NBC Sports Boston getting ripped for awful Mac Jones-Brian Hoyer question

The New England Patriots don’t have much momentum heading into the playoffs following their loss to the Miami Dolphins in Sunday’s regular-season finale, but the fact they’re even in the dance is an incredible achievement.

Though we aren’t in the business of handing out participation trophies, how many fans truly believed the Patriots would be back in the postseason just two years removed from Tom Brady’s departure? Not many, that’s for sure.

What makes the feat all the more impressive is that they’ve pulled it off with a rookie quarterback presiding over the offense.

By all accounts, Mac Jones has been the best QB from the 2021 draft class. It’s not even up for debate. However, the inconsistency he displayed over the final six weeks has fans nervous heading into Saturday’s playoff game in Buffalo.

While that apprehension is warranted, NBC Sports Boston took things a little too far with a poll they ran on Twitter this week.

NBC Sports Boston ran an embarrassing poll concerning Patriots QBs Mac Jones and Brian Hoyer.

This take is getting ratioed into oblivion, and rightly so. In fact, as of this writing, just 14.3% of folks voted yes, while 85.7% voted no.

While Hoyer has been an invaluable presence in terms of mentoring Jones, he hasn’t played a meaningful snap all season. But sure, go ahead and and pose the question of whether he should come in ice cold off the bench (Saturday’s forecast is expected to be in the single digits) in a playoff game.

Jones, on the other hand, has started every game and has played 96% of the offensive snaps. The only reason that number isn’t 100% is because he was rested in blowout wins against Jets, Panthers, Browns, Titans and Jaguars.

Simply put, New England wouldn’t be in this position without Jones. Conversely, we can say with utmost confidence that they’d be on the outside looking in of the playoff picture had Hoyer been quarterbacking the offense all year.

We can acknowledge that Jones hasn’t been great of late. During the seven-game win streak, he posted a 9:2 touchdown to interception ratio. In the four games since, he had six touchdowns, five interceptions and a fumble.

However, isn’t all that part of the learning curve?

Even if Jones struggles against Buffalo, he’ll be better for it. After all, how many quarterbacks get to experience a playoff game in Year 1? In terms of rookies that started at least 10 games, only 12 have done so in NFL history.

This would be a different conversation if Jones had multiple years under his belt and Hoyer had extensive success coming off the bench in his career. Since neither is true, NBC Sports Boston had no business running this up the polls.

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