Mac's Future
- Thread starter TomRicardo
- Start date
I can't remember the last time I saw a Patriots player openly question a coach's decision like this. It's definitely been a while. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Pats release him this week.
edit: maybe after the Lawyer Milloy release?
Yeah, after watching Brady take the high road for most of his entire career with NE, the juxtaposition is jarring.
He takes the bait on reporters offering him an out pretty much weekly. He's always leaving little jabs to the media.
Backup grocery bagger. Like if the starter bagger cuts his finger on a pineapple husk or something, Max can go in and work.
The only way he comes back is if they aren’t able to draft a QB.
If they do draft a QB, he’s gone and they bring in a new veteran backup who can be more of a positive influence.
I would want no part of Mac being involved with a highly picked QB….I am struggling to think of players who I would want less
Welcome to the train. I’d remove “kind of”.
I thought after this game and that pick he’d show a little more humility…apparently not
I watched his press conference. That guy is bro-ken.
I think the Hail Mary answer is more a confession that he couldn’t get it done even if they called it.
I think the Hail Mary answer is more a confession that he couldn’t get it done even if they called it.
In many respects Mac seems caught up in a Groundhog Day scenario, it seems like he has had several last minute drives this year that have started out great and could have given the team a win but have ended in interceptions. But there is no doubt today's was the worst.
This is the pic. I just can’t believe an NFL QB misses a guy by 5 yards with this much room to operate.
"'Oh but the OL sucks!"
Nonsense. Forget the Thornton miss last week, this play is forever going to be Mac's legacy. His own personal Buttfumble.
He'll never, ever recover from this.
Nonsense. Forget the Thornton miss last week, this play is forever going to be Mac's legacy. His own personal Buttfumble.
He'll never, ever recover from this.
He plays scared. No QB who ever had even a modicum of NFL success played this scared. Dude can't pull the trigger on NFL windows can't keep his eyes down field when the rush comes, can't step up in the pocket. You'll never win with that. I don't even care about the physical traits, he could be John Elway and he'd still be a losing player.
I don't think it's that useful to cut him this year but this kind of answer makes me want it to happen. An honest answer would be "because my coaches don't have any confidence that I can throw the ball that far, and they're right". If he's blaming it on anything other than his horrible footwork and weak arm then he's lying to himself and will never improve.
He threw a fadeaway pass because he was scared to get hit by 52. Stepping into that probably ends up with him being shoved onto the turf, apparently that's too much for Mac despite the game situation. Meanwhile Brady willingly took bigger hits to make throws in much lower leverage situations.
If 52 shoves him to the ground on that play it's going to be roughing the passer, he's at least two steps away from Mac.
Mac's broken, he can't face adversity, and he's all done in the NFL.
Mac's broken, he can't face adversity, and he's all done in the NFL.
If the Pats don’t get a top 3 pick, and end up with the 4th-5th pick, the chances of them taking a QB aren’t great. I cant see BB (assuming he’s still here) reaching on QB3 and it’s hard to imagine a 2nd round guy being a lock for a starting job next year even in a deep QB class
Then they gotta figure out what stopgap vet to sign or trade for. Mac can’t start next year. Can’t. That’d be GM malfeasance. A fireable offense.
The more I think about it, with a replacement level qb and no other changes- say minchew or Dalton, we’re almost certainly three games better. We beat dc, luv and Indy. Maybe we even steal one of the first two. There are lots of problems but Mac is #1. And bill should get killed for not having an nfl backup. Brian hoyer might have been better.
Thinking back on it, the whole "Patricia was the problem" narrative really fucked this team for 2023.
I don’t even understand how Mac was able to put together the first half he had in year one? Were defenses just failing to exploit the weaknesses that are obvious now? Or did those weaknesses not exist?
I do think Patricia might have broken Mac, he really wasn’t this bad before.
Mrs. Papo is a VERY big Pats fan, in fact a bigger fan than me. She had to work today and just got home. She had a five minute rant about how bad Mac Jones is and she’s totally on board for the dump Mac train. We also watch the CFL when we can. It’s a long story, but our CFL allegiance is with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. I just had to tell her about the Mac to the CFL posts in this thread, and when I did she got kinda mad and said if the Ti-Cats end up with him she’s switching her CFL loyalties to Montreal. Oskee-Wee-Wee
Four million dollars dead cap really isn’t a big deal. It’s a sunk cost regardless. All options should be open.
