Perry: Can Mac Jones evolve like Joe Burrow has? Opinions vary

LOS ANGELES -- Joe Burrow's face is everywhere in Hollywood this week, but the obsession over the coolest quarterback in the game isn't limited to this place. The shades. The demeanor. The nicknames.

They have a nation swooning.

It's remarkable. Especially because Burrow plays for what might've been considered the least cool of all NFL franchises for about three decades. Plus, in terms of physical traits, he's not nearly as remarkable as some of the other top quarterbacks in the league.

Poise. Accuracy. Intelligence. Anticipation. Competitiveness. Those are Burrow's superpowers. And they might be enough for the Bengals to win their first-ever Super Bowl.

Perry: The perfect Hollywood script for the Patriots offseason

As the world waits to see if "Joe Brr" can do it, it would be only natural if those watching from New England thought, "Can our guy be that guy?"

Mac Jones, after all, will have to win in a similar fashion if he's destined to succeed at a high level. It won't be his legs that carry the Patriots to a title. Nor will it be an overpowering arm. It'll have to be his brain. His timing. That which is hard to quantify. Like Burrow.

That's not say they are the same player. They're not. Scouts will tell you as much. The wunderkind from Cincinnati is the better athlete of the two. He has the better arm. But the style of play with which Burrow wins could lay a blueprint of sorts for his counterpart in Foxboro.

For the Patriots to execute that blueprint, though, they'll need to surround Jones with the kinds of pieces that have allowed Burrow's game to take off from middle-of-the-road rookie to one of the best in the world.

"It would help," said one AFC defensive coach who game-planned for Jones and the Patriots last season. "He needs guys who can get open. They don't have guys that can get down the field and have him throw it up for an explosive pass. You need somebody better. Do you need [Ja'Marr] Chase? No. But the best receivers they had this year were Hunter Henry and [Jakobi Meyers] inside. [Nelson] Agholor is just not a consistent guy. He's not going beat you."

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Defending the deep portion of the field "wasn't a huge concern" for this coach going into his team's matchup with the Patriots.

"They're going to command certain looks in the box because of the way they run the ball," he said. "They've got to have somebody out there because they're going to have opportunities to throw it... They're going to have opportunities to throw down the field based on what they force the defense to do. They need someone who can catch it."

Perhaps the Patriots showed their hand by pursuing Odell Beckham Jr. last season. That could be an indication that they see what their opponents see, that they need a threat on the outside to help Jones take advantage of defenses that sell out to stop the run.

For former Niners and Lions head coach Steve Mariucci, getting Jones to approach the heights Burrow has reached starts by adding talent around him.

"Joe Burrow might have as good a receiving corps as anybody in the league, OK? Start with that," he said. "Mac Jones is not as mobile as Joe, but he can make all the throws. He's a smart kid. He's got some mojo to him. He's got what it takes. I think if they improve that receiver corps and that defense was much improved this year ... they're on the right track. New England will be back."

The specifics on how to improve the receiving corps, though, is up for some debate. Mariucci liked the idea of adding an outside-the-numbers presence.

"They haven't (always had that). And they've won games without that guy a lot of the time," he said. "But I think when you have a young quarterback that you try to help him as best you can and have that guy. Or two of those guys. I think they'll make the necessary additions to that team. They'll be right back at it."

Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin, on the other hand, wouldn't go in that direction. Doesn't fit with Jones' game, he argued.

"It has to match in with the style of play,' he said. "Joe Burrow has a big arm. He has a big arm, man. He's a big dude. If you don't have some ability outside, you're wasting his ability. You never got Tom Brady that guy outside. You didn't waste his ability because he's thinking the game and playing inside-out anyway. That's why they got him the Welkers, the Gronks, Sony Michels.

"I put Mac in the same frame as Tom Brady. Joe Burrow and that arm strength is a different frame. You gotta get him some outside help because that's where the least resistance is. He can throw those out routes. That last out route that he threw to Ja'Marr Chase when [the Chiefs] were trying to play him in 2-man? Do you know how great a throw that was? Dude! There was no room for error in that throw ... No, man. Mac Jones doesn't have that ability."

Even if Jones did have the ability to push the ball to the boundary, longtime NFL executive Joe Banner has watched the Patriots have too much success over too long a period, with a particular formula, to suggest that they should change course and chase a "No. 1."

"They understand the value of trying to control the middle of the field," Banner told us on the Next Pats podcast. "For me, what the Patriots need to do is go back to what they've done so well offensively, as opposed to go out and get a No. 1 wide receiver -- which I could see someone looking at their roster and think that's what they need -- but they control the middle of the field with running backs and tight ends. It makes sense. Linebackers and safeties are the worst coverage people on the defense, and it's easy to create mismatches with really good running backs in the passing game and really good tight ends.

