It's coach-speak season. Mac was asked a question about Geno and gave the answer you would expect him to give. What benefit is there to not expressing complete confidence in his abilities? Free agency is not replete with obvious upgrades, and there are really only two good QBs in this draft, neither of which are likely to hit reasonable trade-up range. Even if behind closed doors, Mac is less bullish on Geno's chances of leading this team to greener pastures this season, if he vacillates on his commitment to Geno publicly, he puts himself in a very bad position in the very real possibility that the team is just unable to acquire a better option this offseason. Talking him up doesn't guarantee he's still the guy in three years. Hell, it doesn't even guarantee he's the guy this year. It'd be easy to talk around this if they do find an option they think is better. They could make an aggressive move in the draft if Ward or Sanders has a surprising fall and it can still easily be spun as something that isn't an indictment on Geno. They could acquire a young backup with upside, and say they're always looking to improve the team. If that guy wins a competition, or it's close enough where it makes logical sense to go with the younger, cheaper guy, it doesn't mean they don't like Geno.
At this point, Geno mostly is what he is. There are absolutely things to like, but he's never going to be a guy who can carry you to a championship, and at his age, it would not be reasonable to expect a prodigious improvement in his decision-making and ability to read defenses. They have to try to improve everything around him enough where won't be forced into as many situations where he could make a game-breaking mistake. Honestly, while Grubb was clearly overmatched as an OC and I was in favor of him moving on, I never really got on him that much for the run/pass imbalance. Geno is an accurate passer with solid instincts, but he is not a great processor who can think his way around the field. Slowing the game down is not where he shines, so I understood the temptation to keep him in a rhythm with a heavy dose of quick passes. That also touches why I'm not in favor of extending him further, at least not in a way that more or less locks us into him for multiple seasons. In the very rare (much rarer than many think) instances where a quarterback was still a high-end option into his mid-late 30s, they still almost always saw a considerable decline in their physical abilities, but were guys you could depend on to think their way around the field. They weren't guys you were still waiting to see the best of. They had proven repeatedly they could do it.
Really, the only example I'm seeing of what people are hoping Geno can do is Rich Gannon. Gannon didn't play right away like Geno did, but after three years of barely playing, he had a so-so three-year stretch as the Vikings starter, but eventually fell out of favor, and bounced around as a backup for a little bit. He signed with the Raiders in his age 34 season and had an above-average, Pro Bowl season for an 8-8 team where he took a disgusting number of sacks (his 49 was fourth in the league, Geno was third in the league this year with 50. In both cases, the league leader was the rookie - Tim Couch then, Caleb Williams this season- who had been taken #1 overall). Then the following year, in his age 35 season, Gannon went insane for a three-year stretch where he was first team All-Pro twice, was league MVP once, and led the team to the 2002 Super Bowl. I'm not exactly sure what to attribute that improvement from 1999 to 2000; the coaching staff was mostly the same and the offensive line was similar. Their LT from the 1999 season moved to RG in 2000 to replace a guy who was out of the league shortly after, while the LT position was filled by their first round pick (18th overall, ironically) from the year prior, who played half the season before getting hurt and then being replaced by an undrafted free agent from the year prior, who ended up keeping the job for the next five seasons.
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