With the release of veteran quarterback, Cam Newton reported on Tuesday, the New England Patriots starting quarterback will now be rookie Mac Jones. With that news comes questions regarding Jones’ fantasy potential for the 2021 season. Here is a Mac Jones fantasy football outlook for the coming season.
Fantasy Football Player Profiles
Mac Jones 2021 Fantasy Football Profile
Statistics and Qualities
In 2020, while at Alabama, Jones completed 77.4 percent of his passes and threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns with just four interceptions. In the preseason this year, he completed 36 of his 52 pass attempts (69.2%) for 388 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Jones’ passer rating of 97.3 was good for third among NFL rookie quarterbacks this preseason. In his final preseason game, Jones completed 10 of his 14 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown.
Mac Jones is accurate with the football, particularly within 20 yards, and he gets the ball out quickly, which Bill Belichick loves. He displays good decision-making and mental processing skills and he does not generally throw the ball into questionable situations. Belichick might love that even more. Jones does not have elite arm strength, but he provides an upgrade over Newton, and while his accuracy can suffer a bit on deeper throws, Jones’ arm strength is above average.
Fantasy Outlook
Jones will probably average 30-32 pass attempts per game, an increase from Newton’s 24.6 per game for the 2020 season. That will help Jones’ fantasy production in 2021 and the Patriots wide receivers and tight ends, including Nelson Agholor, Jakobi Meyers, and Jonnu Smith and pass-catching back James White, will all benefit from Jones being under center.
But while he can operate very well within the pocket and make good, quick decisions, and he is accurate with the football, the issue with Jones’ fantasy value is his inability to score with his legs. With Newton gone, the role of Patriots goal line back will fall to Damien Harris and/or Rhamondre Stevenson. Mac Jones is not going to provide that an additional upside of being able to rush for touchdowns. Fantasy managers who draft or play Jones will do so hoping he can put up impressive production solely with his arm. Fantasy-wise, Jones has a higher ceiling than Newton would have because of his throwing ability and the fact that he will have more pass attempts than did Newton last season. But Jones’ floor is lower as well, given that he does not offer anything in the way of scoring with his legs.
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While the Patriots made the right decision to go with Mac Jones instead of Newton, as he provides more upside for the team overall, his fantasy value is capped by his inability to provide productivity with his legs. However, New England’s offensive weapons should see some added fantasy benefit from having Jones under center. But he is probably a low-end QB2 or high-end QB3 now that he will be the starter. For those in deeper leagues, it is absolutely worth keeping an eye on Jones and how the Patriots use him and his productivity.
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