Mac Jones has his work cut out for him in trying to top Tom Brady's first season under center with the Patriots. After all, the future Hall of Famer helped lead New England to its first Super Bowl in franchise history.
But purely from an on-field-performance perspective, Kurt Warner believes Jones has the edge on TB12 as it relates to debut campaigns.
"I mean if you're gonna back to that season, I would say you're getting more from Mac Jones than you got from Tom Brady," Warner said on "The Rich Eisen Show," as transcribed by MassLive. "The team is built on a really, really good defense, very flexible defense ... Then you have Mac Jones, who is playing ahead of his years. He's a guy that has shown that he can make big throws for you.
"More importantly, he's a guy that shows you he can make the right play most of the time. You get a quarterback that can make the right play most of the time and you're gonna be in the mix for the playoffs. He just is going to get better and better and he's doing more and more for this team."
The fact of the matter is, Jones should be playing better than Brady did two decades ago. The Alabama product was a first-round pick, was viewed as a legitimate starting candidate throughout training camp and was named the Week 1 starter. Brady, meanwhile, had to learn on the fly (albeit in his second season) after he replaced a quarterback who less than a year prior signed a record-setting contract extension.
The jury probably still is out on this debate, though. Jones will face some stiff competition over the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs -- if the Patriots even qualify -- are an entirely different beast.
