Don't give up so easily. :D

So Mac Jones is the next Daniel Jones basically. Of course, then D. Jones developed the fumbling issue.

LMAO

damn, you really did him like that.

I see them as similar. Of course, Jones went 6th overall to a team with a QB with a year left so its a similar situation with the exception this class is stronger.

Albeit, I don't know that Fields is all that much better than Haskins from a talent perspective but at least he seems to have a better work ethic. The jury will be out on Lance and how quickly he adapts. I don't know if I'd take either over Jones, to be honest, but I think the NFL will draft on traits and they both have more upside than Jones.

Patriots would be dumb not to draft Mac Jones if they think he will be an extremely accurate QB with a strong arm that is close enough to Brady in the other areas including the ability to make quick decisions and get the ball out fast.

Only thing worse than letting Brady go 2-3 years early is not drafting a good replacement when you get the chance.

But this is why it is so difficult to pick QB's. Measuring accuracy for NFL QB's is difficult and it becomes even more difficult when you are judging how a player may perform in windy areas like New England/NY/Chicago. Mac Jones appears to be throwing it to studs or at least they looked like absolute studs playing behind Alabama's offensive line.

But one couldn't ask a college QB to be much more accurate than Jones was this year. I mean he completed over 77% of his passes with 45 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions.

Even accounting for better circumstances, Jones actually looked more accurate than the kid from Clemson who is clearly much faster/taller/stronger arm.

Bill Belichick has enough of an ego and confidence in his coaching/GM ability that he believes he can win a Super Bowl with Cam Newton next year even with the full recognition that Newton won't be a top 10 QB.

The key here is the Patriots salary cap situation heading into this season was very good so the team has already been able to patch up several of its holes. Offensive line is weaker right now than last year but team overall should be better. It is hard to consistently seriously compete for championships in the modern NFL with average starting QB which is probably the best Cam can do at this point but it becomes a more manageable to task when that quarterback is not paid much and he allows you to load up on other positions.

This being said, Belichick is smart enough to know that relying upon Cam and especially relying upon Cam to play for peanuts is not a long term solution.

Let's assume with improved weapons and a year in the system Newton has a good to very good regular season and a great post season leading Patriots to AFC Championship game where they lose a close game to the Chiefs/Bills/whoever.

Even without making the Super Bowl, that high profile playoff game gets some desperate team to offer Cam 2 years 60 million with 40 million guaranteed. Why not? What does a team have to lose if Cam doesn't work out that first year?

Now if Cam really struggles even with better skilled position players around him, you need a replacement heading into 2022 season or fans will get more upset. So for sure Belichick will be interested in getting a young QB but I am not sure if he is going to love any of the quarterbacks enough to trade up for. A lot of speculation that Gilmore could be traded and could use those proceeds to help pay for the cost of trading up.

Wondering if we may go in for another free agent for the OL like someone like Kelvin Beachum who is cheap, has the experience and is a swing tackle.

This would allow a tackle to be picked in the first round and not have to slot in straight away.

You could have Niang and a draft pick along with Remmers and Beachum which would allow the rookies time to settle.

I've been thinking about it, with a rock solid guard a guy like Reiff wouldnt be a terrible stop gap. Hes far from Williams but i could live with it.

I'm sure Veach has several contingency plans.

Clearly, Thuney AND Williams was plan A, and if you can afford it, yeah, that's a hell of a plan A.

Thats a monster plan A lol. If someone would have told us it was a possibility 48 hours ago we probably would have said yeah ok sure.

If the reports are true, then I think it's 50/50 right now that it happens.

It appears that it's San Fran and KC in a bidding war.

San Fran has like 40 free agents it has to sign; I can't imagine they could outbid KC.

But we'll see.

Reiff might be plan B. Or trading for Dillard, that might be in the mix. Or Villanueva, although I think he's got less in the tank left and would probably be more of a one year stop-gap meaning we'd draft a LT high to be his replacement.

But we'll see.

I would not have thought it possible, but the fact that we're in negotiations with Williams all day WHILE signing Thuney says that was exactly the plan.

After years of jack shit and new england cast offs im pretty thrilled just to have this conversation. The last 24 hours has had me thinking about Carls offseasons and fat Scotts time here. Even if it crashes and burns as a plan A its so much more of an actual plan that we were used to.

ha, yeah, I was literally thinking about that today too. Could you imagine Carl being this aggressive?

LOL.

However it turns out, you've got to love Veach for having big brass balls. Better to swing and miss than pussyfoot around a problem.

Generals who are great at Defense live in caves.

Generals who are great at offense rule on mountain tops

seeing lots of rumors about Alex Mack to SF to reunite with Shanahan. How nice would it be to swipe Williams from them and then get Mack to play along the line?

Williams-Thuney-Mack-LDT-Niang

As we keep adding pieces to the O-Line, does it become more enticing to join that squad and just be part of something crazy elite? In a post signing Silverback world, if you had to pick between adding Golladay or Mack, what would you do? Is there any doubt Veach could do both? Plus add Von Miller and PP too?