Mac Jones’ impressive showing Thursday night was only further confirmation of what seems to be resonating at Patriot Place: The New England Patriots believe the he’s the real deal.
Obviously, the Patriots wouldn’t have used a mid-first-round pick on the Alabama product if they didn’t believe he could blossom into a franchise quarterback. And while the starting quarterback job this year remains Cam Newton’s to lose, multiple reports have suggested the Patriots really like what they see from Jones.
The latest comes from former Patriot, Rob Ninkovich. The ex-New England edge rusher shared what he knew about Jones.
“From what I hear coming from that building through camp, Mac Jones has been very, very, very, very impressive,” Ninkovich said Friday morning on WEEI. “So, you think about just understanding the offense … how hard that offense can be, for him to come in and literally be able to take control of the offense in the first preseason game — I haven’t seen Cam run no-huddle. Can we see him run no-huddle? Why is Mac Jones running two games in a row no-huddle, backed up, too. It’s impressive.”
Indeed, Jones’ football IQ was one of the things he was lauded for coming out of college. And given he played under Nick Saban, you could bet he was going to be as prepared as possible for whatever Pats head coach Bill Belichick was going to throw at him.
Time will tell on Jones, as playing well in preseason really doesn’t mean a whole lot when prognosticating a young player’s NFL future. But the fact that he’s drawing such rave reviews is telling.
