Alabama’s Mac Jones met with all 32 teams at the Senior Bowl including the New Orleans Saints.
He said Monday, he had contact with probably 20 teams since impressing throughout the week and his name has even been mentioned as the potential third overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft after the San Francisco 49ers traded into the slot.
But Jones said he’s not paying much attention to where he’s projected to land and is instead focused on what he’ll do when he gets there.
“They’re going to pick who they’re going to pick and I’m just going to go and work like I did for four years at Alabama and hopefully it works out in the long run,” he said.
Jones is coming off the best season of his college career and his first as the full-time starter after sitting behind Miami Dolphins starter Tua Tagovailoa and Philadelphia Eagles starter Jalen Hurts.
He set the NCAA single-season record for completion percentage (77.4) and led all Division I quarterbacks with 4,500 passing yards in 2020.
He started four games the previous season in relief of an injured Tagovailoa and said Monday he tried not to give much thought at that time to whether he’d eventually be in the position of being a first-round pick.
“I always had the confidence in myself but I try not to put to much in my brain and say ‘I’m going to be in the NFL Draft’ and things like that,” he said. “I was just trying to fight for my spot.”
He said that after the 2019 season his main focus was on simply getting better in preparation for the 2020 season.
“I made a bunch of good improvements and obviously last year we had COVID kind of hit so that was definitely weird. But, you know, looking back on it. I worked really hard to be here and everything that I’ve done, I worked for it,” he said.
Jones said he’ll be bringing that same work ethic to whichever team lands him in the upcoming draft.
“I think I’ve always tried to be a pro in whatever I do,” he said. “I think the team that picks me is going to realize that they don’t have to worry about me being the first guy in and the last guy out. I’m going to sit and watch as much film as I can and do all the right things and obviously the tape speaks for itself.”