New England Patriots: Mac Jones cooking his way up the NFL QB Index

The New England Patriots may not have only found their quarterback of the future in Mac Jones, they could have a top 10 ranked quarterback by the time the 2021 NFL season comes to an end.

That would be quite a feat for the No.15 overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft who was the fifth quarterback taken.  Through Week 7 of his rookie season, he is playing the best and is only getting better as he rose 3 spots to No. 17 in the Week 8 NFL QB Index.

Following a 54-13 victory over the New York Jets, Jones threw for over 300 yards for the first time in his career.  He also threw for 2 touchdowns in the victory with a quarterback ranking of 111.7.  Overall, it was his best game of the season as the Patriots offense had a nice balance of rushing the ball and passing the ball.

New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones showing off the deep ball

Most impressively, Jones showed his critics he has some touch down the field.  Take a look at this beautiful pass to Kendrick Bourne to get the team down to the 1-yard line:

As the New England Patriots offense is starting to find its stride with Mac Jones at the helm, here is what NFL.Com’s Gregg Rosenthal had to say about the rookie quarterback’s leap this week:

"“It’s as if Josh McDaniels was listening to local sports-talk radio before playing the Jets. ‘Let Mac Cook!’ they said. ‘Throw the ball downfield!’ they said. ‘Don’t kneel on the ball before halftime and involve Jonnu Smith!’ they said. ‘Trounce the Jets and let us forget all the problems in our personal lives for three hours!’ they said. Check, check, check and check!”"

Jones has certainly been cooking the last few weeks.  Except for a disastrous pick 6 against the Dallas Cowboys, the rookie came that close from having this team on a three-game winning streak.

Ironically, it was that pick 6 that preceded Jones tossing a long touchdown pass to Bourne to give the Patriots the lead again in that game.  It is that type of composure and that kind of competitiveness that has many New England Patriots fans excited about what the team has in Jones even with a 3-4 record.

The real test now is how he builds off his performances the last couple of weeks in the team’s Week 8 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers led by a second-year quarterback coming off his own rookie success.

While Jones won’t get up their with top 5 ranked quarterbacks like Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray, Tom Brady, Lamar Jackson and Derek Carr, he has a few quarterbacks ahead of him he can leap frog over if he continues this string of success and the team starts to rack up the wins.

In all, a great week for Mac Jones and the Patriots’ offense in all, but it all means nothing if they can’t continue to improve.

"“Yeah,” Jones said when asked if he was happy with the team’s victory. “Honestly, any win everyone has the right to be happy, and that’s why we play the game, so as long as we’re scoring more points than the other team, then it’s a good day, and it’s hard to win, so you just got to enjoy it for a little bit, but at the end of the day, you can’t be satisfied, and you have to get right back to work the next day and start a new week, so we’ve done that, and we’ve moved on from that game, and we’re ready to just have a good week and compete.”"

If the team travels to the west coast and knock off the Chargers, that confidence and good feelings the team has about themselves will continue to grow which will make the rest of the 2021 NFL season one to get excited about.