How confident are you now that Mac Jones is “the guy”? 1-10

[One-If-By-Sea]

His pocket presence these last two weeks has increased significantly. He is also directing the receivers during the game showing understanding and leadership. Overall he has looked like a NFL
QB minus a bit of sharpness. He will get sharper like Breese did.

I understand the arm strength concern but that is not as big a concern to me. Mac will get stronger but will always put touch on the ball because 1. He can 2. It makes the ball much easier to catch. Tight window fastballs look great when they work, but balls with touch work out more often.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Hugh Millen was #7. Mac is already better than Millen was. I'll give him an 8.

 

[venecol]

I'm waiting for the post season to be over before rating Mac. However, I no longer consider him a rookie. By all accounts he was the most NFL ready QB of the 1st rounders coming from Saban's system and who was lucky enough to fall to a team known for it's excellent organizational structure.

After 17 games (1 more than a normal season), Mac has seen enough to no longer carry the rookie label. Some of his stats are better than a dozen veteran QBs. Now obviously, it helps when you have a top ranked scoring defense, good OL and RBs, but no doubt his job has been hampered by having average receivers. He's also been carefully managed by the HC and OC not to put too much on his plate. Regardless, the rookie label implies that he gets a pass somehow. I'm no longer buying that. He's now definately an NFL QB with a full season behind him.

 

[‘Mondre]

6.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

Does anyone want my opinion?

If it were thoughtful.

But... you're a Bills fan, so it won't be.

 

[Patriot Missile]

5,6,7? What are you guys watching? He’s an easy 8. From the get go was thrown into the mix, he’s made his mistakes but he’s shown the ability to adapt, make the right decisions most of the time..This is his first year in the league.

Crazy thread.

 

[Nikolai]

I'm going with 8. He's got the mental toughness, work ethic, and smarts to succeed as an NFL QB, and a damned good one. We haven't heard much about how much he hates losing or whatever, but things like throwing right back at Trevon Diggs for a 75 yard TD says a lot about his attitude. It's a "**** you" kind of attitude I think we're going to come to love in this kid. The intangibles are there. His work ethic suggests to me that he can learn the other stuff.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

In this region, Mac has a PR problem.

Hes not really being compared to rookie QBs

Hes not really being compared to other NFL QBs

Hes being compared to the guy in Tampa Bay and the success enjoyed for 20 years.

That said, he told $%*@%ell at the draft New England is where he wanted to be.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

If the definition of "the guy" is that he'll still deserve his job here after 5 years, I'll give him a 7 like most others in this thread.

That coming true doesn't even get you much, though. Kirk Cousins is "the guy" in Minnesota, and I guarantee he will never win a Super Bowl in his career. The more interesting question to me is whether we think Mac can be one of the best players on a Super Bowl winning team, and I wouldn't give him more than a 5 by that metric.

It's weird, because for as great a rookie year Mac had, I still expected fewer interceptions. That doesn't mean he's mistake prone in the NFL, but it does mean he's a rookie just like everyone else in his class. Next year should hopefully provide much more clarity on the long term future.

When I wrote the original thread, I defined "being the guy" as meaning (roughly) "How confident are you that Mac Jones has the talent to lead this team for the next five years?"

 

[XLIX]

Let’s put it this way: I have more confidence in Mac than I do in the team’s ability to surround him with receivers. For a rookie, he did a lot with very little this year.

 

[Pats1971]

5,6,7? What are you guys watching? He’s an easy 8. From the get go was thrown into the mix, he’s made his mistakes but he’s shown the ability to adapt, make the right decisions most of the time..This is his first year in the league.

Crazy thread.

When he can win a game without the defense having to get 3 turnovers, then I will put him at 8.

 

[Pats1971]

Let’s put it this way: I have more confidence in Mac than I do in the team’s ability to surround him with receivers. For a rookie, he did a lot with very little this year.

80 mil in offseason for pass catchers, most ever spent in the BB era.

 

[PaulNEPats]

7 sounds right. He needs a reliable #1 weapon at WR next season.

 

[GreenCow]

Let’s hear it.

Ok.

I think he is going to have a good career. A Philip Rivers type career.

Numerous playoffs. Lots of winning seasons. But also a few meh seasons now and then.

I don’t personally think he will be able to develop his arm enough to be true-elite. Meaning, top-5.

That elite arm strength some guys have gives them an extra second or so to find a WR, because they can rely on being able to zip it in with incredible velocity.

This video gives a good example of what I mean:




The Bills took advantage of Mac’s less than perfect arm velocity during the 2nd meeting. I watched a Patriots reporters analysis video that showed that the Bills essentially dared Mac to throw it outside (toward the boundary) and he wouldn’t.

Some guys (Brees, for example) are able to win a SB despite this, because they have elite anticipation and recognition. Can Mac be that person? Sure. He’s a smart kid. But so few ever develop that elite anticipation so it would be difficult.