"If I were them, I would be focused on building my offense first and trying to get it to an elite level by going back to what they've done so well, which is focus on the players who can create great mismatches in the middle of the field and control that part of the game."

Banner added: "It's a league with a cap and a limited number of assets to improve your team. I don't really, if I'm them, want to trade off more resources put into wide receivers which comes to less from where? You tell me. I wouldn't do it from the offensive line. I wouldn't want to weaken the defense from where it is. The Patriots, all the way back to [Kevin] Faulk, since Bill Belichick has been there, they've always had those guys. I'm telling you, there's no way to cover them. It's a guaranteed mismatch almost every single time.

"It's easy to say I'd love to add a difference-making receiver, but it's gotta come from somewhere. What are you giving up? To me, they've proven that the most sensible thing is not give up the quality of the tight ends and running backs and be able to give up a little bit at receiver. I'd stay on the same path that I think is a part of the success that they've had, and certainly nothing has changed in the game with the rules to believe that it wouldn't be successful going forward."

So perhaps helping Jones reach Burrowvian levels is not necessarily about providing him with top-end explosive playmakers. Perhaps it's more about matching the personnel around Jones to his individual skill set, marrying those elements with the long-held philosophies of the team's offense, and continuing to chip away at defenses the way they have for decades.

Outside of dalliances with Randy Moss and Brandin Cooks, that typically means dominating the short-to-intermediate range of the field.

Count Shane Vereen among the proponents of that approach. Not simply because he benefitted from that style of attack -- his 11-reception performance against the Seahawks remains one of the best Super Bowl performances for a pass-catcher in recent memory -- but because the matchups are there for the taking.

"A player like me, a James White, an Alvin Kamara, our style of running back, not only can run the ball, but the mismatches in the pass game? That's what makes us special," Vereen said. "That's where we can really reach our peak as far as a route-running running back or a pass-catching running back. Whatever term you want to use. It's the mismatch. It's the problem of, if you bring in nickel defense and have an extra defender in the pass game, we can run the ball because it's a light box. If you stack the box, have a seven-man box, now we're one-on-one with a linebacker. That's a mismatch. The ball should go there."

From a team-building perspective, the reality is that those pass-catching backs are often available at a much lower price than receivers who are paid (or drafted) to create chunk gains down the field. The Patriots, it's been established, are cognizant of what gets valued around the NFL, and they seek out market inefficiencies.

The question for Bill Belichick may be whether the dearth of explosive options in his passing attack warrants a significant investment to provide his team that which it doesn't have, and to sow seeds of doubt in opposing defenses that believe they have the book on his run-first offense.

He may. If he doesn't, then a pass-catching back that takes advantage of Jones' quick trigger could very well be part of the offseason plan. Especially given that there is some uncertainty as it pertains to James White's future; he is no longer under contract and is coming off a season-ending hip injury.

"It's a security blanket," Vereen said, "but the security, I think comes from understanding that the running back is going to be in the right spot at the right time when you need him. I think that's why me and Tom got along so well and why we gelled so well together. He knew where I was going to be. I could read the defenses just the way he was reading the defenses. I knew if I was supposed to sit on the hash but there's a man on the hash, I'm going to slide inside. He knows I'm going to to slide inside, he knows where I'm going to be, and he can dump it off real quick. It's that chemistry and that understanding, we're reading the same thing. I'm always going to be there where you need me."

No matter how the pieces come together, for Jones to start to nudge his way into the conversation with Burrow and others as among the best young quarterbacks in football, the offense has to become his.

Former Bengals receiver Andrew Hawkins has watched Burrow closely through the early portion of his career. He's also played with another quarterback to whom Jones has drawn comparisons: Andy Dalton. Asked if Jones can get on Burrow's level, Hawkins said there are similarities there. He likes what he's seen from Jones as a young leader.

But his game has a way to go to elevate to the point of nationwide obsession.

"The way [Burrow and Jones] put themselves secondary for the greater good, that you can't teach," Hawkins said. "You can't teach that. It's kinda who you are. The other part of that that's super important to leadership is you've got to be really, really damn good. You can be a leader. But for everyone to follow you, you've got to get on that field and be a guy.

"I think Mac Jones has shocked a lot of people in his development and how fast he is. If he's continuing on that track, if he takes that step, next year I would imagine take more reins over how that looks on the field. [But] that's something that's earned. That's a process there. Mac Jones has crossed all those boxes, and if that part continues to go, absolutely he can be one of those guys."

 

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