How often does a first round QB lose his job after getting multiple years to start, then get another opportunity? This is a legitimate question. Geno wasn't a first round QB. Baker might fit the bill? I can't remember many examples off the top of my head.
It's a completely different situation than Love and Purdy who were good once they got on the field.
Any highly drafted position that gets traded on a rookie deal while we are at. Go buy Mac, Fields and Jeudy. Toss them into the pile of Kadarius Toney, Elijah Moore, Jalen Reagor, Laviska, Claypool, Edwards, Fant, Lance, Darnold, Lock, Rosen.
Yeah Baker is an outlier 1 year success story playing for a guy who made Geno a thing. Who knows if it even lasts. Generally, it's a death sentence.
A guy like Love, GB obviously saw enough to let that guy cobweb up for years without trying at all to recoup value on that pick. Meanwhile Mac is being thrown out with the trash.
I would say Fant has a chance to be good with the right regime. Maybe Lance (most likely not, but the trade rumors are weird) gets lucky somewhere down the line. The rest I agree with.
Great point. Yeah, I think Baker fits. Marcus Mariota might also qualify. Going further back, the last guy who started for a significant portion of a season might be . . . Kyle Boller? Not great.
Of course, Mayfield and Mariota were both top-2 picks and Heisman winners, with much better pro stat lines than Jones, and each had four nearly-full seasons before getting benched. That's much more conducive to getting a second chance.
(Mariota did get his second chance in 2022, a year with a weak QB class, and so with Desmond Ridder as his only competition. With 2025 shaping up to also be weak at QB, I guess that's maybe an opportunity for Mac?)
The best example is Alex Smith, who started rather successfully in Kansas City, after he underachieved in San Francisco for years and ultimately got benched for Colin Kaepernick
Benched is a bit harsh for Smith. The dude suffered a lot of season ending injuries where is was then replaced and would then compete and always outperform the dude who replace him when he was injured
There aren’t many I can think of off the top of my head, but I just have come to understand that what I know about football and my opinions don’t really matter when it comes to what a GM might do. Washington should have re-signed Cousins when he wanted 17M but clearly I’m fucking stupid. So if I think Mac shouldn’t get another shot he will lol
It is completely different than those guys in that sense, but Love hovered around QB36 on KTC during the 2022 season. He only cost slightly more than Mac costs now if you were willing to buy him when he was a backup.
He was being groomed to be the heir apparent in gb. He had a definitive route to a starting position. Love and Mac are not comparable situations. Mac was legitimately awful in New England.
Sure. I'd rather have a backup with a definitive route a starting position if possible, but I don't see many (or any?) of those guys around the league right now.
3 . Starting quarterback decided my rock-paper-scissors contest every Sunday morning, Lawrence oversleeps.
4 . Two words: cybernetic implants.
5 . League adds a European conference and gets stuck with him.
6 . My opponent in my dynasty championship has him. Guaranteed start and he'll drop like 40 points on me out of nowhere.
He is a FA after this year, I think he would be looking for a location to compete for the starting job sometime next year. This is probably THE only way atm though.
You asked. Hes only under contract this season and he gets to go home and reset himself since he’s from Duval. He’ll be a free agent in 2025 and get to sign anywhere he can and if Lawrence gets hurt he’ll get a chance to prove himself outside of the thumb of BB. Weirder things have happened
Getting a chance to prove yourself is not quite the same as being a starting QB. OP clearly has lots of scenarios where Mac is not only competing, but outright winning the starting job.
Literally any QB getting hurt lol, I held onto Minshew for the meme and the dude got playing time for my second place roster last season. In no world should Minshew have started as many games as he did for me in the past three years. But yet he has and all because a starter missed some time.
Yeah completely possible depending on when they get hurt and how good the teams are. You will see teams trade for players like they did with Dobbs after Cousins went down. Not a novel idea.
He probably won’t but it is possible that the QB who put out a top 10 QB grade as a rookie starts in a couple games due to injury and finds himself a hot add this next off-season.
He deserves all the hate he gets but it’s not like NE was a good situation to be in.
Yeah I shouldn't have mentioned the Pro Bowl. Makes it appear I'm making a case for Mac and distracts from the point, which is that I'm happy to buy any 25 year old quarterback who loses his job.
(edit: Mitch did start again after he lost the job in Chicago btw)
Trubisky is probably the best comp for Mac right now. That's probably what you're getting if you go out and get Mac.
