It would be an understatement to say Mac Jones has been awful in his third year as the New England Patriots starting quarterback. There isn’t an objectively apt adjective to describe his terrible, no-good, very bad play as a glorified pop gun for the Patriots. Heck, his benching against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 4 said more than enough.
There is also, however, this mind-blowing stat comparing Jones to the legendary Tom Brady.
On Sunday, with the Patriots trying to get one over on the New Orleans Saints, an overzealous Jones lofted a softball to Tyrann Mathieu for the easiest pick-six of his life. With this defensive touchdown in the books, Jones has now thrown four pick-sixes at home in his young Patriots career. That is as many as Brady did at home in literally 20 years with New England.
Woof. No wonder the Saints were having their way while jumping out to a 21-0 first-half lead.
.@SAINTS PICK 6! 🚨 @Mathieu_Era with the steal!
📺: #NOvsNE on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/LxW25sxPWA pic.twitter.com/ASK40UJKxL— NFL (@NFL) October 8, 2023
Mac Jones' 1st-quarter interception was his 4th career pick-six thrown at Gillette Stadium.
That's as many as Tom Brady threw at Gillette his entire career. (Gillette Stadium opened in 2002) pic.twitter.com/NWrci5LO3i
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 8, 2023
Tom Brady is the NFL’s all-time leader in most relevant passing statistics and is easily the Patriots’ best player in franchise history. It’s hard to see anyone ever matching the most prolific numbers of his career. The only way anyone will likely match Brady is from a negative prism — as in comparing his unique greatness to someone’s ineptitude.
With his propensity for ill-advised turnovers at the worst possible time, someone like Jones fits that bill to a tee.