From 2001-2006, Brady was 12th, 19th, 9th, 8th, 5th and 10th in adjusted net yards per attempt (average of 10.5). Mac was 17th last year and 24th this year. Even if the actual numbers are similar (Mac is at 5.93 for his career, vs Brady who was 6.29 from 2001-2006), the league is different now. Someone putting up passing numbers in 2022 that were, on average, 10th or 11th best in the early to mid 2000s shouldn't have much job security today.
His ceiling has always been described as Chad Pennington, which would be pretty good. But so far he hasn't reached that height, and Pennington's peak transported to today's game would likely be average at best. The game has changed.
Right, but a Pennington/Jones type with competency on the O-Line and a professional OC would look better than what we're seeing at the moment
I think the comparisons to Colt McCoy exist today because they just played each other last night.
So I guess Kyler Murray, Justin Fields and Matthew Stafford should retire then, as they all have worse AN/YPA than Mac does this season. Sitting right above Mac are Russell Wilson and Daniel Jones.
"He can't elevate a bad line" is probably right.
Don't you want him to execute the plays as called? Most great QBs win from structure and good play design. Him looking off the safety before hitting Hunter Henry in the seam was fantastic. That he is starting to win more consistently in structure when he has protection is a good thing. They didn't just give him easy short completions because he's Mac they did that because the OL is garbage right now and the Cardinals blitz a ton. He almost doubled his high for screens last night. As I mentioned earlier the Eagles ran more screens than Mac did vs this defense. They bring 5 or more at the highest percent in the NFL.
I didn't mean it as a negative, I meant it as a positive. The coaching staff is calling what they can, and Mac is playing better because of it.
No clue, but part of why the Patriots are 7-6 is that Bailey Zappe won 2 of those 7 (yes likely the 2 easiest on paper), and our defense is top 5 in the league. I think it's fair to say we won zero of our 7 wins because of stellar QB play, so it's hard to say how many games a better QB wins, but it's also hard to say how bad a QB would have to be to have won fewer. I mean we had people legit wondering if Bailey Zappe was good (because hope springs eternal) rather than wondering if we just had been getting really bad QB play such that a backup wasn't much worse.
Stafford should retire. Russ is cooked and thank the lord we aren't stuck with that albatross contract. Fields, Murray and Jones have a running capability that Mac simply will never have that can mitigate a lesser AN/YPA. Mac doesn't have that luxury.
I'm not sure what the point here is - Murray, Stafford and Wilson are all generally agreed to be having terrible seasons, but they've got decent track records of being better than this. Fields has been brutal passing the ball, but has been incredible running the ball and his age and ceiling (a few miles above Mac) get him some more slack (plus everything around him is worse than for Mac). Daniel Jones is also a threat with his legs, and he still likely loses his job going into next year.
Out of 29 if anyone else was curious.
I think Mac is more mobile than he gets credit for, but I think one thing he lacks is awareness and pre-snap identification.
I'll agree with the bolded generally, but I didn't intend it to be a simple "is this guy good or not" barometer. I was using to differentiate between Brady's dink and dunk offense early in his career vs. Mac now. Brady's dink and dunk game still lead to a lot of yards relative to his era. Mac's has not.
I had hoped Mac would have climbed the pocket more in that one. He was better at feeling pressure at Alabama. He had good pocket presence there. He would slide around well. This year he doesn't have that. I wonder if he isn't stepping up in the pocket more because he doesn't trust the IOL.
I was a Fields guy myself, but other than an argument for Mahomes and Russell Wilson, mobile quarterbacks haven't won Super Bowls. But I would argue those guys are pocket passers that also can run, as opposed to mobile quarterbacks that are good at throwing. I would put Josh Allen in that category as well.
Doesn't this logic not really pan out in most cases though? Mobile quarterbacks and QBs that can run are typically the most sacked QBs in the NFL, often because they either scramble around too long trying to make a play instead of throwing the ball away, or they flee clean pockets and run into trouble.
I'm on record as being fairly neutral on Mac. He has his flaws, the line has its flaws, the coaching has its flaws. But what strikes me about this offense and the comparisons to the early Brady years is just the sheer volume of mistakes / negative plays / penalties. This offense is not good enough to bounce back from 1st and 15 or 20. And yet, it seems like every other drive there is this type of drive-ruining mistake. And again, I think it is a combination of Mac, the line, and the coaching. But the amount of mistakes this team makes compared to the Brady years is mind-boggling.
Somebody is getting a QB like this in 2024.
Even the eye test confirms this. So many of the huge plays in the big games between good teams this year have been decided by scrambles. Not necessarily scrambles that score. But that series where you need points and you take a pre-snap penalty and so need 15 yards, I can think of so many big fourth quarter plays where Allen or Mahomes has converted a third and eight. It feels like a team with a scrambling QB has three options on every play where a team that has a pocket guy only has 2.
I'm still a pocket passer fan. Quarterbacks who run take too much punishment. For the long term I'd rather trade a little better passing for worse running, though obviously that's not the world works.
It is ridiculous. I just went back to look and last night on 6 of their first 10 drives (ie, while the game was still in doubt) they ended up in a longer than 10 yards to go situation at some point. You can't live like that.
I posted somewhere that Mac's raw stats this year were very similar to last season with the exception of TDs. But I also left out sacks. 26 in 10 games this year, 28 in 17 games last season.
I'd go as far to say that a good running QB like Allen gives you a 4th option of the designed QB run. Also, it's not just getting a 1st down from say 3rd and 8, but also getting good positive yards on 1st and/or 2nd down, that then results in a 3rd and short and a better chance to keep moving the chains. I've been a pocket passer fan for as long as I can remember, due to less injury risk, longevity etc. However, I think that a good pocket passer with a decent amount of mobility is becoming a must have as it seems that defenses are getting more athletic and faster and the OL's have a hard time containing them for long stretches in a game.
All of Mac's sacks this year by down and distance, in order:
Mac has two more near INTs that were extremely close in that time. One was called back for a roughing the passer in the first Jets game and the other was a terrible decision and throw that the defender cut off and couldn't stay inbounds on.
Yeah that's how I feel too, a better QB doesn't get hit there, but also, that pick is mostly a bit of back luck, a bit of bad blocking, a bit of holding too long, etc. Like that isn't a pick I think WOW what a screwup by anybody, just a bunch of little things and a lot of bad luck.
Mac's average loss per sack is 6.73 yards
This seems to be one of the few (only?) areas of improvement from last year. In 2021, Mac's average yards loss per sack was 8.6 yards, 2nd worst in the league among the 31 QBs who were sacked 20+ times (only Murray was worse). So far in 2022, his average yards loss per sack is 6.7 yards, 14th worst among the 31 QBs with the most sacks. He's still completely unable to scramble and turn those 7 yard sacks into 2 yard sacks, but at least he's not running backwards which occasionally happened last year.
Thanks for that - guess it’s not bad as I had thought. Although I guess the increase in sacks makes up for each sack not being for as big a loss.
He had to do it multiple times with Henry.
They had a 39 yard defensive PI yesterday on Jonathan Jones against Hollywood Brown in the 2nd quarter. Flipped the field ARZ 34 to NE 27. But other than that, agree. Not many facemasks or defensive holding or even PI. Playing pretty clean.
