I guess with respect to the first paragraph, what QB's in the NFL can you say that about outside of Mahomes (maybe Allen and Burrow, but they haven't gotten over the hump yet either).My only objection is that I believe we can look at the guy independent of what he has as well. If Mac is provided weapons, very good coaching and a good OL, I'm sure he would be much better than he is today, the offense would score points and the team would be better off. But just like the 49ers with Jimmy (and I suspect the Dolphins with Tua as well), it could very well happen that said offense is great, efficient, and then it comes a time in the playoffs that your guy needs to make plays and he can't. And then you have a wagon with a representative QB who's not a difference maker and his play isn't the difference between going 8-9 and making the playoffs, but the difference between winning a conference championship and losing it.
If the weapons are taken as a given, if the team provides that, then the QB is in focus. I'll agree that the whole "take a bunch of mediocre/bad receivers and transform them into an elite unit" creed is very likely bullshit, or at least so rare that it shouldn't be expected of any one. I just think there's still a major difference between "fine QB with great weapons" and "great QB with great weapons". They should do whatever they can to provide the weapons, sure, I just don't think so far Mac has shown me a spark of being the latter. Which you could argue only heightens the need to invest on that side of the ball, but I just believe we don't need to wait for the perfect context to materialize around him to make a determination on who he is.
I don't really care much about the "oh, he'd be right there with Tua in passer rating if he had Tua's receivers" stuff. I don't think Tua is all that great. Lamar didn't have great numbers these past few years with all the injuries the Ravens had on offense and the lack of receivers to begin with, and Greg Roman calling terrible plays, I still thought he was a difference maker for them every week, even if the ANY/A didn't look great. Same with Mahomes to start this year. I think you can tell. Now, I'll agree the Patriots are better at QB than they are at receiver, so it's pretty obvious which one is in need of an upgrade.
I think when you have a defense as good as this one, and a coach that's the best of all time, you get into the playoffs and try to make some noise. I don't think any team has the luxury of hitting the next Brady/Mahomes/Manning, whereas we watched a guy like Eli win two titles as an above average at best QB. Get to the dance and anything can happen, but if you never give Mac anything to work with, the dance will never happen.
Shit, I'd sign up for a loss in the conference championship right now for this season and the next 5 years. Making and winning the Super Bowl is ridiculously hard, that's why guys like Aaron Rodgers have only done it once.