No one is comparing QB pick Mac Jones with Brady ... but he’s like Brady
BOSTON — Greg Cosell knows it’s a loaded statement, and he hesitates to make it. But there’s really only one way for Cosell, the X’s and O’s guru at NFL Films, to describe what Mac Jones will look like in the Patriots offense.
“Take this for what it’s worth — essentially Jones, in the context of what Josh McDaniels does, is Tom Brady,” Cosell said this past week. “In terms of what Mac Jones brings to the table, they’d be very similar.”
Let’s be clear: No one is actually comparing Jones, a rookie who has yet to take a pro snap, with Brady, who will go down as the greatest quarterback and greatest champion in NFL history. Brady is simply a guide for how the Patriots plan to use Jones, a quarterback with similar physical traits.
“I don’t think anybody is Tom Brady,” former Jets and Dolphins general manager Mike Tannenbaum said.
“I’m not comparing [Jones] to him, but he has a similar skill set.”
Jones, like Brady, is not much of a runner, and he doesn’t have the biggest arm (though Brady’s arm strength is better than he gets credit for). But at Alabama, Jones was smart, accurate and productive. Charlie Weis called Jones “similar” to Brady.
“What this kid is, is a quarterback who can drop back and quickly decipher who to throw the ball to,” said Weis, who was Brady’s offensive coordinator from 200004. “You’re [drafting Jones] to run the offense that you ran a whole bunch of years and run it at a high level. And he has all that evidence on tape of watching how Tommy did things to go ahead and learn as a student, learn how the best of all time did it.”
Jones, like Brady, will have to rely on his brains and study habits. He’ll need to master defensive alignments and how to adjust the Patriots offense and how to read coverages after the snap to execute “option” routes with his receivers.
“In order for Mac Jones to be a really good player, you’ve got to be really, really good in the presnap phase and, of course, Brady became phenomenal in the presnap phase,” Cosell said. “Pocket quarterbacks have to win before the snap of the ball. And you have to develop phenomenal functional knowledge of the defense.
“Based on a play call and based on a defense, you need to know which three or four players are important.”
Weis said Jones is just the type of quarterback the Patriots want.
“They want a smart guy, a gym rat, someone who’s a strong leader, team captain, players gravitate toward him — all the normal comments, especially at the quarterback position,” Weis said. “So right off the bat, [Jones] checked every box for what the Patriots are looking for.
“Then it comes down to, with the Patriots, the two greatest attributes a quarterback can have are quick, good, efficient decision-making, and accuracy. And if you want to take Mac Jones’ two best qualities, they’re 1A and 1B. The guy quickly processes where to go, and then he delivers an accurate ball to wherever he’s throwing it to.”
Weis is convinced that the Patriots made a good pick.
“Wait a few years from now, we’ll come back and revisit,” he said. “I’m betting that [the Patriots] are going to be happy.”
One rival AFC executive said his team considers Jones a “smart, cerebral” player and had him rated as a starting-caliber NFL quarterback.
“We really liked him,” the executive said. “He’s going to fit in well in New England.”