Jones’ first throw against Georgia in Week 4 showed the inherent limitations of a quarterback who’s essentially tied to the pocket. Here, Jones has pressure to the back side, and the front side defender is monitoring him to make sure he doesn’t break the pocket, so it is kind of a smash in the middle. But stepping up in the pocket at that point just brings the pressure right to him, there’s the errant throw, and safety Richard LeCounte III zooms in for the pick. In the NFL, where the defenders are almost invariably faster to the quarterback, this isn’t a great look.
This deep incompletion against Georgia late in the first quarter raises another red flag for me. Jones is trying to hit John Metchie over the middle, but again, he’s got a wall to his front side, and whatever version of boot-action he[s trying to execute here goes awry. When you have a quarterback who reacts this negatively to disruption, it’s a problem.
I did like this little bit of improv against Ohio State, where he ran up against pressure and just threw a little shovel pass to Jaylen Waddle for a 15-yard gain, and maybe that’s the extent to which Jones is going to do stuff on the move.
If Jones does perceive pressure, he’s perfectly capable of throwing to the hot read, as he did to Najee Harris for a 26-yard touchdown in the second quarter…
…and you’ll get no argument from me when people talk about how well-developed Jones’ sense of pocket movement is to extend the play under pressure. It’s unusual for a college quarterback, and it’s his clear adaptive strategy. You could say the same thing about Tom Brady at a galactically higher level, of course. It’s why Brady has survived this long while so many other “battleship” quarterbacks have phased themselves out.
But in the end, when it comes to throwing on the move, the NFL team that takes Mac Jones is going to have to deal with a quarterback who just doesn’t want to make this happen. And it’s a staple play in today’s NFL.
Could this completion to tight end Miller Foristall against a Notre Dame blitz in the Rose Bowl be a positive portent of things to come? Rolling to his left and getting the pass off successfully? One would hope.
This isn’t to doom Mac Jones to NFL failure — for the most part, the tape bears out the numbers, both good and incomplete, and there is a place for him at the next level. It’s just intermeeting that, after decades of praising the pocket quarterback above all, the NFL has moved to a new paradigm out of necessity, and at this point, Jones might be on the outside looking in for a while.