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It finally happened, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots took a big swing on a quarterback in the first round for the first time since 1993. The organisation set their eyes on Alabama Quarterback Mac Jones with the 15th pick.
The new era of Patriots football is truly here. There’s no more Tom Brady hangover. The franchise now looks ahead with Cam Newton and rookie Mac Jones, who we presume will battle it out to be the starter.
So let’s take a look at why the new Patriot will be a successful quarterback.
That famous training session
We only have to listen to that famous story in 2019 by Sports Illustrated where Jones, a backup at the time, kept throwing the deep ball against Alabama’s defence. Legendary head coach Nick Saban told him to stop throwing it deep to which Jones replied “tell your defence to stop it”.
Jones has always been one to go full force in practice unlike other players which is something I can see Belichick liking in a player. He oozes confidence and backs it up whenever he steps onto the football field.
He’s perfect for the Patriots
Mac Jones walks, talks and sounds like a Patriot. Twitter was quick to point out how similar Belichick and Jones walks are.
All jokes aside though, Mac Jones shows his maturity with the way he handles the media, he doesn’t say anything controversial as he’s has already showed in his first press conference as a Patriot saying things like “do your job”, and giving very humble responses knowing where he stands within the organisation.
The Patriots changed their offensive mentality last year with Cam Newton as their quarterback. The team relied a lot on his movement and ability to extend plays and run the ball compared to how they played with Tom Brady at the helm.
The Patriot way then was to run the ball 1st and 2nd down and throw the ball 3rd and short with pinpoint accuracy, and I think with Jones now in the building, it allows a return to that style of offence.
The Patriots have got a Heisman finalist and a national champion in their building.
Belichick has a long standing relationship with Nick Saban and highly respects him so there is definitely belief in Jones’ abilities. He was the most accurate quarterback last season with a 77.4% completion rate, that’s higher than Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance and Justin Fields who were all drafted ahead of him.
A quarterback’s success in the NFL will always come down to one thing and that’s putting the football into your teammates hands, with a completion percentage that high it tells us that he can do it.
