Mac Jones draft story: New England Patriots pounced while NFL slept
The New England Patriots pounced on Mac Jones at pick 15 of the 2021 NFL draft while other teams slept on the best quarterback and maybe the player in the draft. He fit their team perfectly.
New England stayed put at No. 15 (a debatable non-action, frankly) and had the rookie player who is possibly a future superstar fall into their laps.
Questions can legitimately be asked, if they were so certain of Jones’ ability, why didn’t they trade up to get him? Fair question. The same one was asked after Tom Brady slipped to pick No. 199.
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A recent article in the Washington Post by Adam Kilgore explored this fact in detail. Here’s how he begins his article about draft night,
"It didn’t make any sense then, and it makes sense even less now. In the NFL, nothing matters for a franchise until it acquires a great quarterback. Every decision a front office makes revolves around either finding one or supporting the one it is so very lucky to have. How could so many teams have forgotten that in the draft last spring? And how did they allow the beneficiary of their negligence to be — of all teams — the New England Patriots?"
Patriots fans have to especially like the “of all teams” reference. Being the butt of an “of all teams” line means that you are the one team that others love to hate. Great!
We Bostonians embrace that when the reason is the excellence of whatever aspect of our City, state, or especially, a sports team is the target of such invective.
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Bostonians love to be hated for being the best! It goes with the turf. For eons, the New York Yankees were in that boat, then they fell overboard and were replaced by, who else, the Boston Red Sox as the predominant team of the 21st century.
In football, there were the old Green Bay Packers, then the San Francisco 49ers, then the Dallas Cowboys. Then, for longer than any of the aforementioned, there came the New England Patriots of the Tom Brady era.
That was a team that dominated in the free agency era like no other has or maybe ever will again. Maybe.
Why not? Because there’s a new gunslinger in town (that would be Foxborough). His name is Mac Jones and that gunslinger is also the new sheriff in that NFL town.
And he’s already proving that those teams that passed him over for another quarterback, or those that needed a quarterback yet chose another positional player, chose poorly.
Maybe these teams and their scouting operations will be regretting this faux pas for say, another two decades if we in Beantown are fortunate. Let’s hope so.
As the saying goes, don’t know, but it’s looking good so far. You bet it is. Mac Jones is taking the NFL by storm. And it’s no accident.
New England Patriots Mac Jones was only a product of Alabama, some thought
Naysayers thought Mac Jones’ otherworldly performance last season at Alabama was due to the players around him. That’s when he completed 77.4 percent of his passes. It was all due to his supporting cast, don’t you know?
Wrong! After the draft, since many observers had hoped for a dynamic dual-threat quarterback a la Lamar Jackson if anyone had taken the time to take a good, close look at Mac Jones’ performance last season, the conclusion had to be clear.
Jones was simply sensational no matter who he had playing with him. And he’s proving that by completing 69 percent of his passes (prior to the Week 11 game against the Atlanta Falcons) in the NFL due to his uncanny accuracy already in his young career.
The website, slate.com cited his prowess this way,
"The game-charters at Pro Football Focus have graded him as the fifth-best QB in the NFL this season, right between Justin Herbert and Kyler Murray. Nobody else in the rookie class is higher than 28th."
Not fifth-best rookie, fifth-best overall. In the NFL. So there it is, but of course, it’s only after 10 (or 11) games.
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Yet, one thing is clear if he stays healthy, give Mac Jones time to pass no matter who he’s throwing to, and he’ll excel.
Give him a couple of Pro-Bowl receivers, and he’ll win you Super Bowls. And you can take that prediction, to the bank. It’s Rock of Gibraltar solid.