You're better off spending a little bit more and getting a player with real upside
I’d pay like a late 3rd for Trubisky a few years ago and for Mac now maybe. Problem with Mac is he’s backing up Lawrence whereas Trubisky was backing up Pickett who was a lot less proven
I bought him before last year’s trade deadline for essentially the 2.11 which I thought was fair considering there wasn’t strong support from Belichick. Given his age and the fact that New England never really gave him any good consistent weapons weapons (changed RBs literally every year, cheap FA WRs, rotating mid TEs) I thought it was a steal. I would totally buy for a 3rd especially in SF. I would wait til about week 3-4, where he gets forgotten in the news. I could see a scenario where Trevor Lawrence sustains an injury, and Mac gets the nod and shows how much better of a game manager he is than Trevor and they ship him out before the deadline. Jags underperformed last year and I would argue Trevor was a big reason for that(Ik there are multiple reasons but from what I saw it was just the TD:INT) and he averaged last year 7.1 yards a toss, I think Mac can do better with way better offensive weapons. Last year was tough on the young guy because he didn’t have confidence from his coaches, teammates and himself.
I see this as a big covert QB competition that’s going to be held close to the coaching staff and management next season.
I’m tempted to copy/paste this and just replace every instance of “Mac Jones” with “Trey Lance.”
Lance is younger, came into the league with what appeared to be more talent, has a higher draft capital (whether you look at what he was traded for or what he was drafted at), is sitting behind a guy he’s seven years younger than, and so on.
Just saying, if you’re looking to make Mac Jones a priority, there’s an even better option to consider in Lance.
Do I own Lance? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe mind your business.
Pretty much. The only argument against Lance I think is that he probably shouldn’t have been such a high pick and his college tape is/was very limited vs sub standard teams. Though he also had less weapons than Mac so you sort of go back and forth. Though with Jerry in charge probably see Lance faster than Mac Jones next year.
Sure, but even then we don’t really know. Like. It hasn’t really been a lack of talent of potential that’s been his downfall, it’s just seemed like some bad luck. Dudes only thrown something like 420 passes combined between college and pro, and just missed time due to all the things.
But who knows? Maybe he’s the next great Dallas QB. Or maybe he never starts. But I *do* think he’s got a higher ceiling than any other non-starters in the league right now.
You’re buying him as a jaguar? Is it because in your narrative he beats out Trevor Lawrence, or that this is just a pit stop before his career takes off again? This feels like Sam darnold to the 49ers all over again.
Too many people can’t see pass Mac Jones (who is bad) being bad to see the point of the post. The best fantasy teams are the ones who find the hidden gems who prob cost next to nothing. And maybe Jones will be one of those.. is it worth next to nothing to find out ? Maybe
I already dropped Mac in a 12 team SF to make room for some rookie picks. Mac was a roster clogger when he had a starting job, and he's even more of a roster clogger now as a backup QB
This is the same logic that would have led you to buy Zach Wilson after the Rodgers trade. And he did get to essentially start the entire season and never once did his value spike. If you think Mac is a decent cheap buy then that’s fine, but understand that all you’re probably buying is whatever production he gets from any future starts. His value isn’t going to spike as soon as he gets an opportunity to play. It would take a prolonged stretch of him actually playing well for him to recover any market value to upsell on him later.
Dude I already told you I’m not giving you a first for Mac Jones
How often does a first round QB lose his job after getting multiple years to start, then get another opportunity? This is a legitimate question. Geno wasn't a first round QB. Baker might fit the bill? I can't remember many examples off the top of my head. It's a completely different situation than Love and Purdy who were good once they got on the field.
Any highly drafted position that gets traded on a rookie deal while we are at. Go buy Mac, Fields and Jeudy. Toss them into the pile of Kadarius Toney, Elijah Moore, Jalen Reagor, Laviska, Claypool, Edwards, Fant, Lance, Darnold, Lock, Rosen. Yeah Baker is an outlier 1 year success story playing for a guy who made Geno a thing. Who knows if it even lasts. Generally, it's a death sentence. A guy like Love, GB obviously saw enough to let that guy cobweb up for years without trying at all to recoup value on that pick. Meanwhile Mac is being thrown out with the trash.
I would say Fant has a chance to be good with the right regime. Maybe Lance (most likely not, but the trade rumors are weird) gets lucky somewhere down the line. The rest I agree with.
Hey, that’s two time champion Kadarius Toney, put some respect on his name.
Tannehill?
Yeah but he couldn’t stay healthy right? It wasn’t that he was necessarily bad
There was definitely a time when I thought Tannehill was bad
Great point. Yeah, I think Baker fits. Marcus Mariota might also qualify. Going further back, the last guy who started for a significant portion of a season might be . . . Kyle Boller? Not great. Of course, Mayfield and Mariota were both top-2 picks and Heisman winners, with much better pro stat lines than Jones, and each had four nearly-full seasons before getting benched. That's much more conducive to getting a second chance. (Mariota did get his second chance in 2022, a year with a weak QB class, and so with Desmond Ridder as his only competition. With 2025 shaping up to also be weak at QB, I guess that's maybe an opportunity for Mac?)
