2021 NFL Season Thread Football • Page 153

Definitely curious how much Mac Jones Randall has watched

 

I am not sure of Wilson at all. I'm only confident in Lawrence being good.

 

Justin Fields I'm kind of sure will be okay but that's just because of his insane athleticism and strong arm.

 

I'm not sure he'll be okay but I would still rather draft this potential if the owner's got a gun to my head and says REPLACE TEDDY BRIDGEWATER

 

Scouting-wise? A few games. 3 or 4. He definitely puts elite receivers in a position to succeed by being accurate and timely, but it was definitely them making him look extremely good, not the other way around.

 

John McClain basically said on his podcast that he only sees Watson going to the Jets or Dolphins at this point if he is moved

 

That's really the knock on Mac - how much of that is him and how much of that is him having two top ten receivers, a probable first round RB, and 2-3 NFL starters on his OL. His floor is the lowest out of the QBs we're talking about in the 1st. He doesn't have Fields/Lance mobility to buy him time in games/in his career. If it was all the talent around him at Bama, then he sucks and that's kind of that. If he was adding to the talent though, Panthers get a likely franchise guy. That's worth taking in the first.

 

Next offseason is gonna be wild

 

the knocks are that he’s confined to the pocket and struggles when outside of it and that his arm is fine but a lot of the Alabama big plays/vertica passing game is receivers getting wide open with good enough passes to get the ball there and/or heavy YAC as opposed to Jones creating the plays with his arm talent in the way that someone like Burrow did even though he also had a great supporting cast

 

Like for example, Packers taking Jordan Love was a laughable move but if a team like that took Mac Jones late in the round I would love it.

Not a huge fan of Panthers investing 8 in him when they have holes at OL and WR that would negatively affect his game. This is a guy who didn't have to face that adversity in college cause Alabama set him up, so he should ideally go to a complete offense to develop and slowly learn how to deal with adversity and take control of the offense over time.

 

Y’all said jordan love was better than herbert, the packers gm obviously reads this thread haha

 

We don't know that to be false yet!

 

I just think sometimes we kinda put too much weight in the "athleticism" trait. Like, is Mac Jones going to rush for a ton of yards? No. Does that mean he isn't athletic? No. Does that make him less of a QB? No.

Part of it is also just having Cam for a decade, and while he is still one of my 3 favorite players ever, it was extremely frustrating to have a QB who's best trait was his legs and not any of the traditional QB traits. It's made me really prioritize things like pocket awareness, footwork, decision-making, accuracy etc over "athleticism". And the reason I put that in quotation is because, like I said before, it's not like Mac Jones isn't an athlete. His athleticism may not jump off he screen but it's more than good enough when you consider the other things he brings to the table.

I'm not saying he will be a sure-fire stud. I'm just fascinated with the evaluations certain players get.

 

having said all of this

I'm not gonna negatively grade the Panthers if they do that. A team with a subpar QB should always be looking to upgrade at QB and it's not like Mac Jones is a total dart throw. If that's their guy then the draft pick is at least a B cause he does have plenty of good traits.

I just don't think he represents the best potential and I'd like to see the Panthers fix their holes before developing a QB if they don't have a chance to pounce on a huge-value one right now. They're not in a spot where they have to totally rebuild, I think if they just filled the gaps, tried to trade up from 40 to pick Jones but waited a year if not... that's a good recipe for long term success. Teddy is smart enough to keep them from being horrible and losing fan support if they gotta roll with him another year.

 

Mac also isn't unathletic. Like he's not like Peyton Manning where you have to spend 20 years building up to one single design QB run.

Though I will say it's very refreshing to see this be used to knock down a white QB. Usually it's people expecting every black QB to be a scrambler

 

Where I disagree is that having Teddy is actually an argument for us to take a QB that may take a little time to develop. We can sit someone behind Teddy and be competitive.

 

Another scenario:

Panthers bluff that they want Fields, trade down with another team that wants him first, collect picks, still draft Mac Jones.

That's a realistic scenario where, Panthers taking Jones in the first round is an A+ pick.

 

I would be surprised if Mac Jones fell into the 20s

 

This would definitely be preferred over taking him at 8, but it'd also suck if he is their guy, they trade down, and then someone else takes him haha

 

Fields would actually be pretty cool in that scenario! Imagine Fields getting to learn from Joe Burrow's coach for a year with no pressure haha.

 

tbh this is kind of the way I'm leaning too

 

Then why did I almost trade up for him in our mock?

 

I think Burrow was the better college QB for sure, but he was also in a system that got his receiver very open.

 

Literally the Panthers have to make a decision on BOTH offensive tackles (Moton probably resigned, Okung probably gone), they said farewell to Greg Olsen and Ian Thomas hasn't stepped up yet, they might be losing Curtis Samuel, IOL / guard is one of their holes...

They have CMC but that is not the team I wanna send Mac Jones to considering he's used to relying on / being able to trust an elite line and wideouts. I think drafting Fields, and turning that offense into a read-option heavy offense - where teams are forced to defend the legs of Fields and CMC AND short bootleg passes to CMC / Moore - is a better way to mitigate that situation. That's an offense where you actually wanna see more QB running and improv to spice things up.

They explicitly have the tools to run a simple misdirection based offense year one for Fields if they have to, but for a pocket passer like Mac Jones thats a much tougher situation.