Julian Edelman: Mac Jones still making ‘rookie-type throws’

As Tom Brady’s go-to guy late in his Patriots career, Julian Edelman knows what good quarterback play looks like it.

The retired wide receiver isn’t seeing it from Mac Jones.

On The Ryen Russillo podcast, Edelman said he believes the Patriots are tailoring the offense to Jones’ strengths in his third season, but the quarterback is still making “rookie-type throws.”

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“This is a quarterback league,” Edelman said. “You have to have a quarterback that fits your system to win games. Look at all the good teams. They all have good quarterbacks. And right now Mac hasn’t been developing at the rate that they want… Billy O’Brien, I guarantee he’s looking at everything (Josh) McDaniels did, he’s looking at everything that Mac is comfortable with, and he’s still having rookie-type throws.”

Speaking specifically about Dallas’ 38-3 skunking of the Patriots last weekend, Edelman put the lion’s share of the blame on Jones, too.

“Ultimately, it comes down to Mac Jones. You can put a lot of it on the offensive line — that he doesn’t have time — but you can’t go out and do what he did. That was bad football,” Edelman said. “You can’t throw late across the field twice in four plays. The first time he got away with it… you can’t do that. You can tell Mac’s a little — he’s feeling it right now, because he’s missing open reads early. He’s tunneled into guys that he feels comfortable with.

“He’s very out of sync right now, and it was bad. You’ve gotta take care of the football. Bill’s gonna preach that. ‘Guys, we need to take care of the football.’ Because once you start doing that, that team’s not designed, the Patriots aren’t designed to play from behind. They just can’t do it.”