New England Patriots rookie quarterback Mac Jones has 10 games under his belt so it’s time to take a look around midseason (a bit beyond actually) to see how he’s done.
Yes, this is a rhetorical article. It’s pretty clear to just about everyone now, even former Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan who called his arm a “peashooter”, that Jones is the real deal.
So let’s take a look at things after those 10 games and see how the young gunslinger has done and where things stand for him and his team.
New England Patriots Mac Jones is as advertised, and better
First, his team, the New England Patriots now hold a 6-4 record second in the AFC East to the immensely talented and really well-coached team known as the Buffalo Bills.
It looked early as though the Bills would run away and hide from everyone else in the AFC East and lock up the title early. Not so fast. There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Mac Jones.
After the 20-year Nightmare on Beacon Street named Tom Brady took his talents to Tampa Bay of all places, the expertly rebuilt, tremendously well-coached, and uber-talented Bills must have been on cloud nine.
They have an excellent young quarterback, Josh Allen in tow, Brady was gone and it looked as they could possibly have a cakewalk for years through the AFC East like a couple of other teams did.
The first was the old Bills led by the great Jim Kelly. The other is the aforementioned 2-decade run of the Brady-led Patriots. Not too crazy to think they could be the next after the 2020 season.
Unfortunately for the Bills and lots of other teams, something happened on the way to the podium at the 2021 NFL draft. Lots of teams passed on a certain Alabama quarterback named Mac Jones and the Patriots were the lucky beneficiaries at pick No. 15.
New England Patriots Mac Jones has taken command of the offense and the team
After beating out former NFL MVP Cam Newton (a favorite in this space) for the No. 1 job, Jones has proceeded to simply dazzle. The quarterback is the team leader whether he wants to be or not. Jones has taken on that mantle and thrived.
And he’s done that despite some truly poor coaching and without a true No. 1 receiver. That’s taken some doing especially the part where his own coaches hung him out to dry needlessly with a sieve-like offensive line alignment early on.
Nonetheless, Jones did what anyone who paid attention to his sterling year last season with Alabama could readily see, complete passes all over the field.
Jones put up an all-time record completing 77.4 percent of his passes for the season for the National Champion Crimson Tide.
Now, in the red, white, blue, and silver of the New England Patriots he’s doing almost the same, but without the same comparable level of talent. Doesn’t seem to matter, he just makes it work.
Let see, in that most important statistic, completion percentage, Jones is now back up to (for him) 69 percent. That’s stat is pedestrian for Mac, and unheard for most others not named the recently retired Drew Brees.
To put it into proper perspective, the greatest of all time, Tom Brady has never had an annual completion percentage higher than 68.9 percent.
And that was once in 2007 with a certain Randy Moss on the other end of many of those passes. There’s no Moss on this Patriots squad.
Brady’s next best was 67.4 percent last season with a loaded offensive receiver cupboard in Tampa Bay. Jones has no such weapons at his disposal. No problem. He hits who he has anyway with his pinpoint passing.
New England Patriots Mac Jones accuracy is galactic
Mac Jones is at 69 percent for the year right now without a No. 1 and arguably even a legitimate No. 2 receiver at his disposal. He’s got three almost No. 2 types. That’s it.
Absent two recent games against the Los Angeles Chargers and the Carolina Panthers, he’d be over 70 percent, those receivers notwithstanding.
That’s even with that porous offensive line in front of him for the first six games until his coaches finally figured out the right combination they had all the time. Everything changed thereafter.
Given time to throw, Jones has wreaked havoc. He’s now beaten two solid playoff-contending teams and should have beaten Dallas, another one.
His team has won four games in a row and five of their last six. They’re on a roll and he’s putting up points. Lots of them. In the last four games, all wins, they are averaging 37.5 points.
This was a team slapped together with an almost completely new receiving corps and tight ends and a rookie quarterback. Now, they are now on the rise and ready to take their game to yet another level. Who’s to say where they can go?
We also can’t forget the contributions of their reinvigorated defense, again loaded with new players who only recently started to mesh and gel and have now begun to terrorize even good NFL offenses.
So to conclude, how has Mac Jones done in his first 10 games at the helm of the New England Patriots offense? Easy. It’s a solid A+++. (The last plus because this young fellow is still a rookie).
The call for him here is more of the same. A possible playoff berth, maybe even a run. And he should easily be the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year barring any injury.
In sum, it’s a pretty good start is it not? Can’t wait to see how the rest of the season goes for this emerging young star quarterback and his dreadnought of a team.
Not sure the rest of the AFC East or any other team on their schedule is really looking forward to seeing that, now are they?