The Patriots garnered heaps of praise for their first-round selection of Mac Jones, who could be the quarterback of the future in New England.
Dominique Foxworth, however, believes we should temper our expectations when it comes to the Alabama product.
Foxworth understandably has his concerns about how Jones will translate to the NFL level, especially with a supporting cast as average as the one in Foxboro. The former NFL defensive back also thinks pre-draft chatter might be fooling us into believing the Patriots landing Jones was a better pick than he actually was.
“He’s going to be playing against better defenses with worse weapons. Like, very few players can say that, but he can,” Foxworth said Monday on ESPN’s “Highly Questionable.” Like, every receiver he has up there is going to be worse than all of the receivers that he had when he was in college. So, I’m not ready to anoint him as the second coming of Tom Brady. We have no reason to believe Bill Belichick is all that great at spotting quarterbacks. Like, Tom Brady was at the end of the draft and then they had Jimmy Garoppolo, who it seems can’t stay healthy but is OK but not good. He has a lot of interceptions when he is healthy. We had that one year of Matt Cassell, who he went off to not be good elsewhere. We had Ryan Mallett, who is not really good and we have a host of other draft picks that it seems like Bill Belichick missed on.
“So, I think there’s some psychic reward they’re getting because somehow the 49ers convinced us that Mac Jones is a top-three quarterback. Now, we’re like, ‘Oh, they got a top-three quarterback at 15.’ No. When this draft season started, a lot of people were mocking Mac Jones to go 15 to New England or slide even later in the draft. So, I’m not quite ready to suggest that Mac Jones is the man, especially because Tua (Tagovailoa) — a quarterback we all accept as more talented than Mac Jones — came out of that Alabama system with an injury to his hip, yes, but hasn’t really proven himself yet as dominant in the league.”
We might have to wait some time to find out if Jones truly is a capable NFL starting signal-caller. Not long after the Patriots drafted the 2020 Heisman Trophy finalist, Belichick made it clear that Cam Newton still sits atop New England’s quarterback depth chart.
