Experts disagree on Alabama football’s Mac Jones as a quarterback prospect.
Mac Jones is about to be drafted in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft after an excellent season with Alabama football, but he is still a polarizing prospect. That is apparent by simply turning on the television and listening to coverage leading up to the draft.
At its best, Mac Jones is going to be the best quarterback out of this class. At its worst, he is bound to bust regardless of his NFL landing spot.
To begin with the positive remarks, one has to start with Chris Simms. Simms is a former NFL quarterback with history evaluating NFL Draft prospects. In his recent quarterback rankings, he placed Mac Jones as QB3 ahead of Justin Fields and Trey Lance.
Simms received criticism regarding his list for many reasons, but he has a track record of nailing quarterback evaluations. He had Lamar Jackson as QB1 and Josh Allen as QB2 in 2018. Last season, he had Justin Herbert over Alabama football’s own Tua Tagovailoa. He was even high on Patrick Mahomes when few were. Needless to say, he has a history of bold predictions being accurate.
Dan Orlovsky has high praise for Mac Jones as well. He said that Jones’s tape is better than any other prospect in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Traits vs Tape
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) March 3, 2021
Good to chop it up with @nfldraftscout
Also the “one last thing was a lie”@ESPNNFL pic.twitter.com/pYCyw0GdfX
Orlovsky is another former NFL quarterback. He loves Jones’s ability to read the defense and process what he is seeing. These are elite traits that matter in the NFL, and Orlovsky believes it will cause Jones to succeed at the next level.
However, not everyone is as high on the Alabama football quarterback. In his latest mock draft, Daniel Jeremiah had Jones falling to the New Orleans Saints late in the first round. That doesn’t mean that Jeremiah is low on Jones, but this landing spot is certainly lower than many have him going at this point. He has also said that the addition of Jones limits an NFL playbook due to his inability to use his legs consistently. That’s a valid critique, but it shows the diversity of thought regarding Jones.
At the end of the day, we won’t be able to project his success until he is drafted by an NFL team. That being said, the range on Mac Jones is wide in the eyes of media scouts.