There is no middle-ground when it comes to Christian Fauria's opinion of Mac Jones.
The OMF co-host made that perfectly clear when getting his first on-air chance to offer his take on the Patriots' first-round pick.
Fauria's message? Not only was Jones a great pick, but the Alabama product should start right out of the gate.
"Here's what I'll tell you: It's a great pick," said Fauria, kicking off Tuesday afternoon's show with Glenn Ordway and Lou Merloni. "It's the right pick. It's the perfect pick. They did an excellent job. I hear so many different analysis, so many different opinions about it ... We were talking about it forever. When you start looking at other Alabama quarterbacks, or forget about just Alabama quarterbacks, SEC quarterbacks, in particular Joe Burrow. A guy who had similar weapons, a guy who had a similar system, but did not have close to the coach that Mac Jones did. Ed Oregon, love him. But he's no tactician. He's rah, rah. He just happened to have the best talent in the SEC that year.
"This is the perfect pick.
"I'll tell you what else bugs me. People will look at the Mac Jones pick and say he's the fifth-best quarterback, they got screwed and they are just settling. No. I think people overvalue the aspect of these quarterbacks who can run. So fine, they can run. Oh, the league is changing. The league is turning into this and that and if you don't have a quarterback that has wheels than you can't run an offense. Then why are we drafting wide receivers that can run? Why are we drafting tackles? Why are we drafting running backs? Why are we drafting tight ends? Their job is to catch the ball. The offensive line's job is to block for the quarterback. The quarterback's job is to throw them the ball. That will never change. And specifically when you go against good defenses and they say you're not going to run young lad, you're not going to get outside. We're going to corral you and you have to make a throw. That's what the best teams do. This guy can do it.
"In this offense right now is tailor-made for him to have success Day 1. Not Week 6. Not Week 7 when things don't go right. Because things are going to go right. So why sit there and wait and play around with it and wait until you're comfortable. This whole offseason has been about uncharacteristic events. Aggressive events. Game-changing-type things. You can sit there and say, 'Well, you know, we took advantage of the market.' Bull crap. I say the mandate was let's win and let's win now."
Win now? With who?
"It is with Mac Jones, 100 percent," Fauria proclaimed.
