whether the corporate will pass the savings on to the patron.

Apple suppliers plan to start shipping units of the usual M4 later this month, which can launch later within the 12 months. Units with the higher-end M4 Pro won't be available to consumers until October. The Mac mini was last updated with M2 and M2 Pro chips in early 2023. It received the M1 chip in November 2020 as a part of the primary Mac lineup to feature Apple silicon.

Apple's move to its own computer processors boosted sales and accelerated the pace of upgrades, but demand for Macs has waned because the pandemic, when consumers rushed to equip their home offices.

The category generated sales of about $7 billion last quarter, up 2.5% from the previous 12 months.

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Originally published: August 9, 2024 at 11:46 am