Mac Jones is entering Year 3 with the Patriots. Is this the season he takes a leap?

Mac Jones is healthy, the Patriots' acknowledged starting quarterback, and he has a new offensive play-caller in Bill O'Brien.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

FOXBOROUGH — When it comes to the 2023 Patriots, no one has more to prove than Mac Jones.

After an impressive rookie season that saw Jones help New England to a playoff berth, last year was a bit of a mess. The quarterback got hurt, lost his job, heard fans chant loudly for the return of his backup, and delivered a mid-game outburst toward the offensive play-caller that caused some ex-Patriots to question his behavior.

New England missed the playoffs, and the Patriots lost a season of development for Jones, who made a commitment to change in May.

“I’m going to do everything I can to earn the respect of everybody in this building again,” he said then.

Asked Thursday if he feels like he has anything to prove after the way last season ended, Jones said he was all about looking forward.

“I’m not really focused on last year,” he said. “I’m just trying to move forward and prepare really well. That’s all you can do, is prepare, and let that turn into game execution. At the end of the day, you have to go out there and give it your all.

“Every day, [I’m] just focused on what I can control. Stick to my routine. Go out there and compete. Have fun. Play with juice. And really just apply that to the games. There’s going to be ups and downs. Just got to keep moving forward, figure it out, and problem solve.”

Now, he’s healthy, the acknowledged starter, and he has a new offensive play-caller. Throw in the additions of JuJu Smith-Schuster, Mike Gesicki, and Ezekiel Elliott, and it’s easy to see why Jones was one of the happiest players in camp.

“Mac’s had a good offseason, and had a really good camp,” said coach Bill Belichick. “He comes to work every day, comes in early, stays late, works hard, understands the offense: how it works, how to get his teammates involved, how to help them be productive. So, he’s had a really good stretch here in training camp and had a good spring to propel himself into this time period. It’s been pretty consistent all the way through.”

"[Jones] comes to work every day, comes in early, stays late, works hard, understands the offense: how it works, how to get his teammates involved, how to help them be productive," Bill Belichick said.Steven Senne/Associated Press

And so, while there are questions about the health of the offensive line, Jones appears better set up for success than at any point over the last year-plus. So as his third season dawns — the one that has served as a make-or-break year for many quarterbacks — the onus is on Jones to demonstrate he can be the player the Patriots asked him to be when they took him with the 15th overall pick in 2021.

As far as his teammates and coaches are concerned, Jones checked every box this summer.

“He’s always had my respect,” tight end Hunter Henry said. “Every year, as an NFL player, we all are trying to earn our teammates’ respect and our coaches’ respect. That’s part of the process. You kind of have to take that approach, and I think he’s done a great job of kind of doing that. I’ve always had respect for him, but he’s doing a great job.”

Regardless of how horrible last year was for Jones, history suggests a path to sustained success could still lie ahead. Many recent quarterbacks who were hindered or struggled statistically in their second year found success with a bounce-back third season, a group that includes Matthew Stafford, Andy Dalton, and Jared Goff.

The most significant example? Bills quarterback Josh Allen. After a good start to his career, the former first-round pick out of Wyoming improved dramatically in every major category between his second (2019) and third year as a starter, including completion percentage (58.8 to 69.2), passing yards (3,089 to 4,544), touchdown passes (20 to 37), and rating (85.3 to 107.2). Along the way, Buffalo went from 10 to 13 wins, and made it to the AFC title game.

Mac Jones can look to Bills star quarterback Josh Allen as a recent example of a former first-round pick who exhibited massive growth between his second and third seasons.Matt Freed/Associated Press

Plenty of things had to fall into place for Allen to find success. Between his second and third seasons, the Bills added an elite wide receiver Stefon Diggs (who caught 127 passes his first season in Buffalo). It wasn’t coincidental that a stout offensive line gave Allen more time to throw (his sacks decreased from 38 to 26). And some of Allen’s success was because of working with a former Alabama offensive coordinator in Brian Daboll, who helped shape Allen from raw rookie to MVP candidate.

Of course, history is littered with quarterbacks who regressed between Years 2 and 3, including Danny Kanell and Trevor Siemian, both of whom dropped off the radar shortly afterward.

At the same time, there’s still hope for quarterbacks who see their stats take a tumble after Year 3. Like Jones, Drew Brees and Jake Plummer were already ranked 20th or lower in passing DYAR (defense-adjusted yards above replacement) in Year 2, and then took a sizable step back in their third season. Brees and Plummer would soon find greener pastures elsewhere, as Brees moved from the Chargers to the Saints and ended up leading New Orleans to a Super Bowl title, while Plummer went from the Cardinals to the Broncos, and guided Denver to an AFC title game. With a decision on Jones’s fifth year-option looming at the end of the season, this year represents another reason forthe Patriots and quarterback to figure it out soon.

But following Allen’s template for success in Buffalo remains the best possible scenario. There are obvious differences in their playing styles — Jones is more of a pocket passer whose strength is the short and intermediate game, while Allen is a big-armed quarterback who can use his legs — but the idea is the same: If the Patriots can play to Jones’s strengths as the Bills did with Allen in his third season, 2023 will be a success.

How would Jones define a successful season?

“Every year, you make goals, individual and team — I like to keep those to myself,” he said. “But obviously, you want to strive for really good things. For me, it’s just really about leadership and leading the guys and working through the highs and the lows.”

In the end, the questions remain: Can Jones make the leap to greatness? Can the combination of Smith-Schuster and Gesicki provide Jones with the same sort of boost that Diggs gave the Bills? And can another ex-Alabama offensive coordinator (Bill O’Brien) help unlock Jones the same way Daboll did for Allen?

The answers will go a long way toward determining Jones’s legacy with the Patriots.

“It’s not going to be perfect, it never has been, it never will be,” Jones said of the process. “Just try to work through it to come up with solutions to win games. It really starts this week.”

WATCH: Write or wrong: Host Chris Gasper says that it’s a make-or-break third season for Mac Jones and that there will be no excuses this year for poor play.