Anonymous evaluators and executives on Mac Jones (from The Athletic):
The Mac Jones selection invites questions. Do the Patriots have the talent to support him? Without Tom Brady, are they just another team that overspent in free agency on its way to disappointment? And, of course, when will New England name Jones its starter?
“I don’t think Mac Jones sees the field for a while,” an evaluator said. “I’ll have a better feel when we see the schedule, when the bye falls, when their division games are, when the Tampa game is, those things. Is he starting by November? No, he’s not. Because Cam (Newton) wasn’t bad early in the year and they really should have won more of those games, and he just wasn’t the same after getting COVID. I think Cam is going to be entrenched there for a little bit.”
Another exec thought Jones would be in the lineup around Week 6. The question is unanswerable this early.
“You put the guys around him, let him distribute, yes, Mac Jones can be good, because he was really accurate,” another exec said. “He probably didn’t get enough credit for how he threw the ball, how accurate he was. He put it on those guys where they could run after the catch. There was no adjusting to the ball or anything like that. The guy was super accurate and rarely made a bad decision. If last year is any indication, Cam is on the downard slant. I think they’ll pile it on Mac Jones, and he is going to be able to handle it.”
How well the Patriots can pass-protect will be a key variable for any quarterback
“The biggest thing is, can he withstand getting hit and what is he like once he takes some hits?” an exec said, “but as far as getting the ball out early and winning pre-snap, he is as good as anybody.”
The conventional ground game could be critical for Jones, according to an evaluator who watched him closely at Alabama. This evaluator pointed to the difference between Ryan Tannehill in Miami and Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee to illustrate how orientation around the ground game can make a difference — and how it needs to make the difference if Jones is going to replicate his college success.
“What did Alabama do better than anybody in the country? Run the ball,” this evaluator said. “Is he going to have the same luxury in the NFL where the field is wide open to him and his team has mismatches across the board? For him to replicate the success he’s had at the college level, it’s going to take a similar situation.”
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