Mac Jones has certainly regressed in his second season. But few could've predicted things would look as inept as they did Sunday afternoon, with Jones completing just 13 of his 31 pass attempts for an anemic 112 yards and no touchdowns.
To a cynical eye, it looked a lot like how the Patriots' passing offense did under Cam Newton a few years ago.
Sadly, that comparison isn't as far off as Patriots fans would like.
Brian Barrett of The Ringer shared a side-by-side comparison of Jones' numbers for this year with what Newton put up as a passer in 2020, and it feels almost like the meme of the two Spidermans pointing at one another.
To be clear, no one would argue Newton is actually a better passer than Jones. Even as a rookie, Jones showed a more natural feel for the Patriots game-plan as a passer than Newton did, which still might have been a product of the veteran unlearning a whole career of doing things differently in Carolina.
But Newton had something Jones doesn't at this point in his career: a competent offensive play-caller. Newton got to work with Josh McDaniels, who just improved to 2-0 in head-to-head matchups with Bill Belichick, and managed to look somewhat functional during an odd COVID season while still learning the offense throughout the year.
Jones, meanwhile, has seen all the progress and goodwill from his strong rookie season evaporate while working with Matt Patricia in a "simple" yet dysfunctional offensive system, going from a turnover-prone player to an erratic, frustrated one with handcuffs on by the end of the year.
On top of that, the Patriots' red-zone offense might look a whole lot different with Newton's rushing ability (592 yards, 12 TDs) as something it could fall back on instead of…whatever it is that they're doing now.
Drafting Jones to replace Newton and allowing him to earn the starting job last season was very obviously the right choice, and there should be no debate about whether you'd prefer the passing upside of Jones over the more limited throwing abilities of Newton in theory. But for this particular offensive structure, choosing between the two might be more of a toss-up -- maybe even a little more the other way -- than you'd think.