Curious as to how many starting QBs you'd prefer Mac over? Not Z Wilson or Minshew ... the QBs who started in Week 1. And not factoring in contract status. Maybe 6-7?
Long term? Mahomes, Herbert, Lawrence, Burrow, Lamar, Allen, Richardson, Stroud, Hurts?, Dak?, Young?. So 9-11 guys. The guys I don't want are either aging or will be a lot pricier than Mac for the next two years. Short term though? Like if I got to pick a QB for just this year: Stafford, Rodgers if he was healthy, Tannehill maybe. That puts Mac around the middle of the pack. Cost of QB should be a factor. Mac would be in a group of a bunch of guys who start at QB15 and end somewhere around QB 22.
Elandon Roberts had 38 yards receiving that game. This offense lacks top tier talent, it's been a consistent failure in roster building, it's also miles better than what they had to end the year in 2019. Mike Gesicki is their 5th option in the passing game now, he'd be number 2 with a bullet on that team.
I want to push back a bit on the "oh my god, he has nothing around him, this is impossible" discourse. Yeah, they 100% lack elite talent at receiving, they don't have a game breaking player or someone you'd rotate coverage to in order to take away from the game. They don't have the guy who can win one on one consistently and be an option in do or die situations. I also think they go 5 deep in "accomplished, competent NFL receivers", and that does hold some value, even though I'd rather they have one elite guy, one really good guy and 3 JAGs. But it's not as awful a group as some believe it to be, in my opinion. I can't really square the fact that people were screaming for Kendrick Bourne to get snaps last year, liked the Juju pick up, loved the Henry and Gesicki acquisitions, with the belief that now all of a sudden none of these guys can play a lick.
Just as an example, is this group meaningfully different from Christian Kirk/Zay Jones/Evan Engram/Marvin Jones/Jamal Agnew? I don't really think it is. And the Jaguars had a top 8 passing offense with that crew.
That is interesting. I pushed back on KB last year, I liked the Juju pick-up because I thought he was a different guy with explosiveness and RAC ability. I was skeptical about Gesicki. I was skeptical along with Super Nomario on what they would be good at this year. I was hoping it would be pass and run blocking.
Christian Kirk is better than anyone on this roster at WR. Engram is a better pass-catcher at TE but individually Henry is fine. Jones and KB are comparable. Meaningfully different though, absolutely. Kirk and Engram are much more explosive and faster guys. Kirk was an ascending player and busted out from 900 yards to over 1,100 last year.
You can't just look at the 3 guys, think they all are ok WR3s and go with that though. You have to look imo deeper. What can we do scheme wise with these guys? If you have Bourne, Juju, Henry, and Parker on the field you are slow. Defenses don't have to respect them as vertical threats minus maybe Parker who can still make 50/50 catches. With the Fins they were leaving the checkdowns with a ton of space because they respected their speed and didn't want to give up big plays. When you don't have guys with the juice to threaten big plays defenses can play closer down to the LOS. They can sit on your underneath stuff. They can take away RAC from checkdowns. None of these guys are bad individually - it's just that they don't do much together as a unit. They also aren't the kind of guys who play well getting early separation. It would be one thing if these were your guys but you could pass block/run-block and have play-action or give you time for guys to get open.
OL wise though this is ridiculous. Having a run game would help. They can't run-block or pass-block so no play-action, lots of quick game with slow players. All these little issues compound on each other.
And a friendly reminder that the Jags had an easy schedule on offense and one of the easiest schedules in the league last year period last year.
Compare the their team-speed too. Engram, Jones, and Kirk are all 4.45 or faster runners. Combine 3 guys who are all twitched up and you can create space a lot easier.
You want a team of guys who can get open, right? Engram, Jones, and Kirk are faster, more explosive, better pass catchers, and can get open much easier than an over the hill Parker, a sapped Juju, and Bourne who isn't a speedy player - more a horizontal guy but his attention to details in routes is not great.
So yes, in a lot of ways it isn't like bottom 3-4 in the league but EPA and efficiency stats are bottom 3rd right now.
EPA rate is around 24th-26th per play total. I think they have a bottom 6-7 set of pass catchers. Passing impacts EPA much more significantly than running. So yeah, they are right where I thought they would be EPA wise.