Mac has checked just about every box he can so far. I've said before the season, from everything I've seen, that I was convinced we hit on a franchise QB. Good. But that doesn't get the Patriots where we want them to go. A lot of teams have franchise QBs, at least 20 to maybe 25? Most of them aren't doing anything specail with their careers.
To me the questions that Mac needs to answer are the following
1 can he lead this team on a big comeback down multiple scores late on a game?
2 can he fit a deep pass into a tight window down feild that is rapidly closing? The current answer is no, but this is more of a question for year 2. There was a lot of unfair talk about him not having a strong arm, that was overstated. His arm is okay. I'd say I bit below average for the NFL level. While I don't personally get hung up on arm strength, it is one more tool in the tool box. You don't need to best cannon in the world, but having a good arm is helpful. Will he develope his arm and body as he's in the NFL? It's currently his biggest weakness outside of experience, but also something that can be fixed with hard work. Will he truly devote himself to this?
3 can he elevate guys around him? He got just about everything he could out of the players around him and played within the system and himself. But can he take that next step and get more out of them? Make them become more than the sum of the parts? For Jones this will have less to do with improvising when the play breaks down and more to do with diagnosising the D and winning before the play even begins. This is what separates a Peyton Manning from a David Carr. This is more of a year 2 and 3 question though.
At this point I don't expect to learn much more about Mac the rest of the year. He'll no doubt grow a bit, but today's game convinced me even more. He's a starter in this league. Can he be more? I don't think we'll learn that this year. Unless his growth is absolutely absurd.
