Highly respected ex-Patriots and NFL analysts keep comparing Mac Jones to Tom Brady. Maybe it’s time to listen.
Before we go further, there are obvious perquisites to include. Nobody believes Jones will be as good as Brady, or even in the same stratosphere. The latter is the greatest of all-time. The former is a rookie with 30 college games under his belt.
But the similarities in their games keep getting highlighted. Earlier this year, the Herald’s Andrew Callahan wrote a long feature story on Jones, detailing how he’s modeled certain aspects of his game after Brady: footwork, preparation, passing mechanics, how to contort his off-hand.
There’s also some overlap on their collegiate experiences (both beat out 5-star recruits), though admittedly not much. After all, Jones was picked at No. 15 overall.
Brady was selected at No. 199.
One thing is for certain: the Patriots can run something resembling their old offense with Jones. We saw that in the first preseason game, when Jones completed 8 of 9 passes to lead the Patriots on a scoring drive to kick off the third quarter.
That’s one reason why Charlie Weis, Brady’s former first offensive coordinator, is so bullish on the Alabama standout.
“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 Thursday on The Greg Hill Show. “Now, just like Tommy, Tommy as we know was not the most athletic person in the world, but what did he have? He had that feel in the pocket. He knew how to move in the pocket. He knew how to step up. He knew how to shuffle. He knew when to go down — there are times you’re just going to get hit and you have to go down. That’s what this kid is. That’s who this kid is.”
Weis coached Brady through his first three Super Bowls. It’s hard to find more assuring praise than that.
Though Rodney Harrison certainly tried.
“When I saw this kid play, I got excited. I saw versions of Tom Brady. If you put No. 12 on No. 10, that’s what I saw,” he told the Herald’s Karen Guregian.
When Jones is being compared to Brady, it’s not the TB12 of today, but rather the shrewd game manager he was earlier in his career.
It also doesn’t hurt they were both rocking the dad bod out of college.
That’s the exact point Tedy Bruschi brought up on ESPN (minus the dad bod). “In terms of how it looks: You are going to see similarities to this offense of when Tom Brady ran this offense,” he said. “They are turning the page on Tom Brady but then opening up the Mac Jones chapter.”
This isn’t just Mel Kiper invoking Jones and Brady together (though he did). This is Brady’s former offensive coordinator and two of his Super Bowl teammates.
If they don’t think it’s hyperbolic to bring it up, then neither should we.
