Some of Mac Jones’ biggest fans are those who have played the game itself. Besides Jermaine Wiggins, seemingly every ex-NFL player endorsed Jones to play over Cam Newton.
That’s another reason to feel confident about the first rookie since Drew Bledsoe to start under center for the Patriots Week 1.
As training camp progressed, it seemed as if Bill Belichick would name Newton the starter, and that’s not just because he said as much. Newton started every preseason contest and practiced with the first team. Yet, ex-players kept campaigning for Jones, even before Newton took a mandatory five-day sabbatical for failing to follow COVID protocols.
Even before the NFL Draft, ESPN’s Louis Riddick was one of Jones’ biggest supporters. The former safety continued to lavish Jones with praise all summer — declaring him the best rookie in his class after just one preseason affair.
“His first preseason game what do they do? They go up-tempo, no-huddle, because things were a little sluggish for them against Washington,” Riddick said on NBC Sports Boston. “Josh [McDaniels] goes, ‘Let’s just go up-tempo, see how this works.’ It’s five wide, it’s empty, and they’re just like ‘zoom, zoom zoom.’ No other rookie quarterback is doing that. That just tells you right there that Josh said, ‘There are no limits with this guy.’
Ryan Clark, another former safety is also effusive about the fit between Jones and the Patriots. “This is the perfect place for Mac Jones,” he said this summer. “Mac Jones is fit to be a New England Patriots quarterback. Cam Newton is going to be descending, and Mac Jones is going to be ascending.”
It’s not just random ex-pros who are high on Jones: Many ex-Patriots floating around the airwaves are big fans as well — and even comparing him to Tom Brady. Patriots Hall of Famer Tedy Bruschi said last week he sees similarities between the offense the Patriots run with Jones and what they did with a young Brady.
“Now, in terms of how it looks: You are going to see similarities to this offense of when Tom Brady ran this offense,” Bruschi offered. “They are turning the page on Tom Brady but then opening up the Mac Jones chapter.”
Brady’s first NFL offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, went even further, calling the similarities between Jones and Brady “unbelievable.”
“The two most important things are do you have the ‘it’ factor and are you accurate? And he has the ‘it’ factor and he’s accurate," Weis said about Jones.
There have been other grandiose proclamations made about Jones, too: Dan Orlovsky said he’ll get them back to the top of the AFC; Jeff Saturday said Jones’ presence should put “fear” in teams across the AFC.
Jones was impressive in the preseason, completing 36 of 52 passes for 388 yards and one touchdown. But the former pros were gawking at more than his numbers. They were impressed with his preparedness and knowledge of the offense. On WEEI, Rob Ninkovich said he was hearing Patriots coaches were “very, very, very” impressed with Jones’ ability to take control of the offense.
Over the weekend, Ninkovich revealed that Jones was even teaching Newton the playbook.
We have to still be careful about setting the expectations for Jones too high. After all, he is a rookie. But he has the trust of ex-players, and most importantly, Belichick.
It’s hard to receive bigger endorsements than those.