Brady was that rare combination of good arm strength AND elite anticipation and recognition, plus a win at all costs attitude. It’s like he was made in Madden and someone just set all the skills to a “99” rating. All of those factors made him the GOAT.

So based on what i’ve seen so far from Mac, i’m going with a career projection of “Good, but not great.”

PS, I also haven’t seen Mac go into beast mode yet. You know when you see it in a QB’s eyes that they’d rather lose a limb than lose the game? So they run over a LB for a first down or sacrifice their body to throw a block for the RB, etc. I’m waiting to see that fire from Mac. That beast attitude.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Mac is Dak Prescott in his rookie year right now. Nothing wrong with that.

Not really but ok. If you stop at yards and TD.

Dak was a mile more efficient than Mac. Only threw 4 INT, had a rtg 13 points higher and a QBR 25 points higher.

Mac is much more comparable to Mayfield right now.

 

[ALP]

8

his supporting cast on offense was not great, yet he handled it, let's not forget what our Oline was doing the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the season.

his attitude is amazing, his will is amazing, his commitment is amazing, all that will equate to improvement every offseason

the only open questions:
-is he clutch? time and opportunities to display it over the years will tell (particularly in postseason)
-how will he handle his 2nd year when DCs will know what he is mostly

I think we have a top 5-top 8 guy for the next 10 years, aka a franchise QB

 

[Biffins]

Mac has had an amazing rookie season. He has demonstrated some aspect of ALL the tools needed to be a top 5 NFL QB.

There have been other amazing rookie seasons over the years that got everyone excited and turned out that was the best the guy had.

if Matt improves all areas of his game and develops further, he’ll definitely be THE guy. Otherwise we’ll all be talking about the Mac Jones whose rookie season got us excited but who’s still doing 2:1 TD:INT ratio, struggling with intermediate throws etc.

I am super excited………. but have to suppress it somewhat to face reality that he’s already quite polished. Let’s see.

i voted 7.

 

[masterbouncer]

His regression does not come as a surprise the first 1/2 season the OL played so well that Mac was hit like on every play and not just touched, on some occasions even 3-4 sec after the whistle was blown he has been tackled from behind (without a penalty flag or any other consequences for the D), he got beat up like he was playing for the Jags or Lions guess they had a better OL than what this crap show did on the Pats team first half of the season.

Than of course your R1 WR is the worst receiver in the game, including UDFA WRs, so not comparable to other young guns that have Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Diggs, Mark Andrews, Chase, Higgins etc. he has ****ing Harry.

He will be good, he will imrove, question is whether the team around him will improve, clutch D, protective OL, something that you can actually call a WR1, less predictable play calling on O, less soft zone **** on D.

 

[BobDigital]

Depends what you mean by 'the guy'. If you mean a top tier QB who is a true difference maker, a HOF level guy who gives you a chance to win every year. Then 3. If you mean a Franchise QB, then 8.

I think Mac Jones has been too talked up here and too underrated nationally. Jones came into the best situation of any rookie QB. Not even close... except maybe SF. He wasn't asked to do much more than manage the game more often then not. Even near the end of the year. He failed to 'take over' quarters and games as much as I like. He didn't really have a great 'snatch victory from the jaws of defeat' moment. I didn't see enough Flash moments and series from him to believe he can be a Kurt Warner or a Troy Aikman. Someone who can put the organization on his back. Which is really the only thing I really very at QB past a rookie deal. Being good or even very good means little to me after the first 5 years. You're either great or you some guy.

That being said, I think the national media is under playing him because of his stats. That's unfair. When you look past the stats he had a really good year. He lead the team to the 6th best offense in PPF. And it wasn't like we had a ton of STs and D scores. 3 total. Fairly normal. The D gave our O a lot of turnovers, but not the most. He had help from those things, but not enough to take that away from him. And I give the QB a lot of credit on offensive production. I think that is often under looked and important. A QB doesn't score by himself, but he's the driver of offensive production. And ranking 6th best, ahead of teams like GB and the LAR who are loaded with talent and/or have a great QB is impressive as hell! It becomes even more impressive when you look at his cast. It wasn't all that good. It was fine, but a fair average cast. Our run game averaged 4.4 yards. That's good, but not amazing. We ran a lot, but it wasn't like we ran alot and got 5 yards every time. Also while Jones 'only' had 22 TDs the team ran in 25 TDs. Second most, and the most among only RBs. We fed ours near the goal line. All but maybe 2-3 of them were more than 20 yards and most from inside the 5. When you look at his rookie year there is a ton to like there. IMO he was at least an average NFL starter, which is great for a rookie.

Just I don't think I see that extra bit that he needs to make him great, I'm hoping he makes a big jump in year 2.

 

[Ollie]

You can't argue with what he has done this year which definitely surpassed mt expectations but i do have concerns about how much more there is to come from him in terms of a low ceiling. Saying that he has noticeably improved in the last few weeks in terms of awareness and movement in the pocket so hopefully there is a lot more to come.