Football fans have been robbed of what could have been a pretty entertaining storyline this week. Just imagine, had things played out differently for the Patriots offense this year, what the storylines might've been ahead of Cincinnati's visit to Foxboro.
"The pocket passer has been re-born!"
"The Patriots and Bengals are showing that the game can be played differently!"
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"Smart and accurate is still enough to get the job done!"
In an age where the best quarterbacks in the game -- Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts this season -- are athletic enough to run for first downs and have arms strong enough to terrify opposing defensive backfields, this meeting between Joe Burrow and Mac Jones might've been a nod to the idea that passers don't have to possess superhuman physical traits in order to count themselves among the league's best.
But because the Patriots offense now resides at the bottom of the league in many critical statistical categories, Jones isn't viewed as a bannerman for the quick-processing, accurate-throwing quarterback. He's 32nd in ESPN's QBR metric, 30th (out of 38 qualifiers) in quarterback rating, 24th in Pro Football Focus' adjusted completion percentage, and the Patriots are 29th in expected points added (EPA) per play since Jones has returned to his role as the team's full-time quarterback in Week 8.
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Burrow, meanwhile, has continued to prove that you don't have to be an elite specimen to be an elite quarterback. He has the third-best MVP odds at BetMGM (+600) which makes him tied with Allen and puts him behind only Mahomes (-275) and Hurts (+450). He's eighth in QBR, sixth in rating, ninth in adjusted completion percentage, and his team is fourth in EPA per play this season. The Bengals are fifth in points per game this season and seventh in passing yards per attempt.
Burrow's arm isn't electric. And while he's athletic enough to run (192 scramble yards, 10th among quarterbacks), his legs aren't what make him truly scary. It's what he does from the pocket.
"First of all, he's tough," Bill Belichick said Wednesday. "He's a tough kid. He'll stand in there, throw the ball, and take a hit to make a play. Accurate, hits all the throws. Tough to tackle. Manages the game well. Sees the game well. Productive in critical situations, third-down, red area, big games. I'd say he makes a lot of his best plays at the right time when you really need him. He's impressive."
Last winter, I spoke to NFL coaches and front-office folks during Super Bowl week to ask them whether Jones could approximate what the quarterback from the last team left standing in the AFC brought to the table.
For Jones to get near Burrow's level, I was told, he should start by getting the kind of help at receiver that Burrow had in Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
"He needs guys who can get open," said an AFC defensive coach who game-planned for Jones and the Patriots last season. "They don't have guys that can get down the field and have him throw it up for an explosive pass. You need somebody better. Do you need [Ja'Marr] Chase? No. But the best receivers they had this year were Hunter Henry and [Jakobi Meyers] inside. [Nelson] Agholor is just not a consistent guy. He's not going beat you."
The Patriots tried to add talent at wideout in the offseason. They traded for DeVante Parker. They drafted Tyquan Thornton in the second round. Neither has approached producing as a No. 1 receiver. They have perhaps given other teams something to think about down the field, and through the early portion of the season Jones threw deep as often (or more) than most quarterbacks in the league.
But, in terms of weaponry, Jones is still dealing with lesser pieces than most of the best teams in his conference -- Burrow's included.
Add that receiver discrepancy between the Patriots and Bengals to the coaching situation with which Jones has dealt in his second season, and you have a recipe for a quarterback matchup Saturday that's not nearly as intriguing as it might've looked when the schedule was released back in the spring.