Mac Jones was the best rookie QB in week one of the NFL season

Despite being the fifth quarterback taken in the 2021 NFL Draft New England’s Mac Jones was the most impressive rookie quarterback in week one.

The most impressive quarterback of week one was New England’s Mac Jones. In his first career NFL start Jones showed that he has the skillset to develop into one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. He also outperformed Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson who were drafted number one and two in the 2021 NFL Draft, respectively.

The first positive that stood out with Jones was his ability to throw under pressure. According to ESPN, he completed 9-13 passes while facing pressure. This included his first career touchdown pass where he had a linebacker bearing down on him yet was still able to hit Nelson Agholor for a seven-yard score.

Another positive with Mac Jones was his overall accuracy. On the day he completed 29-of-39 passes for a completion rate of 74 percent. He displayed outstanding ball placement on both his shorter throws and on a few of the deep shots he took. However, one concern with him in this area is he did throw a couple of passes low which caused his receivers to make a tough catch or not make the reception at all.

One other plus with him was his ability to move in the pocket. On several occasions, he was able to slide in the pocket and buy enough time to complete the pass. In addition to him buying time in the pocket, he showed he could throw on the run. New England had him rollout on a couple of pass plays which he did a nice job with showing both the athletic ability to carry out this assignment and the accuracy to throw on the run.

The biggest issue I had with Jones’s game is that he didn’t take many shots downfield. However, it is hard to put all the blame on Jones for this as part of the blame has to fall on New England’s offense. The Patriots did not call for many downfield passes in this game partly due to the fact how often Miami was sending pressure. They also likely did not try and stretch the field much as the team lacks true playmakers at the wide receiver position.

Overall, Jones looked like a player who could be a very good system quarterback in the NFL. This is due to his ability to find the open receiver consistently and hit him in stride. However, in order to get all they can out of Jones, New England must add more offensive playmakers next offseason.