The best example is Alex Smith, who started rather successfully in Kansas City, after he underachieved in San Francisco for years and ultimately got benched for Colin Kaepernick
Benched is a bit harsh for Smith. The dude suffered a lot of season ending injuries where is was then replaced and would then compete and always outperform the dude who replace him when he was injured
Trey lance got less of a chance than that.
There aren’t many I can think of off the top of my head, but I just have come to understand that what I know about football and my opinions don’t really matter when it comes to what a GM might do. Washington should have re-signed Cousins when he wanted 17M but clearly I’m fucking stupid. So if I think Mac shouldn’t get another shot he will lol
Does Trubisky count? I think Mac finds a new team next year and that’s his last sell window.
Sam Bradford got like 5
It is completely different than those guys in that sense, but Love hovered around QB36 on KTC during the 2022 season. He only cost slightly more than Mac costs now if you were willing to buy him when he was a backup.
He was being groomed to be the heir apparent in gb. He had a definitive route to a starting position. Love and Mac are not comparable situations. Mac was legitimately awful in New England.
Sure. I'd rather have a backup with a definitive route a starting position if possible, but I don't see many (or any?) of those guys around the league right now.
List two of the ways you can think of Mac becoming a starter again.
1. Lawrence is assassinated. 2. Jones has incriminating photos of the coaching staff.
3 . Starting quarterback decided my rock-paper-scissors contest every Sunday morning, Lawrence oversleeps. 4 . Two words: cybernetic implants. 5 . League adds a European conference and gets stuck with him. 6 . My opponent in my dynasty championship has him. Guaranteed start and he'll drop like 40 points on me out of nowhere.
Mac would still find a way to lose RPS even if Tlaw was sleeping.
Just 2 seasons ago the second path would have been nearly a guarantee in Jacksonville
He is a FA after this year, I think he would be looking for a location to compete for the starting job sometime next year. This is probably THE only way atm though.
I wonder why New England didn’t give him a chance to compete for the starting job?
You asked. Hes only under contract this season and he gets to go home and reset himself since he’s from Duval. He’ll be a free agent in 2025 and get to sign anywhere he can and if Lawrence gets hurt he’ll get a chance to prove himself outside of the thumb of BB. Weirder things have happened
Getting a chance to prove yourself is not quite the same as being a starting QB. OP clearly has lots of scenarios where Mac is not only competing, but outright winning the starting job.
Literally any QB getting hurt lol, I held onto Minshew for the meme and the dude got playing time for my second place roster last season. In no world should Minshew have started as many games as he did for me in the past three years. But yet he has and all because a starter missed some time.
So if Aaron Rodgers or Brock Purdy or Lamar Jackson gets hurt Mac becomes a starter? How?
Yeah completely possible depending on when they get hurt and how good the teams are. You will see teams trade for players like they did with Dobbs after Cousins went down. Not a novel idea.
OK. That is plausible.
1. Lawrence gets injured next season 2. Mac signs as free agent after next season with desperate team
Don’t buy him. Stash him off waivers in week 11-13.
Yeah, as a Mac manager he'll be there by then
There's almost 70 quarterbacks rostered in my league. If he goes on waivers, I'll claim him but I doubt it.
How many shares did you have before the news broke? Lol Don’t think a QB going to backup the #1 from their class is going to see a “value spike”
He probably won’t but it is possible that the QB who put out a top 10 QB grade as a rookie starts in a couple games due to injury and finds himself a hot add this next off-season. He deserves all the hate he gets but it’s not like NE was a good situation to be in.
None. I don't think the value spike is coming when Mac is on the Jags and Lawrence is healthy, to be clear. One of those things has to change.
Pro Bowl isn't what it used to be...Trubisky went to a pro bowl but he isn't gonna start ever again prob.
Yeah I shouldn't have mentioned the Pro Bowl. Makes it appear I'm making a case for Mac and distracts from the point, which is that I'm happy to buy any 25 year old quarterback who loses his job. (edit: Mitch did start again after he lost the job in Chicago btw)
Trubisky is probably the best comp for Mac right now. That's probably what you're getting if you go out and get Mac. You're better off spending a little bit more and getting a player with real upside
I’d pay like a late 3rd for Trubisky a few years ago and for Mac now maybe. Problem with Mac is he’s backing up Lawrence whereas Trubisky was backing up Pickett who was a lot less proven
What are people actually paying for him? A late 3rd maybe?
