"It could be worse" is a reasonable POV in the keep/fire Bill debate given his long track record of success. It's an argument that should be nowhere near Mac Jones at this point, who hasn't done shit. There's simply no way he should be playing QB for this team next year unless the guy in front of him is really, really hurt.
the problem being that even though Jones isn’t good, finding someone better will be very difficult. Who, on an NFL roster right now, is going to be both available and a sure bet to be as good or better than Jones? The veterans are all proven backups, broken down or bad. Cousins would have been the best option but his Achilles injury complicates things. Mayfield might be an upgrade if Tampa doesn’t retain him. Other veteran options would be Brissett, Jimmy G, Tyrod Taylor, Tannehill, Mariota, Winston, Darnold, Lock, Minshew, Bridgewater or Dobbs. After that, you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel with the Snoop Huntley, Mason Rudolph, Blaine Gabbert types.
Mayfield is the obvious target (simply because the others are terrible or lateral moves) if he hits free agency but while he’s better than Mac, he probably doesn’t move the needle all that much. The Bucs offense, which has a fair bit more talent than the Pats’ is in the bottom 5-7 of the league.
the draft seems unlikely to give you an opening day starter. Too early to say obviously but if they’re drafting 6th or so, they will almost certainly miss out on Williams and Maye and I’m skeptical any of the next tier of Nix, Pennix, McCarthy, Ewers or Daniels will be both worth a top 6-7 pick and also ready to be “the guy” next year. It’s possible but none of them are obvious upgrades as far as 2024 goes and frankly I don’t see BB taking one of them that early.
of course, all of the QB discussion will end up coming back to the fact that Mac or his replacement will have garbage at WR unless the Pats part with high picks for Higgins. The free agency market at WR is as bad as the QB market