No pressure, kid.
In a recent mock draft, ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. had the New England Patriots drafting Mac Jones No. 15 overall.
Kiper joined WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni & Fauria” show this week and talked about the draft. When discussing his projection of the Patriots taking Jones, he compared the former Alabama quarterback to Tom Brady:
“What you need with a quarterback is competitiveness though the roof, Mac Jones has that. Tom Brady had that. You need to have an incredibly smart quarterback, that’s Mac Jones. That was Tom Brady. It is Tom Brady. Certainly, that leadership, that ability to galvanize, Mac has that — coming out of Michigan, coming out of Alabama. So, there are similarities there.”
Kiper recognizes that he is lifting expectations for Jones to a high level, but he explained why he thinks the QB can handle them:
“It’s going to be unfortunate that people are going to have those high expectations if he goes to New England that they are getting the next Tom Brady, but that is life in the big city as they say. No matter where you go you’re going to be expected to be really, really good.
“Mac playing at Alabama is probably prepared for that probably more than anybody else. This notion that they have all the talent around him allowed him to be successful is unfair. Tua had more talent around him than Mac Jones did, so there you go.”
If you ask some former Alabama players, they are big fans of Jones. As far as the competitiveness for the Bama QB, that’s something NFL teams love about him.
Whoever ends up drafting Jones shouldn’t expect seven Super Bowls out of him, but that probably won’t keep Jones from making that his goal.
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