Probably like the end of the last year Josh was here when defenses figured out how to play Mac. If Josh came back, do you think the opposing defenses would have changed the way they played Mac in 2022?
People weren't saying Mac sucked the last few games of 2021 though. The whole off season to 2022 was people saying "we have the best rookie of the last draft class and he should take a step forward his sophmore year and we should be back to being in the mix".
It wasn't until we went 4-4 the next year that people started souring on Mac. And even then the 2-5 at the end of the season was what really pushed people over the edge on him and had them looking elsewhere.
Anyways there were so many ways Mac's developement went wrong for us that it's hard to see a scenario where he succeeds.
-3 OC's, including one who never should have been close to an offense in Patricia and another who couldn't bring on his own staff.
-Mac's own limitations never being developed.
-A lack of WR talent that limited what we could do on offense
-The line having paper thin depth and being a liability a lot of his run with the team
Mac might never have been able to succeed regardless, but nobody can objectively look at that situation and say he was given the best chance to develop here. Look at the QB's that broke out over the last several years in the NFL. Mahomes had Kafka and Bienemy the entire time, Hill for the first couple of years and Kelce always who are both game breakers, and they made aggressive investments in the offensive line. Allen had Daboll the first 4 years of his career and they made an aggressive pursuit for Diggs which ended up being the key to unlocking his potential. Burrow, Callahn was his OC for his first 4 years, Pitcher was his QB coach the entire time and is now his OC, they draged Chase with the 5th overall, his failures have been mostly the bad line holding them back the first two years and they've slowly been building that more effectively than us.
The model has traditionall been coaching consistency, have x factor pass catchers that can break games out to make it easier, and develop a solid line for protection. You can argue we've done the complete opposite. His limitations as a player might have got him in the end no matter what, butI don't think anyone can say we did a remotely competent job giving him a chance to work out.
And we better learn that lesson with Maye, because if 3 years from now he's onto a new coaching regime, we still have these ****ty WR's and the line isn't atleast above average, we will be talking about drafting the next guy even with Maye's physical toolset.