A Random Thought About Jones

[Ollie]

I'd say only Tannehill as a team that was in the playoffs.

Mac really needs to work on his velocity on throws, especially towards the sidelines as they were painfully slow getting to WR's.

It's mind boggling how he got away with so many dump offs and short passes to RB's when teams should've smothered that and forced him to throw to WR's intermediately and downfield.

I think i recall one team saying that they actually schemed to take away the mid to long plays and leave the short stuff as they didn't think the pats offense could continually go down the field in multiple play drives.

 

[ashley]

Can you contend fir a SB with a mid tier QB? I do not think so.

There have been plenty of teams that have won SB's with average qb's........Flacco, McMahon, Doug Williams, Nick Foles etc.....

Mac should be good enough to win with.....as a rookie, he led us to the playoffs.

 

[signbabybrady]

Allen, Mahomes, Burrow, Herbert. Mac works for me.

Not that I wouldn't trade Mac for one or 3 of them but Mac did have a better rookie year then a couple of those guys. So while we still have a lot to learn about Mac he's pretty much done all he could so far so I'm happy with Mac.

 

[nextsuperstar]

Can you contend fir a SB with a mid tier QB? I do not think so. Does Mac have elite potential? Only if he improves his tools every off season and they get him some weapons. If no weapons, he will never put up more than average numbers. Bill has to take some chances eith acquiring playmaker talent.

You 100% can contend with a guy that is 7th to 15th best in the league. Look at the guys who have won Superbowls in the last 20 years:

Stafford
Foles
Eli Manning
Flacco
Brad Johnson

Now look at who has appeared:

Goff
Garopollo
Cap
Grossman
Delhomme


Were any of those guys the top tier of QBs in the year they appeared in the Super Bowl? Someone them were good or having good years, but they were clearly not the top tier at the position.

 

[PowerRunRevival]

The Patriots had a top 10 offense last year with Mac as a rookie. Other than replacing one guard that offense should be intact with another year of experience and growth. I predict that Mac will lead the Pats into a top 5 DVOA offense.

Although, I agree with the list of bolded names in a previous post I expect Mac to have a much improved second year. An improvement from the top 9 offense of last year puts the Patriots offense in line with some of the offenses run by the QBs in bold.

 

[BTTA]

You 100% can contend with a guy that is 7th to 15th best in the league. Look at the guys who have won Superbowls in the last 20 years:

Stafford
Foles
Eli Manning
Flacco
Brad Johnson

Now look at who has appeared:

Goff
Garopollo
Cap
Grossman
Delhomme


Were any of those guys the top tier of QBs in the year they appeared in the Super Bowl? Someone them were good or having good years, but they were clearly not the top tier at the position.

Add Brady to the list for his first. He wasn't in the top 10 at that point.

 

[Rob0729]

I don't think it is fair to do now. I wouldn't take him over Mahomes, Allen, or Burrow now. But if they were all rookies last year and had the same production they had their rookie years, I might think differently.

We just don't know what Jones' ceiling is like most of the guys who are better than him in the AFC. I don't buy that Jones has a low ceiling. People base that on his physical skills, but Jones has a lot of room to grow in that area. If he came into the league built like Trevor Lawrence and had the arm strength and speed that he had last year, then I would agree. But physically, Jones has as much room to grow as say Trey Lance has to grow in the technical aspects of the game.

I think people discount the ability of someone like Jones to grow physically and puts far more emphasis on elite athletic QBs who has crap technique and football smarts to gain those abilities.

Ok, short story long. It is unfair to compare a rookie QB to the top QBs in the league which unfortunately the AFC is stacked with.

 

[jdlboot14]

How can you say he won't be them? None of the guys you mentioned were what they became after their rookie year. There is no way of knowing. If he dedicates himself to improving, and puts in the effort, who knows what he will become. I agree much of it comes down to the team itself, but let's not sell Mac short at this point.

I would agree with 5/6, of course if just looking at rookie years, I wouldn't trade Mac for any of them.

What I mean is - Mac won't suddenly grow to 6'5" or become a runner like Allen or develop a cannon quite like their raw talent. But, my whole post was that Mac can (and very likely will) be a solid franchise QB who is capable of all the throws and athleticism necessary to win.

 

[VectorPrime]

Not that I wouldn't trade Mac for one or 3 of them but Mac did have a better rookie year then a couple of those guys. So while we still have a lot to learn about Mac he's pretty much done all he could so far so I'm happy with Mac.

Yeah it’s easy to have a better rookie year than the dude who blows out his knee.

 

[BTTA]

This evaluation needs to take into account the cost of the player. You can have Jones and solid NFL starters for what the second contract, top tier guys are making. And it'll be that way for three more years.

