Ranking 5 NFL rookie first-round quarterbacks in preseason debuts

3. Mac Jones, New England Patriots

It’s kind of interesting to have Trey Lance then Mac Jones back-to-back in these rankings because it represents a serious discrepancy between the two players. For the Patriots rookie quarterback, he started his foray into the NFL with an overall fine performance where he went 13-of-19 for 87 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions.

That’s an efficient night at the office, especially when you consider that he wasn’t throwing to a starting caliber group of pass-catchers. Moreover, the Alabama product didn’t make any mistakes. At the same time, though, it’s glarin that Lance only needed one touchdown throw to almost match Jones’ yardage on 13 completions.

Again, you have to wonder how much of the dink-and-dunk game Jones ran with the Patriots was a byproduct of the pass-catchers and how much was just doing whwat he was asked. And there really weren’t any obvious flaws. In fact, had Gunner Olszewski been a little faster, Jones would’ve completed a deep pass that would change things.

For now, however, I’m valuing the efficiency but not too much so as Lance’s big-play ability still looks more valuable if he can put together a better completion rate and use his legs more going forward.