Now that I have seen a few other people mention it - wanted to rant about something I’ve noticed starting last season but really starting to reach new heights. The way Mac Jones is viewed by NFL fans as a whole - and specifically Patriots fans off of Reddit is drastically different than what I see on here. There is a huge discrepancy between the amount of people I see here still willing to defend or make excuses for Mac and even roll with him for additional years. I’ve talked to probably dozens of pats fans between family, friends, coworkers, randoms at bars or Gillette and I don’t think I know one person who has that opinion in real life. I’d be willing to bet most people would admit having the same experience. In my decades of Boston sports fandom I can’t remember any case like this.

You can see evidence of this during home games too. When Mac was booed or pulled and fans cheered it on at Gillette while people on Reddit were upset about it. I’ve also seen multiple times on here people say something to the effect of “well he’s not Zach wilson” - when arguably most fans and GMs around the league would rather have Zach at this point.

Anyone have any theories as to why this is? I think it dates back to fans slapfighting online over zappe and Mac last year. Zappe has obviously fallen into irrelevance now but I think fans planted their flag and dug in their heels online.

Disclaimer: I’ve literally never met anyone that doesn’t also admit the team has a lot of other major issues and mac is the only problem. Most people just have seen enough to think his ceiling even with a better squad is low.