 

[sb1]

I think Jones and how much he improves in year 2 if at all will be *the* difference between a wild card contending team and an also-ran. A much improved Jones will make the offense much better than it should be.

 

[rochrist]

I'd say only Tannehill as a team that was in the playoffs.

Mac really needs to work on his velocity on throws, especially towards the sidelines as they were painfully slow getting to WR's.

It's mind boggling how he got away with so many dump offs and short passes to RB's when teams should've smothered that and forced him to throw to WR's intermediately and downfield.

Apparently you blacked out whenever he threw intermediate and downfield. Which he did plenty of.

 

[StrawHatPatriot]

I'd say only Tannehill as a team that was in the playoffs.

Mac really needs to work on his velocity on throws, especially towards the sidelines as they were painfully slow getting to WR's.

It's mind boggling how he got away with so many dump offs and short passes to RB's when teams should've smothered that and forced him to throw to WR's intermediately and downfield.

They did a little bit. The last month of the season, Mac got jumped on some of those short passes a lot more.

 

[PWRxWLF]

I expect we’ll see Mac improve in many areas, but still not fully take off in year 2. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re all here again next offseason arguing about the same damn ****. Mac comes across as a baby steps Bob kinda dude. Slowly marinates before he becomes a masterpiece, and I’m one of those that love Mac and feel that he’s gonna develop into a star.

 

[StrawHatPatriot]

We just gotta wait for Mac year 2.

Mac had a good rookie year, showed some good things - decision making, mobility in/out the pocket, accuracy, and solid intangibles, as he never looked out of it - and some flaws - arm strength was a little bad on deep throws inside the numbers, the velocity on his throws wouldn't always be consistent, he would occasionally sail passes, and he would occasionally check it down too early.

This is how I see it:
If he can somehow get this roster to playoff contention, he's the guy, and we have something special.

If we regress a little and get 8 wins only, then that means that he's "good" but one of those guys that's gonna need that special year where everything falls in line with a stacked team + special playoff run in order to win a super bowl.

If we regress badly and get 6 wins, then he's just Dak Prescott/Kirk Cousins/Baker Mayfield tier - even if you build a good team around them, you can't really trust them to beat a good team with a good QB.

 

[StrawHatPatriot]

The BOLDED above are teams that wouldn't swap out their guy for Jones right now. And even for some of the BOLDED you might argue that Jones on a rookie deal > Their expensive top quality QB.

Mac isn't significantly better than Tua or Davis Mills, if we're being honest.

 

[Marko]

His velocity on sideline throws was/is fine. Those are timing routes and what might appear "painfully slow" is just as much on the receiver being out of sync as it is the QB getting the ball out fast enough. I can't recall the exact game but one pass to the flat that got picked off was totally the receiver's fault for coming late out of his break yet people blamed Mac.

Why? Those are designed plays that were well executed, it's not a matter of getting away with anything. Defenses being unable to "smother that" and force longer throws is on them, don't you think?

Agreed, it was Bolden iirc who totally rounded the route, something which I heard Edelman say pissed Brady off the most. I swear there is so much confirmation bias about Macs arm strength.


I would expect next year for those short throws to increase as James White comes back. I use to marvel how when we had Brady no teams seemed to be able to sto our short game

 

[venecol]

It's possible Lawrence turns into a Josh Allen by year 3, but as of this moment, Jones and Mills are the ones who have a shot at lasting more than 5 years with their original team from the 21 draft. Mostly because of organizational leadership.

I'm honestly impressed with Mills rookie season given:

1. Texans are a dysfunctional organization;
2. HC seemed completely lost at times;
3. The turmoil and drama in the QB room;
4. A team devoid of talent (aside from Cooks & Tunsil).

Despite unloading Watson and all the drama that came with him, they don't seem to be making any moves. Feel bad for the kid playing for that weird outfit.

 

[venecol]

The Patriots had a top 10 offense last year with Mac as a rookie. Other than replacing one guard that offense should be intact with another year of experience and growth. I predict that Mac will lead the Pats into a top 5 DVOA offense.

Although, I agree with the list of bolded names in a previous post I expect Mac to have a much improved second year. An improvement from the top 9 offense of last year puts the Patriots offense in line with some of the offenses run by the QBs in bold.

I'm cautiously optimistic but concerned with the so called sophomore slump. Though it's possible Mac and the team improve in their 2nd year together, this is basically the same team. Opponents now have a better feel for what Mac can do with this offense. We may have seen a prelude of this in the last 5 games of the season.

Given how other teams are loading up on offense, it would take a remarkable improvement by both Mac and the offensive coaching staff (??) to put together game plans to win in a shoot out. I have my doubts.

 

[p8ryts]

Mac isn't significantly better than Tua or Davis Mills, if we're being honest.

well he is significantly better than Cam Newton.