I mean... in the other thread we were pointing out a play where Thornton got wide up on a non-deep ball and Mac missed him by like 3 yards.
I don't think Mac goes deep too often, but the idea his guys only get open deep is not true. Yeah the WRs aren't that good, yes there are plays where nobody is open. There are also plenty of plays pointed out every week where guys are between open and wide open and Mac doesn't see them, or makes a bad throw, or makes an on target throw at the pace of a 3 legged tortoise so the cover guy catches up.
Mac's deep balls stink because he almost never steps into them and he has a fringy arm so on many of them the WR has to throttle back to let the ball get there.
It was a 30 yard pass from where Mac was standing to where Thornton was. That's a deep ball, although I called it "longish."
And I'm not talking about all of the receivers. I'm specifically talking about Reagor and Thornton (Reagor played 77% of the snaps yesterday and Thornton was in on most of them until he got benched, for, checks notes, completely fucking up a non-deep route). Those two guys are incapable of doing anything as far as route running within 10-15 yards of the LOS.
I'm all set with arguing narratives. He missed Thornton on that play (and the loft pass to Stevenson was badly underthrown), but the idea these guys are getting open all over the field is contradicted by every single person who watches these games for a living, and it's buttressed by folks that don't understand route trees and progressions, others who don't even notice whether or not the protection is breaking down, etc. Of course, the latter group also routinely blames Mac for everything. Did anyone see AJ Brown come back for a ball in double coverage last week and turn a pick into a TD, or another one handed grab over his head for another touchdown?
I'm happy to break down specific plays, and Mac has a ton of bad ones to pick from, but I will never stop pushing back on the narrative that our receiving corps is anything better than bottom 3 in the NFL (and IMO, the absolute fucking worst without Bourne). People were blaming Mac and excusing JuJu's drop that ended the game, because JuJu made a difficult catch on the play before. Awesome, way to go JuJu, 1/2 on doing his job. Meanwhile, he dropped the one that would have put us in field goal range, Reagor dropped one that would have led to 1st and goal, Pop dropped a dime that Mac threw over the head of a defender (I don't really blame Pop for that though, he's simply too small for that play to work, but at least he was there).
They all suck, including Mac, and in the case of our receivers, every team in the NFL knows it otherwise, these guys would probably be playing for someone else. Nobody else wants them.