Dante Scarnecchia on what Mac needs

[amfootball]

And the piling on Mac continues. LOL

Draft Parsons and Mills.

 

[Triumph]

Worked out in 2018 w/o a AJ Brown-type. NFL hasn't change that much in 3 years.

Except that the guy who made it all work on the field is in Tampa

 

[captain stone]

And the piling on Mac continues. LOL

Pats needed a QB... Trask & Mills would've had to learn this offense from scratch... But for Bill & McD, Mac is one of those pre-made meals that won't win any Blue Ribbons, but will at least fill the hole while they shop for the rest of the groceries...

 

[amfootball]

Pats needed a QB... Trask & Mills would've had to learn this offense from scratch... But for Bill & McD, Mac is one of those pre-made meals that won't win any Blue Ribbons, but will at least fill the hole while they shop for the rest of the groceries...

What makes you believe Mills would not have picked up the offense?

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

So here the the interview with Scar for those out of town. The Bolden kid is intriguing, will be watching him at the combine, another player along the same lines (my binkie for this draft) is Britain Covey from Utah, he does need to gain about 10-15 lbs IMO but he has 4.3-4.4 speed. Lots of good info beyond just the thoughts on WR.

Thanks for the post. Covey looks like another Tyreek Hill. Rare type of guys.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Except that the guy who made it all work on the field is in Tampa

Yes he is and did it without elite WRs

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Yeah I was disappointed that Scar didn't mention Bourne, who admittedly does not possess the hands (including for ball security) that Meyers does but is better than him in every other way.

Scar mentioned Bourne. Referred to him as Kendrick.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Let's see what Mac does in Year 2 with I would assume better weapons around him.

The way I see it if he's really all that he will make the second year leap. He won't be MVP or anything but the improvement will be obvious to see. If not then we have a problem.

Sure…but maybe he’ll have better weapons and a worse offensive line. Maybe he’ll have a good offensive line but no running game.

All in all, the Patriots had a stellar running game and stellar offensive line. They didn’t have an alpha on offense, which hurt them. But they had their $25M tight ends (or at least half of that with Henry), two good possession receivers in Bourne and Meyers, and a guy who had a big year with the Raiders the year before.

I’d like to see them get a next level playmaker too. But overall, Mac had a good situation. Not the best possible, but absolutely a better situation than Lawrence, Wilson, Fields or Mills.

Yes, we’ll see how next year goes, but things will never be perfect. There will always be something to point out that’s missing. This is common when fans evaluate their newly drafted QB...they tend to focus only on things that can explain the QB’s shortcomings rather than the QB himself.

And I’m not saying Mac is a failure. He had a good season. I’m just leery of the moving goalposts. I definitely understand why having a great WR or TE would improve the team. But you have to ask yourself a counter question, too: is it possible that Agholor, Henry, Meyers, and Bourne, playing in this run-control offense, would be producing a lot more with a different QB? That’s also a legit question. It’s also a possibility here.

 

[upstater1]

Sure…but maybe he’ll have better weapons and a worse offensive line. Maybe he’ll have a good offensive line but no running game.

All in all, the Patriots had a stellar running game and stellar offensive line. They didn’t have an alpha on offense, which hurt them. But they had their $25M tight ends (or at least half of that with Henry), two good possession receivers in Bourne and Meyers, and a guy who had a big year with the Raiders the year before.

I’d like to see them get a next level playmaker too. But overall, Mac had a good situation. Not the best possible, but absolutely a better situation than Lawrence, Wilson, Fields or Mills.

Yes, we’ll see how next year goes, but things will never be perfect. There will always be something to point out that’s missing. This is common when fans evaluate their newly drafted QB...they tend to focus only on things that can explain the QB’s shortcomings rather than the QB himself.

And I’m not saying Mac is a failure. He had a good season. I’m just leery of the moving goalposts. I definitely understand why having a great WR or TE would improve the team. But you have to ask yourself a counter question, too: is it possible that Agholor, Henry, Meyers, and Bourne, playing in this run-control offense, would be producing a lot more with a different QB? That’s also a legit question. It’s also a possibility here.

Lance and Fields had weapons. 49ers were better than ours, but the Bears were just the same. They actually have a true #1 in Allen Robinson who is infinitely better than Nelson Algholor.

 

[upstater1]

Pats will have to Tripple dip at WR just to make sure.

Don't be surprised if they go ZERO at WR since we have so few picks (5?) and we need a huge speed infusion on defense. I would not be surprised if we went CB, CB, LB, LB and then either S or DT.

 

[thecore762]

We don’t have that one always reliable guy anymore since Jules retired. We got lots of needs this off season and most of those needs are on the defensive side of the ball.

Hightower needs to be replaced.
We need another pass rusher with Judon.
We need a hard hitting safety.
We need a defensive tackle that can eat up two blockers.
If JC stays we need another solid db.
If JC leaves we are going to be awful against average receivers…I still remember vividly how our defense made below average recovers look like pro bowlers.

 

[Pats2000]

2017 with Cooks where he was an easy stretch guy who could beat people deep. Also from 07 to 18 we had either Gronk who was the GOAT TE or Moss who was the best WR since Rice or Welker who was arguably the greatest slot receiver in history who was an All Pro quality receiving threat.

