Former NFL head coach and current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan is very confident the New England Patriots will fail to make the playoffs for the second year in a row.
In fact, when asked Monday on ESPN show "Get Up!", Ryan said "hell no" to the question of whether the Pats are a playoff team.
Ryan didn't stop there, though. He clearly hasn't been impressed with Patriots rookie quarterback Mac Jones.
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“Because you have a peashooter at quarterback,” Ryan said. “Give me a break right here. This team should have been beaten by the Houston Texans right now. A playoff team? Playoffs? No chance at this thing. Look, their defense is not as good as they’ve been. ... Hey, the ball travels down the field more than 15 yards? Uh oh, that’s bad news for this guy right here. He reminds me -- he's closer to Danny Wuerffel than he is Tom Brady.”
Uh, what?
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Jones has been one of the most accurate rookie quarterbacks in NFL history. According to NFL Media's Mike Giardi, Jones "is the only rookie QB in the Super Bowl era to have a 70-plus completion percentage on 30-plus attempts in four of his first five career starts."
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Sure, Jones hasn't thrown a ton of deep balls. But the Patriots don't have a legit deep threat at wide receiver. The offensive line also has played poorly for a good portion of the season so far, and it's tough to throw deep when Jones consistently has pressure in his face. Deep pass plays take time to develop and Jones hasn't had that time on a lot of his drop-backs.
As for the Wuerffel comparison, that one is pretty bad. Wuerffel was awesome in college, winning the Heisman Trophy at Florida in 1996, but he played awful in the NFL. He completed just 52.2 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in 25 career games.
Let's wait a little more than five games before we compare Jones to bad pro quarterbacks like Wuerffel. Then again, Rex Ryan doesn't have much experience coaching good quarterbacks, just look at his time with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.