10 yards short, I’d say.
Max is a fine QB till defenses realized he could not throw 15+ yards constantly.
I don’t think cutting him makes sense. He won’t start again, but you do need a backup in case of injury, and because he knows the offense he would be a better backup than who ever is currently sitting on the couch.
I keep thinking there has got to be way more to this than what we're all seeing on the field since Belichick has given him so much time to torpedo game after game, even with Zappe as the alternative.
I think I am now opening this thread looking for a link to some tweet about him being released. I'll keep coming back until someone drops it.
Thanks in advance!
I think I am now opening this thread looking for a link to some tweet about him being released. I'll keep coming back until someone drops it.
Thanks in advance!
Why sacrifice that money if you don’t need to, though. There’s no reason to cut him other than getting visceral satisfaction from it.
*Someone* has to play QB the last 7 games of this season.
Even though we only got a few quick shots of him after the interception/benching, I thought it was pretty telling that there weren’t really any coaches or teammates around him. Wouldn’t be surprised if we hear stories about attitude and leadership issues after the season.
What do you think is going on?
To me, Bill is handling Mac the same way he handled Cam. Starting QB keeps playing until there’s a better option. We remember there was no guarantee Cam wasn’t going to break camp as the Pats starter in 2021.
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Yes, that was normal answer for him. Mac has no issues pointing fingers elsewhere.
Definitely. That needed to be no shorter than the 5 yard mark into the EZ. He threw it to the 2
Just to be clear, the only way the Pats are "sacrificing money" in this scenario is if they miss out on a chance to trade him in the offseason. If they can convince a team to give a late round pick swap for Mac or something, the Pats will save 2.8 million next year. If they cut him in the offseason, it's effectively the same thing as just cutting him now as his salary next year is guaranteed. You only miss out on the pleasure of having Mac on your team. Honestly, I'd probably still try to fake injury designate him and try to offload him to some team to save the money, though it's no guarantee anyone will take him.
Regarding someone playing QB for the Pats this year, I really don't think it can be Mac at this point. They have 3 other QBs on the roster, Mac should effectively be considered completely finished. He's 100% not part of the future for this team anymore. Even if you're using the rest of the year to see if anyone else on the roster can be a backup for 2024, that's the better option imo.
I have no idea.
Pretty depressing to imagine that the obvious explanation is correct though: there is no better alternative than Jones.
They can't win with Mac, no other team would want him and yet there is nobody else on the planet at least worth a look in a totally lost season?
For now, at least with Zappe he's supposed to suck and if he plays even modestly okay you take it as a moral victory. And if he also sucks at least he seems less likely to sulk around between opportunities to get receivers broken in half.
If they continue to play Mac I think there's an excellent chance they lose the locker room and team culture. You can't hold everyone else accountable and subject to benching for mistakes without also applying the same to the QB. Mac finally got benched today; if he starts again I think the vast majority of the other players on the tam will simply check out.
So we should play guys like Boutte when they haven't done enough to earn their spot on the field but we should bench Mac for, checks notes, a clearly inferior option in Zappe?
We can’t have it both ways.
Where did I say they should play Boutte?
At this point it's not terribly obvious to me that Zappe is a clearly inferior option. Mac's play has been enough evidence that someone else needs to get a shot at the position. And I'm no Zappe truther.
Mac has shown that he doesn't belong in the NFL. This team should do something about that.
What team culture is that, though? I don’t think terrible teams tend to have a great culture, so not sure there’s a lot to risk here.
It’s too bad the team never bothered to get the veteran backup QB that they supposedly prioritized in the off-season.
I would love to see Grier or Cunningham get a chance out of the bye as both would possibly be much more entertaining than having to watch Mac (yuck) or Zappe (same).
They already have players not showing up to the hotel and being late for meetings. They also aren’t disciplined as a team and make dumb turnovers and get called for dumb penalties. What culture are they saving?
Well maybe those players don't give a fuck about professionalism because they know the QB is going to lose them the game?
Maybe the losing culture has already started because the QB sucks.