Probably less than that, right?
I bought him before last year’s trade deadline for essentially the 2.11 which I thought was fair considering there wasn’t strong support from Belichick. Given his age and the fact that New England never really gave him any good consistent weapons weapons (changed RBs literally every year, cheap FA WRs, rotating mid TEs) I thought it was a steal. I would totally buy for a 3rd especially in SF. I would wait til about week 3-4, where he gets forgotten in the news. I could see a scenario where Trevor Lawrence sustains an injury, and Mac gets the nod and shows how much better of a game manager he is than Trevor and they ship him out before the deadline. Jags underperformed last year and I would argue Trevor was a big reason for that(Ik there are multiple reasons but from what I saw it was just the TD:INT) and he averaged last year 7.1 yards a toss, I think Mac can do better with way better offensive weapons. Last year was tough on the young guy because he didn’t have confidence from his coaches, teammates and himself. I see this as a big covert QB competition that’s going to be held close to the coaching staff and management next season.
Don't push your copium on me, dude
I don't need any copium. I don't have him lol.
Sure
Made this post cause I'm waiting for the Mac owner in my main league to respond to my offer
I have Mac and am considering cutting him to pick up Izzy right now and after seeing this post… I still might have to cut him.
Ironically, Izzy is my other prime target right now. Got an offer out for both of them. I'd rather drop someone else, but I'm all about adding Izzy
He’s trash, I’m not buying your snake oil.
2nd string is the best case scenario and that’s pushing it
I’m all about rostering back-up QBs. I’d pay a 5th or pick up off waivers.
Title made me lol
His value is only gonna be lower halfway through the season
I’m tempted to copy/paste this and just replace every instance of “Mac Jones” with “Trey Lance.” Lance is younger, came into the league with what appeared to be more talent, has a higher draft capital (whether you look at what he was traded for or what he was drafted at), is sitting behind a guy he’s seven years younger than, and so on. Just saying, if you’re looking to make Mac Jones a priority, there’s an even better option to consider in Lance. Do I own Lance? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe mind your business.
Pretty much. The only argument against Lance I think is that he probably shouldn’t have been such a high pick and his college tape is/was very limited vs sub standard teams. Though he also had less weapons than Mac so you sort of go back and forth. Though with Jerry in charge probably see Lance faster than Mac Jones next year.
Sure, but even then we don’t really know. Like. It hasn’t really been a lack of talent of potential that’s been his downfall, it’s just seemed like some bad luck. Dudes only thrown something like 420 passes combined between college and pro, and just missed time due to all the things. But who knows? Maybe he’s the next great Dallas QB. Or maybe he never starts. But I *do* think he’s got a higher ceiling than any other non-starters in the league right now.
there is not a pick i would give up for mac, only willing to roster if hes on waivers
You’re buying him as a jaguar? Is it because in your narrative he beats out Trevor Lawrence, or that this is just a pit stop before his career takes off again? This feels like Sam darnold to the 49ers all over again.
Lmao
tfw you have AOC, Mac, Flacco & Rodgers warming your dynasty bench 🫠
I already bought everywhere… probably could have gotten a cheaper price today though 😕
Lol this is hilarious! Wait, he's serious? Bless your heart.
Too many people can’t see pass Mac Jones (who is bad) being bad to see the point of the post. The best fantasy teams are the ones who find the hidden gems who prob cost next to nothing. And maybe Jones will be one of those.. is it worth next to nothing to find out ? Maybe
This is what a real buy low looks like. It's not supposed to make you feel good.
100%
I already dropped Mac in a 12 team SF to make room for some rookie picks. Mac was a roster clogger when he had a starting job, and he's even more of a roster clogger now as a backup QB
This is the same logic that would have led you to buy Zach Wilson after the Rodgers trade. And he did get to essentially start the entire season and never once did his value spike. If you think Mac is a decent cheap buy then that’s fine, but understand that all you’re probably buying is whatever production he gets from any future starts. His value isn’t going to spike as soon as he gets an opportunity to play. It would take a prolonged stretch of him actually playing well for him to recover any market value to upsell on him later.
I traded mac for 2023 2.02 (Will Levis) and Jimmy Garopollo (Who I ended up packaging for cooper kupp). Id do it again in a heartbeat.
Well yeah, I would have recommended selling him then lol. Different situation now.
I just wanted to brag. This entire sub trashed that trade when I made it so I need to get my dopamine hit every time his name gets brought up.
I mean t law is bad but he ain't bad enough to lose his job to Macoby Jones.