We all need to temper our expectations

No one can take the excitement of losing cam and watching the new kid get a chance. QB position is now watchable and hopefully enjoyable again.

0-0 and anything is possible. The best sports stories are made when expectations are exceeded. Coming to you tonight from Lake Placid.

Pats1971 said:

I have seen predictions so far....he will be better than Brady, the pats will go 20-0 this year. I mean it was tongue in cheak response, but to some, not far off. WHy? Because fans.

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So you were full of crap when you said 90% of favs expect him to be better than Brady and actually have 0% outside of posts you clearly realized were jokes.

What do i want from Mac ideally?(reasonably ideally)

Year 1- a playoff appearance.
Years 2-5 - a super bowl victory while still on his all important a rookie contract.
Years 6-retirement - one more super bowl appearance with a chance to win it.

As for his performance, if we can keep surrounding him with good talent, particularly on defense, I would love to win about every 11 of 20 games. With the understanding there will be losing years while some will be competitive years. Im mote than okay with the occasional bad season if it lets us stock back up on talent. We can't expect to continue to get by on thin talent years going 10-6/11-5 and seeing the playoffs. That doesn't happen to most teams year in snd year out.

I liked Cam personally, but as a QB a lot less so.. we can blame all of his '19-'20 faux pas on his covid, no OTA's etc. but in reality his passing skills were deficient..

Expectations of Mac are realistic, one thing we have not seen is how he will operate with a full contingent of 1st string Pats players.. I am going to wait before any judgement is passed. But from my big comfy couch he will probably be a better QB than Newton..

DarrylS said:

But from my big comfy couch he will probably be a better QB than Newton.

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He will be different. The NFL is now a passing league. Period. Dot. End of story. And while there is this undercurrent of QBs that can "do both" (run and pass) - that type player remains more an outlier in winning Super Bowls consistently versus the more classic "pocket passer". That MIGHT be changing with Mahomes, but time will tell (and he's only ONE guy).

Also, this board (and I think fans in general) are usually "grass is greener" people. If we only had THAT guy. (that WR especially around here) Then the Patriots would be great. We do it even internally. Look at how the board exploded in the Stidham playing the last game of the season in 2020 debate. Many thought that maybe the grass was greener because they didn't have data to the contrary.

Not saying Jones and Stidham are the same - just that the fan bases desire to replace Cam with Jones is similar because it portrays the hope of the unknown. We knew Cam was pretty bad with the Patriots. We don't know what Jones will be so we want to find out. There's a glimmer of hope in that unknown to cling to.

Redman443 said:

Mac Jones has looked solid throughout the preseason. I knew whenever Brady was gone, whoever replaced him long term has huge shoes to fill. We watching 20 years of great football with Brady at the helm and Mac may end up being a decent QB but there will never be another Brady and we shouldnt expect him to be like Brady. Even if Mac becomes like Matt Ryan, he wouldn't be Brady. Older fans will remember before BB had Brady, he had a losing record with the Browns and still had alot to prove, he led the browns to 11-5 record in 1994 but losing records every other year he was the coach in Cleveland. There will be growing pains this season as there is with any rookie QB but I think we do have our QB of the future, he has the accuracy.

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Brady is Brady.

But this isn't what we have to worry about. Sure, it would be awesome to have our version of Montana to Young but the model that's working is having a decent or better rookie QB, nail your draft picks and surround that guy with a lot of talent.

Early indications of 2020/2021 classes and 2021 FA are we are on a really good track.

Continue to load up in 2022 FA and have another good draft class and you seriously might be a SB favorite with a Kirk Cousins or Jimmy G on a rookie deal. Hell, Jimmy G went to a SB.

Mac certainly doesn't have to be anything close to prime Brady.

bobbutts said:

Stop tampering with my expectations.

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Holy crap this is funny. Well done, sir.

With Jones, the pats can run more of the offense they want to. They Brady/jimmy G offense.

It was clear in the preseason. With cam. It was run, run, run throw a short pass. Whereas with Jones they had him spreading guys out, making calls at the line. It was much more fun to watch.

Now in no way am I saying he is Brady. Just like I wouldn't say Jimmy G is. But he is a similar mold.

Not sure what expectations we should temper. Obviously we aren't going to the super bowl. But anything better than last year's abysmal season would be nice

RIpats88 said:

Obviously we aren't going to the super bowl

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Hey now, who says.

You know what, screw it, I’m going to say he’s going to be better than Brady. That way it won’t be a lie/strawman when someone says “fans who think he’s going to win seven Super Bowls.”

Hell, as long as he stays in the league it’s gonna take a long time to prove me wrong. Plenty of time to spin it or disappear.

All I really want is a respectable record (which means, not a total meltdown type season with 4 or 5 wins) and for Mac to look like he's the legit franchise QB. That means we have the hardest thing to find to build around going forward. Making the playoffs would be awesome.

If Mac has 30% of Brady's success,that's more than good enough.

Jones solidifies the Bama to NE connection, the Bama boys begin to flock here and the Pats win ten straight superbowls!

DarrylS said:

I liked Cam personally, but as a QB a lot less so.. we can blame all of his '19-'20 faux pas on his covid, no OTA's etc. but in reality his passing skills were deficient..

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No, his passing skills aren't deficient- he had a cannon for an arm and we saw a bit of that in the Seattle game where Edelman got his career high.

But in terms of quarterbacking, especially mentally- he unfortunately plays checkers. The system we have, is best optimized by someone who can play chess.

Mack Herron said:

0-0 and anything is possible. The best sports stories are made when expectations are exceeded. Coming to you tonight from Lake Placid.

The Most Improbable Championship: The 2001 New England Patriots

This is part two of a decade retrospective. Part one is here. Looking back, it's hard to appreciate just how absurd the 2001 Super Bowl championship Patriots season was...

syndication.bleacherreport.com

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This was the second year for Brady after learning a year and even then his body wasn't fully there. He averaged 160 yards passing a game.
This is not gonna happen in Mac's rookie year. These are unrealistic expectations.

.

libra957 said:

If Mac has 30% of Brady's success,that's more than good enough.

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What is amazing is that still would be considered a HOF career.

Bruins29 said:

What is amazing is that still would be considered a HOF career.

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It's basically Roethlisberger. 3 SB appearances, 2 wins.

I think most of us understand that we probably aren't winning the superbowl this year.

However, dare I say we make noise?

Sicilian said:

It's basically Roethlisberger. 3 SB appearances, 2 wins.

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I would take that.