Mac Ahead of Where Manning Was His Rookie Year

[zydecochris]

Anyone comparing Herbert to Mac at this point is insane. Maybe Mac does end up as a better QB but right now Herbert is lightyears ahead of Mac and his ceiling looks to be a mile higher right now.

Jimmy Johnson has said that he could draft any player in the NFL to start a team with, it would be Herbert over Mahomes, and Herbert might be the best in the NFL soon, so comparing Herbert to Mac isn’t really a fair comparison. I’ll just take Mac as a 15 year starter with perhaps a few championships under his belt, even without a bunch of MVP trophies (not that I would turn those down too)

 

[zydecochris]

I actually do like the Manning comp in regards to the throws. Never really thought about it til you mentioned it but I certainly see it now.

Really? I’ve never seen Mac flap his arms like a chicken (a prima Donna one at that) before the snap

 

[BigPeteG]

QBs for whom their legs are a big part of their game are more set up for first year success as opposed to rookie drop back QBs. But I still think drop back passers are more likely to take you to the promised land. Compare Mac to other rookie drop back passers, he is quite high on any list. Plus I think Mac’s most impressive thing is not the numbers, but his ability to lead this team.

Mac can run though. It's Mac's arm strength that threatens to hold him back. If it was just his wheels - we would be made in the shade. Guy ran a 4.72 and 4.68 on his pro day. That may not sound like much when compared to running backs and wide outs. But its pretty good for a QB - better then guys like Mahomes and Allen.

It's hard to fathom but Mac simply didn't have to run at Alabama. They were that dominant. At some lessor schools they would have designed some RPOs and such for him..

Just because he kinda replaced Brady he is called a statue. Its not really true - check out his HS highlights sometime.. The question is - can he throw those 60 yard strikes like Josh Allen can. The problem with dink and dunk football is that you need such high accuracy for such an extended time that your chance of success goes down..

It's not some secret weapon to win the Brady way that everyone thinks.

 

[Pape]

Really? I’ve never seen Mac flap his arms like a chicken (a prima Donna one at that) before the snap

to be fair, superman

 

[bormio]

All I know is that on 3rd and 5 near midfield in the 4th quarter on a gotta have it drive, Mac is delivering the goods over and over again.

 

[goheels22002]

I just dug these numbers out:



Again, not saying he's Manning by any means, this is obviously just a reminder to those who seem to be dismissing him that even the great ones took time to come into their own. I didn't do the Brady comparison because as we know, that's been discussed enough. But seeing these totals, while we don't know what type of player he'll eventually be, Jones is obviously off to a pretty good start.

Great tweet, Ian. Manning played for the team with the worst record in the NFL so that the Colts could draft him, so Mac cam into a better situation with a championship pedigree, but the numbers tell an important story about a player whose upside is higher than many are willing to admit. The fact that Belichick will not have a heavy cap hit at QB for at least three years suggests that the Patriots can strengthen units like the OL while enjoying that cap room. I'm very encouraged.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

How about we compare him to other rookies then.

Comp. % Yards TD's Int Games Played In
Trevor Lawrence: 59.4% 1146 6 8 5
Trey Lance 52.1% 354 3 1 4
Zach Wilson 57.3% 1117 4 9 5
Justin Fields 51.4% 458 1 2 5
Davis Mills 61.5% 669 5 5 4
Mac Jones 71.1% 1243 5 5 5

Mac is easily having the best season out of all of them this year. The only rookie I can remember having a better start to their season recently is Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert and those dudes had some stud weapons.

Even then, Mac is on pace to throw for more yards than Big Ben, Dak, Russell Wilson, and Baker Mayfield with a better completion % over 16 games.

He's having a fantastic start to his career man.

agree mac looks very good. However I still don’t know if he can throw the ball downfield accurately or not. We shall see soon enough when defenses take away the check downs

 

[Bruins29]

Instead of criticizing the site owner for offering comparisons that trigger you, how bout offering what you believe is a better comparison.
Much "appreciated"

Do you know how much money his family has donated to this site. I dont know how much, but its got to be a lot if he was bragging about it the other day,.

