NFL Insider Breaks Down Patriots Approach To Drafting Mac Jones

The New England Patriots took a different approach with the selection of rookie Mac Jones. Is he the quarterback of the future? Well, NFL analysts explain that the Patriots didn’t even need to make a power play in order to sign Jones.

The Patriots entered the 2021 NFL Draft with a huge need. They really needed a quarterback and head coach Bill Belichick had to get one. Sort of. A lot of analysts thought that the Patriots wouldn’t be able to get one of the top prospects in the draft. What happened next? Belichick grabbed Jones in the first round of the draft.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick had a nice approach to the selection of Mac Jones

Getting a quarterback is quite a challenge and teams are usually careful about it. Ian Rapoport from NFL Media discussed this topic Wednesday on “The Greg Hill Show.”

“They didn’t trade up because I believe, obviously the Patriots have pretty good information, they knew they didn’t need to,” Rapoport said, as transcribed by WEEI. “And obviously they were right. I know the Vikings (No. 14 overall) had some interest in Justin Fields ? and once he was gone everyone knew the Vikings were going to bail because they were making calls to teams behind them to possibly move back, right? The Vikings were looking at quarterback a little bit and then ended up moving back.

“Once that happened, the Patriots knew no one else was coming up for Mac Jones. To them, it was really more of a value, like, ‘Why would we move up if we clearly don’t have to? We’re just going to wait.’ And if they missed him, it would be a poorly calculated gamble, but they didn’t. They got him. So to me, that is just the Patriots having really good information and (predicting) the draft board falling as it did.”

Rapoport provided more inside information. He also discussed Jones’ chances of starting over veteran Cam Newton in his rookie campaign.

Belichick once said the 2015 NFL MVP was his quarterback for the season, but he may change his mind at some point.