Mac Jones didn't have close to his best stuff against the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, in no small part to a barrage of pressure and hits he faced in the Patriots' season-opening loss.
But the second-year quarterback still has a big fan in former Patriots' offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia.
On WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show" Tuesday morning, Scarnecchia, who got to see Tom Brady and many a quarterback up close during his lengthy NFL career, pushed back on any notion that Jones' struggles on Sunday reflected poorly on his career outlook.
"I don't think he's an average quarterback. I think he's above-average," the former coach said. "I think he has a good high ceiling. Is he going to be Patrick Mahomes? No. Is he going to be Tom Brady? Certainly no one's Tom Brady.
But I think he can be a really good quarterback in the National Football League when he has all the tools around him, all the weapons around him, I think he can be really good."
In order to do that, though, the Patriots are going to need to keep Jones upright.
The Dolphins registered two sacks -- one of them resulted in a scoop-and-score for Melvin Ingram -- and hit Jones on three other occasions, including a roughing-the-passer flag that ignited spasms in the young passer's back.
Though he sounds hopeful to play against Pittsburgh this coming Sunday, the Patriots' offensive line has to clean up its communication issues -- both for Jones' sake and that of the offense at large.
"They've gotta get the protection settled down and give him a comfort zone in the pocket. That's not being critical; that's just what you say, and I think they'll do that," he said.
Scarnecchia specifically said the left-side pairing of tackle Trent Brown and rookie Cole Strange -- whom the coach said he's not worried about "at all" -- have to work better together. The two were at the center of a miscommunication that got Jones sacked in the first quarter.
The coach said the threat of constant pressure is something even Brady couldn't ignore later in his career, let alone a second-year passer.
"We used to go into games with Tom…when we'd play Indianapolis, Dwight Freeney's sitting right outside of Matt Light, and [Brady] knew it," Scarnecchia recalls. "Every time the ball was snapped, Tom would look over and see how Matt was doing. If he saw Matt was okay, man, he took his time. But when he didn't, he'd get the ball out.
"That's a tough thing for any quarterback to do, but they can arrive at that point where if they get this guy into that comfort zone, he's going to be fine."
The road doesn't get any easier for Jones and the Patriots' offensive line, who will face a Steelers team (albeit without superstar pass-rusher T.J. Watt) who harassed Joe Burrow into four interceptions.
Hopefully they can make some adjustments based on last week and give Jones the time and protection he needs to get comfortable and steal a win in Week 2.
