It’s widely believed that Mac Jones had a great rookie year, and it was the Judge/Patricia year that broke him and now 2023 has fully shattered what was once a promising QB. Awful O-line, bad coaching, brick-handed receivers there’s always a litany of excuses but I want to go back to December 18, 2021.

The Patriots rolled into Lucas Oil Stadium for a showdown with the Colts for a Saturday Night prime time game. This is where Mac’s career began to nose dive

BEFORE DECEMBER 18

Patriots with Mac at QB had a record of 9-4 and were atop the AFC. All was right in the world.

Mac’s stats:

220 Yards per Game, 16 TDs, 8 INT, 2:1 TD to INT ratio.

AFTER DECEMBER 18

Patriots have a total record in Mac Jones starts of 9-19. And we finished that rookie year year 1-4 including a blowout loss in the playoffs.

Mac’s stats:

212 Yards per Game, 30 TDs, 26 INTs, so almost a 1:1 TD to INT ratio.

SO WHY DECEMBER 18?

I promise this wasn’t cherry picking when Mac struggled to find the worst win-loss record I could post. I remember vividly watching this game and the announcers were showing that for the first time, a defense was disrespecting the deep ball. They barely had any help over the top and the Colts just brought pressure and clouded up the middle of the field. They knew Mac couldn’t punish them for leaving over the top open and couldn’t make those deeper outside route throws at a high clip. I remember sitting there like “oh my god they are disrespecting this kids arm talent, don’t they remember all his throws at Bama? Kid can sling it” but that never happened. And 3 years later, we’ve never been able to make teams pay for playing us tight and short. Mac’s arm strength really has limited this team and it wasn’t even a full year in the league that teams figured him out and he’s never adjusted.