Josh McDaniels is asked if he calls simpler players for Mac Jones or if he trusts him to make the more difficult passes downfield
Tom Brady's homecoming is a TB 12 days away.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers passer, now 44, will be matched up against a quarterback roughly half his age in 23-year-old Mac Jones.
While the narrative of Jones' career should be shaped by far more than whatever happens in his fourth start, the game will serve as perhaps the only time he'll get to start against the man whose shadow he stepped into, a year of Cam Newton notwithstanding.
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How do Patriots fans feel the transition from Brady to Jones has worked out at the moment? Split almost evenly, it turns out, according to a poll run by NBC Sports Boston's Tom E. Curran.
The plurality of the 3,895 respondents to the poll appear to be stuck somewhere in the middle, still not happy seeing Brady hoist a seventh Lombardi Trophy in Tampa Bay and off to the best statistical start of his 22-year career in 2021, but perhaps in acknowledgement the Patriots seem to have something in Jones.
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Close behind were those who wished Brady were still here, bucking the trend of Hall of Fame quarterbacks who seem to finish their careers somewhere other than the team for which they are best known, a la Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, Brett Favre, etc.
But there's a strong showing of fans checking in right after, who appear to able to step back and look at the big picture when it comes to what Jones has shown through two starts and realize that Brady, no matter how dominant he still looks on a weekly basis, is in his mid-40s.
Both the Patriots and Buccaneers have games to tend to before Brady's return to Gillette Stadium, a game which will undoubtedly shape how fans feel about the quarterback transition one way or another.