We threw away a #15 pick QB before (Eason) because he was not the guy to bring the franchise forward. We twice threw away a #1 pick QB (Plunkett and Bledsoe) because they were not the answer to the team's problems. And for those who say "we had Brady" when talking about Bledsoe, remember that Brady was not yet TOM BRADY but as still only Tom Brady, if you get my point.
When gambling you do not throw good money after bad money chasing your losses. Investing to build around Mac is just trying to recoup your losses. Time to get up and move to another table to lay down the bets.
Mac Jones might have a wonderful career as a backup QB on another team, but his mental fortitude and coachability might prevent that from happening. His temper tantrums last year, and his unwillingness to follow the instruction given to him by a qualified offensive coordinator this year does not help him. The job of a backup QB is actually more mentally demanding than that of a starter, to be prepared for anything and usually stand on the sideline with no personal satisfaction of going out and executing well. I do not thing Mac is mentally tough enough for this role.
When something doesn't work, have the courage and integrity to admit it does not work and move on to a new strategy. Mac does not work. Time to move on to a new strategy.
The advantage of having seen this season is indeed formidable
. And you've done a good job summing up the sunk costs fallacy, although I'm not sure anybody was advocating, for example, rewarding a poor 2023 with a high-value multi-year deal. You would
want him to succeed so that you're not going back to square 1. If he did succeed, you would be building on what glimmers you've seen. But this year's shown that the offense is broken and the variable that broke it is not solely the Patricia-Judge regime.
Re: your thoughts, to use the term loosely, on the draft: What you're conveniently forgetting is that it's extremely common to "throw away" draft picks. If you didn't like the Bledsoe pick, you think that Rick Mirer worked out better? This isn't a New England problem, it's an arrow-of-time problem. You don't know until you know.
I agree that Eason was a blip; in the Eason years, we could never really even count on Eason (he was in there with Grogan and with Flutie if I am remembering that era correctly.) He looked like he could game-manage us to our first SB win in 85 until we played a real team
He turned out to be fool's gold. To say he didn't move the team forward is debatable, because he took us to our first SB. We didn't know the Patriots COULD go to a SB until then. Hell, we weren't too sure we could ever win a playoff game.
I don't think we threw away the Bledsoe pick. In the Bledsoe years the Pats became a team that expected to go to the playoffs, and to actually win playoff games, as a "normal" expectation. (0 appearances 87-93, then 4 appearances 94-98, including a Super Bowl appearance... and unlike the 85 "cindarella" year, that SB was a real game). He just wasn't Brady. At that draft position, you have to call Drew maybe a single, but not a strikeout.
We all know, and are spoiled by, the Brady story.
Unlike (apparently) some here, I would still love to see Jones excel from here on in, but I don't think there's any more to him than we've seen. I think he's just come down to the level of what he can achieve, particularly with this supporting cast. By now if he were really something special, he'd have figured out a way to (occasionally) win. It's on him to do something with whatever chances remain, and as we've seen, confidence in him is not high
So at this point, there's not much room to disagree. If the Pats choose to move on, I'm all about that decision, and I don't think anybody would argue it. He still has a sliver of a chance to shock us in a positive way. I'm not holding my breath.
