At the end of the season, depending on what site was looked at, Mac Jones was ranked as an average quarterback. Some place between 14-18. Looking at NFL.com on February 16th, they had Mac as the 16 ranked quarterback. The dead average position for a starter. That's not bad after a rookie season and it shows that when it's said that his ceiling is low, it's because he's so much closer to it than the other guys that came out with him.
Mac Jones's 67.6 completion percentage was the 8th best a starter, he was 13th in yards with over 3800. Mac's 4.2 touchdown percentage was 16th among starters. He only had a 2.5 interception percentage which was 20th. Now some of these areas are tied to his talent around him, I get it but the Patriots did improve that talent this off season.
Mac only had one 4th quarter comeback and that was his only game winning drive, which had him ranked for 21st. That is one of the best ways to determine how good a quarterback is. The problem is not every quarterback that is good or elite finds themselves having to pull their team out from a loss. Not every good quarterback has to have game winning drives or 4th quarterback comebacks.
So we're forced to go off stats and opnion based off what is seen. Mac doesn't have the experience of other quarterbacks, so that may influence some of what we see. I am going to put the quarterbacks into three tiers. Those that are better than Mac, those that are close to equal and those that are worse. Since modern quarterbacks rely on their legs, some quarterbacks maybe ranked better then expected. This will be my opnion based off of 2021.
Brady, Allen, Rodgers, Stafford, Herbert, Burrow, Mahomes, Murray, Hurts are better than Mac. I have seen people knock Murray but he ran for 429 yards and 5 touchdowns. NFL.com has Murray ranked as the 8th best and he should definitely be a top 10 due to his legs. The same with Hurts. Watson is not being added until I see that he will be cleared to play but, he would be in this tier.
My first tier only had 9 guys excluding Watson, meaning some of these guys are borderline top 10 and some are borderline basement guys. Prescott, Carr, Wilson, Tannehill, Cousins, Jackson, Ryan, Bridgewater, Wentz, Garoppolo, Golf are all equivalent to Mac Jones as of the end of the 2021 season. Some of those guys again were products of their team or talent around them, I get that but based off of everything, this is the group Mac finds himself around. These are average guys. They are above average to average game managers. These are system quarterbacks.
Winston, Tagovailoa, D. Jones, Mayfield, Heinicke, Fields, Hill, Mills, Lawrence, Lance, Darnold, Newton, Dalton, Taylor, Rudolph, Wilson, Trubisky, Pickett, Mariota, Fitzpatrick. These are the below average game managers. They can barely do what's asked and cannot carry a team. Some are in development and others are on the way to holding a clipboard. There maybe some other's I've missed that belong with these guys.
NFL.com had Mac Jones ranked 16th, I think that's a fair spot to start the 2022 season. With the coaching situation, Mac is going to have to be extra to improve from that rank. Mental breakdown is the only way I see Mac digressing. Mac is in development still, so middle of the pack is where he should start and a fringe top 10 is where I expect him to crack by season end. I don't know if he'll ever crack the top 10 but the fringe should be reachable for him.
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