Patriots

NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper sees ‘a little bit of’ Tom Brady in Mac Jones

"He has that competitiveness, and he's so smart."

Alabama quarterback Mac Jones is drawing some comparisons to Tom Brady. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

February 28, 2021

As the NFL Draft approaches, there’s been no quarterback prospect that’s been linked to the Patriots more than Alabama’s Mac Jones. And ESPN NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper’s latest Jones comparison isn’t going to slow that down.

Kiper recently said that Jones has some of Tom Brady’s game in him.

“I hate to say, but he kind of has a little bit of [Tom] Brady in him,” Kiper told ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “I’m not saying he’s ever going to be Tom Brady. He wouldn’t be close, probably. But he has that competitiveness, and he’s so smart — he picked that offense up [at the Senior Bowl] like it was nothing. Other quarterbacks were struggling with the verbiage and — ‘boom!’ — he was in and out of the huddle quicker than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

Jones’s competitive nature and football IQ aren’t the only things that remind Kiper of Brady. Kiper also likens Jones’s arm to Brady’s.

“Then he sees the field. He’s tremendously accurate to all levels,” Kiper said. “He doesn’t have the ‘wow’ arm, like Brady didn’t either coming into the league. And like Brady, he’s not real mobile, not a runner. But biding time, slipping and sliding, he did it in the championship game. So there are some similarities there.”

Kiper isn’t wrong about Jones’s ability to complete passes. Jones had a 74.3 completion percentage over his college career, including a 77.4 completion percentage this past season. In addition to the strong completion percentage, Jones threw for 4500 yards and 41 touchdowns to just four interceptions this season.

Kiper isn’t the only person to recently rave over Jones. Former Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis gave his endorsement of Jones earlier this month.

“What are the two most important components of a star quarterback?” Weis said of Jones. “They have the ‘it’ factor. And they’re accurate. That’s who he was.”

In his first mock draft, Kiper had the Patriots selecting Jones with the No. 15 pick. However, Jones rose up the board in Kiper’s most recent mock draft, having him getting picked by the Panthers with the No. 8 pick. In the same mock draft, Kiper had the Patriots trading up with the Broncos for the No. 9 pick to select North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance.

Jones has already been in contact with the Patriots, having a meeting with the team’s scouts at the Senior Bowl.

“We just had a good conversation,” Jones said. “[We] talked and they got to know me really well. I really liked their [team’s] table. It’s kinda fun to see how different tables, they act a little different, but the Patriots were really cool and asked some really good questions.”