On Sunday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler floated the concept that the Patriots had been a “wild card” as a touchdown spot for Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
He’s not alone. Other NFL insiders have performed the identical, placing the Patriots within the combine as a darkish horse to amass the NFL’s 2019 MVP.
Whether the chatter is to be believed or not, it’s change into a little bit of an elephant within the room for the Patriots.
Don’t they have already got a beginning quarterback? Isn’t Mac Jones, their 2021 first-round choose, the man shifting ahead for no less than this season and subsequent?
The reply is sure.
Jones is the quarterback they’re constructing round. He’s the quarterback who’s tailored for Bill O’Brien and the Patriots offense. That hasn’t modified. Now for the so-called “but” on this equation, and the explanation the Jackson risk has any legs in any respect.
While the Pats have made some good strikes throughout free company, they nonetheless aren’t an higher echelon group. In the AFC alone, they aren’t on the identical aggressive rung as Kansas City, Buffalo, Cincinnati, the Chargers, Jacksonville or the Jets if the Aaron Rodgers commerce lastly involves cross.
Obviously, touchdown Jackson, who torched the Patriots in a Week 4 loss (4 TD passes, 107 speeding yards) and has just about had his method towards Belichick’s protection, would change that narrative and achieve this immediately. It would create a lot extra buzz in New England the place the Patriots are involved.
While including JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki ought to assist the offense, they actually don’t transfer the needle when it comes to with the ability to knock off Buffalo within the division, or slide in entrance of Miami, in addition to the Jets, in the event that they get Rodgers.
Having Jackson beneath heart would utterly change the view of the Patriots this season and past. He would make their offense a lot tougher to defend, being a legit menace to run. In flip, he would get the Patriots again into the enterprise of being contenders.
One different cause why that is getting any consideration in any respect is the notion that Bill Belichick has soured on Jones due largely to how his quarterback behaved final 12 months being coached by Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, and the frustration Jones demonstrated publicly. Perhaps Belichick and Jones have points due to that, however that wouldn’t be sufficient for the Patriots head coach and chief decision-maker to chase Jackson with the boatload of cash and draft picks it will take to get him.
Belichick at all times thinks he can win with a good roster and good teaching. He’s not within the camp that believes you want an elite quarterback to have an opportunity at a championship.
There’s a distinction between actuality and pipe goals. There’s a distinction between really being within the hunt, or sitting on the outskirts as an outside-the-box alternative due to Belichick’s status for being unpredictable.
Perhaps the Patriots are greatest described as an bystander. And that’s advantageous. They needs to be surveying what’s occurring and kicking the tires on Jackson. If his worth comes down, together with calls for on a completely assured contract, their curiosity would understandably be piqued, proper together with a half-dozen different groups.
Getting again into the true world, that is past an extended shot given how the Patriots work, to not point out the chance of Jackson cooling on his calls for. One league supply agreed, saying a transfer for Jackson “makes no sense” in case you perceive how Belichick thinks and know his historical past.
NFL Notes: Breaking down the Patriots, AFC East
Belichick hasn’t been a fan of blowing up the funds for a quarterback. He will not give a quarterback a cap-crippling sum of money, whether or not he can fudge the cap hit or not. If he wouldn’t pay Tom Brady, why would he pay Lamar Jackson? That’s merely not how he operates. And why would Jackson, who’s holding out for a completely assured deal, comply with a contract that’s stuffed with incentives, which Brady did?
Belichick wished to drive Brady to “earn” his pay as soon as he hit age 40. Case in level: in 2018, Brady’s contract reportedly included incentives for prime 5 finishes in QB ranking, passing yards, completion proportion, yards per try and touchdowns. And this, for a quarterback who received him six Super Bowls.
Pay Jackson a whole lot of tens of millions in assured cash? There’s little to no probability of that taking place.
The Patriots have Jones on a rookie deal, which permits them to place higher gamers round him. They’re paying him roughly 5% of what they’d need to pay Jackson on a mean annual foundation. They’d even have to alter the offense for Jackson, though O’Brien is actually accustomed to styling an offense to go well with a cellular quarterback given he coached Deshaun Watson in Houston.
Then, there’s the commerce price.
If it in some way acquired to the purpose of signing Jackson to a suggestion sheet, the Patriots must give up two first-round picks due to the Ravens inserting a non-exclusive franchise tag on him. If the Pats wished to keep away from that, they may work out a commerce with the Ravens.
But does anybody assume the Ravens are going to present the Patriots a break on a deal for his or her franchise quarterback?
Once once more, actuality over pipe dream.
“I don’t need Lamar here, but I sure as heck want to see Lamar running around with a New England Patriot on his helmet,” ESPN analyst and former Patriot Rob Ninkovich mentioned Friday on Get Up!. “Because if you see it out there, the Patriots instantly become division favorites and, to me, get right back into that Super Bowl hunt.”
With Jackson, all of that may be a risk. But within the phrases of Aerosmith: “Dream on.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com