Nobody is saying Meyers or Bourne don’t have a place here. They could. But they are inadequate for being the 1 and 2 of the receiving corp. We have a number 1 who ranks 34th in the league in receiving yards and who was a running joke for taking 2 years to get a TD pass. They can be good. But hypothetically you have a guy like Branch as the true number 1 and then Edelman as the consistent slot guy, then Bourne and Meyers at 3 and 4 with Henry as the trust TE and you have real passing offense (and notice I didn't use All Pro quality receivers to make my point).

Also I pivoted to Meyers because he is the clear number 1 and has the superior stats so anything I say about him can be applied to Bourne because he's not being focused on as much as Meyers by secondarys. So that's a pretty lame deflection.

Fact is this passing offense has been dreadful for 3 years. Brady was here and half the people on this board were making the case that he was washed (which I think everyone can admit is complete bs now) and part of that was him not relying on Meyers, last year Cam was washed, but lets be real it was no secret he looked a lot better when Edelman was still around. This year almost every analyst agrees Mac was the top rookie QB and he's dealing with a bottom 5 receiving corp and a completely one dimensional offense. You don't fix that, he'll be like Josh Allen in year 3 where people are wondering where the improvement is (hint it got fixed by adding Diggs) and we will in fact be debating if he's the guy despite him not succeeding somewhere Brady couldn't.

This team has been trash for 3 years with receivers and it's been nothing but deflections. "Brady's washed", "he won't give Meyers a chance", "Bill and Josh are washed and won't give them more playing time","the defenses are really at fault, they should be winning us games, it has nothing to do with offense stalling out". 3 years of that ****. Maybe at some point instead of putting players on a pedestal we should look at the results. We do not have a passing game and it's largrely because we don't have receivers that other teams need to respect.

So your point is that the offense is washed because Meyers is still on the team? You do realize that in 2019 offense was almost completely different than the current offense. We had exactly 0 tight ends and no Bourne.

Allen didn't magically become a 4,000 yard passer because he got a couple of great receivers. It helped, but the dude also made a leap in his game. Can an elite receiver help Mac? For sure, but it's not going to make him into something he's not. Plenty of QB's have had great receivers and still sucked like Tannehil. The fact that you keep going on about how our receivers don't get open, means you aren't watching the film.

 

[‘Mondre]

Yes he is and did it without elite WRs

When?

 

[Pats2000]

They believe in a game breaker. Just not necessarily at the WR position.

Gronk was a game breaker.

Corey Dillon was a game breaker.

You could argue Deion Branch 2003-2005 was a poor man's game breaker.

sure they do, but have you noticed that since Randy Moss, they've never had a game breaking receiver in that sense. Hell they won a Superbowl without the game breaker in Gronk with a bucnh of #2 and #3 receivers. The guy they are missing more than Gronk right now is Edelman. He movd the chains and that's what they really need.

 

[sb1]

Not the best possible, but absolutely a better situation than Lawrence, Wilson, Fields or Mills.

Oh yeah without a doubt. Switch Mac with any of guys here paired with a BB coached team and we're probably talking about the future being bright with them the way we talk about Jones right now. That's why it's pointless to compare their stats and numbers. Other thing I guess to remember is Mac dropped to us for free so all of those guys except Mills would have forced the Patriots to cough up a hefty price to move up.

The Parsons hypothetical is tricky. Yes it says if they're on the board but in reality we'd have to trade up for him and that would not be cheap either. We'd also have to reach to secure Mills in round 2 which means no Barmore. The Pats liked him so that probably happens. We know Mac beat Cam for his job, I don't know if Mills would have done that.

 

[RobertWeathers]

When?

2018, 2016,2014, 2004, 2003, 2001

 

[RobertWeathers]

sure they do, but have you noticed that since Randy Moss, they've never had a game breaking receiver in that sense. Hell they won a Superbowl without the game breaker in Gronk with a bucnh of #2 and #3 receivers. The guy they are missing more than Gronk right now is Edelman. He movd the chains and that's what they really need.

OK but i'm saying Gronk WAS the game breaker. That was what I was responding too.

It you want to talk about the kind of player they miss most which is a possession receiver that can get YAC then I would agree.

 

[Nunchucks]

And the piling on Mac continues. LOL

Micah Parsons and Davis Mills

 

[203Pat]

The thing that worries me about Mac (and I know we are very early in the process) is that we end up in quarterback purgatory. He is just good enough to keep us in the playoff mix but never good enough to make a deep playoff run. Good enough where you don't want to blow it up and start over with a new guy and you end up with the Bengals Andy Dalton, Kirk Cousins, or Ryan Tannehill just treading water every year. He kind of reminds me of those guys but we also have Bill Belichick and McDaniles and a lot of structure which may be the difference maker.

 

[amfootball]

The thing that worries me about Mac (and I know we are very early in the process) is that we end up in quarterback purgatory. He is just good enough to keep us in the playoff mix but never good enough to make a deep playoff run. Good enough where you don't want to blow it up and start over with a new guy and you end up with the Bengals Andy Dalton, Kirk Cousins, or Ryan Tannehill just treading water every year. He kind of reminds me of those guys but we also have Bill Belichick and McDaniles and a lot of structure which may be the difference maker.

You can find a QB like Jones in almost any draft. For the Patriots to truly contend with him the team is going to have to be near perfect.