Tom Brady and the Buccaneers came away with a narrow 19-17 win in his return to Gillette Stadium Sunday night, but Patriots rookie quarterback Mac Jones certainly impressed and arguably outplayed Brady in the game.
Jones completed 31 of 40 passes (77.5%) for 275 yards, two touchdowns, one interception and a 101.6 passer rating. Brady, meanwhile, went 22-of-43 (51.2%) for 269 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions and a 70.8 rating.
Despite now being 1-3 on the season, Jones has looked good in three of his four starts, with his three-interception performance in last week’s loss to the Saints standing as the outlier.
Appearing on The Greg Hill Show Monday morning, CBS analyst and WFAN host Boomer Esiason made a bold claim when comparing Jones now to Brady early in the 2001 season when he first took over for Drew Bledsoe.
“When Tom first took over for Drew Bledsoe, who’s better at that moment? Is Tom Brady of that era better, or is Mac Jones of this era better? I would argue that Mac Jones is better,” Esiason said. “And I would argue that they’re asking Mac Jones to do more earlier in his career than they did with Tom Brady. That’s how I look at it.
“I said this a few weeks ago and I got panned a lot across the country because of the way I said it and the way you guys put it out there on Twitter, which is like always clickbait, but Mac Jones is playing fantastic football for where he is in his young rookie season.”
(Writer’s note: Hopefully Boomer doesn’t think this is clickbait, too.)
To Esiason’s point, the Patriots are certainly asking Jones to throw more than Brady did early on. Jones has attempted 160 passes through his first four starts, while Brady only attempted 121 through his first four back in 2001 -- a difference of nearly 10 pass attempts per game. Jones has thrown 30 or more passes in all four of his starts, while Brady did that just once in his first four, with an outlier 54-attempt game against the Chargers really lifting up the overall numbers.
Jones has also completed a higher percentage of those passes (70.0%) than Brady (61.2%). Brady, however, went 3-1 in those first four starts and threw five touchdown passes with no interceptions. Jones has thrown four touchdown passes and four interceptions so far. It's worth adding that Brady did throw four interceptions in his fifth career start, a loss to the Broncos.
Regardless, Esiason was really impressed with what he saw from Jones Sunday night and thinks that despite the loss, Patriots fans should take comfort in the fact that they have their next franchise quarterback.
“I thought last night, given everything that was going on, all the pressure going into that game, the Belichick-Brady story and Tom coming back and breaking the all-time record for passing yards, and here’s the other guy. And the other guy just happens to be a kid. He handled himself accordingly. He was great last night,” Esiason said.
“I think Cris Collinsworth said it at the end of the game, but if you look at this game and you watch it, you know that you lost and you feel sick to your stomach that you lost, but you also know that you do have your quarterback of the future. … We’re asking a lot of [these rookie quarterbacks], and to me, Mac Jones has delivered more than I could’ve ever expected up to this point.”
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