I agree, I just think YAC is also an issue on top of it. I think people's general perception of this offense to start the year (not talking SoSH specifically, just what I'm reading from fans and media) is a little divorced from the reality that they're averaging a full yard per play and a full yard per drop back less than they did in 2022. Before I'm yelled at, not saying anything about Mac Jones here, or blaming the Quarterback. To me it falls mostly on the OL, but it's been bad.
Right, overall Mac has been decent so far - B ish range grade? But his YPA has gone from 7.3 in 2021 to 6.8 last year to 5.7 so far this year.
I think it's a lot of things....
I honestly hate these plays, even hated them when we had the GOAT and great YAC guys like Brown, Edelman, Welker, etc. They can work but there are so many perils and the risk of penalty of a hold is so real, even if you are able to complete the initial pass.
Those routes/screens are designed to get the ball out quickly against a pass rush, to a guy in space who can then make something happen with the ball in their hands.
I'm trying to come up with a way out of the Mac sucks/does not suck binary. I mean, I don't think parsing every play in order to pin the blame on Mac, the WR, OL, BoB's play design or Belichick's roster construction is an edifying strategy.
This is EXACTLY what I'm saying ... that some of our offense's ineffectiveness is a feature and not a bug. But I'm speculating. You could be right.
BB obviously isn't above criticism but there is something a little hypocritical about what some are doing saying "BB he just runs a sloppy ship and needs to be tougher" and then saying "how dare he staple someone to the bench for fumbling."
They were technically blocking 6 on 4 on that play as Stevenson chipped Van Winkel before heading out on his route and Chubb sliced right through the middle like no one was there.
I've watched that play and slowed it down about 30 times trying to figure out what is happening on the offensive line...and if you watch that play and think that Mac is the problem then I don't know what else to say at this point other than you simply want a Lamar Jackson type of QB. Gesicki runs a 3 yard out and is short of the sticks.
That's true.
I disagree. I think his first read on that play is Henry and he has to come off Henry who hasn't even considered looking back for the ball yet when the pressure gets there.
I guess the difference in perspective comes from the disagreement on whether or not to permanently bench a player is the only way to hold him properly accountable.
I also don't think there's any way that play is designed for Gesicki to go into his break short of the sticks. If it is, they have much bigger problems than his inability to gain an extra yard after the catch or Mac's timing or whatever.
If that were true, we wouldn't have things like reads and progressions.
Agreed, and it's fair to differ in that assessment as well. But what Bill did seems consistent with the way that Belichick has done things like forever, which won him six rings (as HC), which was my point. It's not like his last ring was 15 years ago.
I think he has progressions ... and frankly he threw to the right receiver as far as I can tell under the circumstances. This is literally 1 second into the play
I guess I don't think stuff like that is what won him 6 rings, though you can argue it cost them one against the Eagles.
Bill seems to think that it matters and has. Their team motto is "Do your job". The whole program is focused on accountability.
I said an idea. If he's going through reads after the snap, it's too late. We're not seeing many audibles at the line and he's struggling with post snap progressions.
I'm sure they'll take a look, but he's coming off an ACL, hasn't been practicing and word out of Cinci is he's 4-6 weeks away from playing in an NFL game, maybe more.
Is this serious? People bang on Mac constantly for getting vapor lock on his primary receiver. He's being killed for the Parker pick for that very reason.
He's completing 69% of his passes while having pressure on 1/3rd of his drop backs through 2 games. I don't see the evidence he's struggling with post snap progressions. Nobody is open, so he has to take what's there and I think he's doing that pretty well.
69% of passes that go 5.7y downfield. Hasn't this been the story with him for 3 years? He completes a lot of kind of meaningless passes? I'd prefer 55% of passes where he's pushing the play downfield more.
Downfield to who exactly?
I agree Henry probably is his first read but Mac knows the pressure is coming and seems to already be looking to Gesicki as he finishes his drop. Think he had the opportunity to let it rip. It is a tough play though and I might be nitpicking on Jones a little here. As I said, the line is mainly to blame.
One of the things I find challenging about being a football fan is that it's just so hard to do the work to have an informed opinion. I think we're all ok at evaluating the Pats--a lot of us watched most every snap all season and we have a good basis for saying our RTs sucked. (Although even there we can have differernces of opinion--I thought the oline played a lot better at the end of the season and mcgovern was a not horrendous fill in at RT, other think he should be launched into the sun.) But when it comes to evaluating, i don't know, RTs, very very few of us have watched enough tape to have anything like an idea. And players decline fast sometimes. But can la'el collins still play? could he play last year? If he can still play why did Cincy cut him? Is Jawaan Taylor good? Is Mike McGlinchey? Caleb McGarry? Right now where does Collins stand compared to Wheatley?
It's because his entire strategy hinges on having a coaching advantage. For a variety of reasons, he is less able to do so these days than he did throughout the 2000s and 2010s. He's fond of saying "it's a players game," but I've always thought he thinks the complete opposite. Following this team for the past 20+ years, imo nearly all of his decision making points to him valuing coaching/coachability over talent. He thinks his offense should be able to string together these drives where his opponent's fall apart because they've prepped them specifically to do so and have enough flexibility to go against any style (on both sides of the ball). That worked with a completely mind-melded Brady, but we're really seeing the cracks in the armor the past few seasons with the restrictions on practice time and the brain drain on the coaching staff.
In Mac's second seasons they tried a lot more pushing the ball down the field (if I recall correctly) and it led to a lot of bad plays/turnovers. We had quite an extensive discussion about it here.
Man. When put that way, it really does look like the wheels have come off the entire operation.
Exactly. He's a count late on that throw. If he leads Gesicki out of the break, he just falls forward for the first down.
But that's their issue, right? They've built an offense with such a small margin for error, you could argue the QB double clutching it for 0.3 seconds cost them two games because it was just enough to demand that guys make a play for him they weren't capable of making. You can't live like that in this league. You can't expect Mac to have to put together 6-10 perfect consecutive plays to score points. You need to have some room to operate.
9 games, 2 of which happened with a different roster...small sample size says what.
I had them starting 0-4 and going 9-8 and I could see them even going 10-7 or 11-6 given that I had them going 0-2 against the Jets but the problem here is that even if they make the playoffs they won't be competitive because the games there will require more offense than they can consistently generate. Parker, Bourne, and Juju are not good enough to win in the big games. They can still probably beat a lot of bad to mid-level teams but we are who they thought they were as you state. You can’t live in the world of needing everything to be perfect on drives to score.
Honestly I think whether it's Mac's fault or not they need a new QB. The roster you have to build around a Mac Jones talent at QB is too expensive to also pay Mac Jones non-rookie money, so you basically have a year left.
I have no doubt they'll be competitive and win at the very least about 7 or 8 games, it's just that to be quite honest in year 4 post Brady they've had the exact same plan they've had since arguably 2018 when they shipped out Cooks, let Amendola go and tried to trade Gronk in the offseason following Brady's MVP campaign in which they had the best offense in football. What's the evolution here? Because I already know the high floor the coaching and the defense set for this team. What's the plan offensively to take the next step? I guess I was holding out hope it might just be having a good professional OC, now I'm skeptical.