 

[‘Mondre]

Sample size is too small.

i bet somebody already found a few terrible qbs online who had similar numbers to Manning and Jones after 5 games

 

[Froob]

Really? I’ve never seen Mac flap his arms like a chicken (a prima Donna one at that) before the snap

Hopefully he has better character than Peyton.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

@Ian's point was to compare Mac to a "great" QB, I'm not sure which "great" QB drafted in the last decade that started week 1 (or around week 1) as a rookie you'd want to use as a comparison. Looking them over, the best I can really find are Andrew Luck in 2012 and Deshaun Watson in 2017. Besides them, the best you can do is compare him to other QBs who were drafted in recent years and could be great but the jury's still out (Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert). And then, obviously, you have the easy comparisons of Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson this year.

mac looks better than Lawrence and especially Wilson however both have been asked to make much more difficult throws than mac. Mac has the much better brain than those two, now he needs to prove he has the arm strength and velocity to make big plays happen

 

[NG Pats Fan]

Good stuff. I think we should keep this going for the rest of the season to see where things settle with Mac.

I think you should include some of the advanced stats like AY/A, Y/A and CPA because I believe Mac is bottom half to bottom third in those areas and those types of advanced stats matter over just the volume ones as they indicate the type of plays the QB is making that actually correlates to winning games.

YPA is hugely important and has shown to correlate with winning more games

At 6.5 YPA, that is way to low at the moment. Some of it is Macs WRs not being fast and athletic enough to earn YAC

 

[sb1]

Did Mac lose 45-0 to a Cam Newton team? No?

So there's that. Mac > Herbert

 

[Pats2000]

agree mac looks very good. However I still don’t know if he can throw the ball downfield accurately or not. We shall see soon enough when defenses take away the check downs

Seriously? Have you been watching the games? They haven't asked him to push the ball 40 yards downfield, but the intermediate passes have been there and been very accurate. It's almost like you aren't actually seeing any of these games

 

[NG Pats Fan]

Seriously? Have you been watching the games? They haven't asked him to push the ball 40 yards downfield, but the intermediate passes have been there and been very accurate. It's almost like you aren't actually seeing any of these games

his longest air yards completion is 37.2 yards according to next gen stats. That’s second lowest in nfl only to Andy Dalton.

yes I am serious. He hasn’t proven he can accurately throw the ball downfield with good touch or velocity…yet. Not saying he can’t (I’m very confident he can) but part of the problem is know it all mcdaniels being a wimp and also deep threat Agholor hasn’t done his job downfield. Once Macs YPA goes up we will start winning more games

time to cut the cord little Joshua

 

[ashley]

agree mac looks very good. However I still don’t know if he can throw the ball downfield accurately or not. We shall see soon enough when defenses take away the check downs

How's this throw for you?

 

[Pats2000]

his longest air yards completion is 37.2 yards according to next gen stats. That’s second lowest in nfl only to Andy Dalton.

yes I am serious. He hasn’t proven he can accurately throw the ball downfield with good touch or velocity…yet. Not saying he can’t (I’m very confident he can) but part of the problem is know it all mcdaniels being a wimp and also deep threat Agholor hasn’t done his job downfield. Once Macs YPA goes up we will start winning more games

time to cut the cord little Joshua

That's life in the Patriots offense for a rookie

 

[NG Pats Fan]

How's this throw for you?

thanks for posting that.

so If that’s a Mahomes/Allen they’re making that on the run and getting it there quite easily, Mac’s biggest issue is his arm strength I feel… Setting his feet to make that throw gave the corner an indication that he was throwing behind him. However, arm strength can be improved. Mac this off-season should work very hard to improve his velocity on his balls thrown over 30 yards. I think he’ll get there.

I have to laugh..look at Harriet completely lost out there. Freezes like an owl instead of coming back to the QB. He might be the worst first round WR drafted I have seen since the Vikings drafted Laquon Treadwell (whom Walter football scouts compared to Harry)

 

[sb1]

Mac is tough and it’s being noticed by his team. He stands in the pocket and delivers the ball even when he’s about to take a big hit. Brady-esque that way. I’m impressed he got up after getting crushed by Devin White.

Put Jarrett Stidham’s arm on Mac and we’ve got something here this year.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

Mac is tough and it’s being noticed by his team. He stands in the pocket and delivers the ball even when he’s about to take a big hit. Brady-esque that way. I’m impressed he got up after getting crushed by Devin White.

Put Jarrett Stidham’s arm on Mac and we’ve got something here this year.

yeah it’s tough to admit because we love Mac but his arm strength just may not be there..yet. When you have to drive downfield by way of a thousand paper cuts there is such little margin for error. And once we get close, we struggle to score touchdowns in red zone. Hunter Henry is playing better, would be nice if he really establishes himself as a red zone threat

stidham..what a horrible attitude and pea brain