Patriots

Jalen Hurts explained why having a ‘very unique college career’ was helpful for Mac Jones’s NFL future

"Ultimately when it was his time, he took off with it."

By Hayden Bird

June 29, 2021

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As he heads into his first NFL training camp, Mac Jones has no shortage of fans among his former Alabama teammates.

Jones, who led the Crimson Tide to the national championship before being selected 15th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft by New England, received recent praise from Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Hurts and Jones overlapped at Alabama for two years before the former transferred to Oklahoma. Even after Hurts left, Jones had to wait behind fellow first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa.

But according to Hurts, Jones’s patience paid off.

“Mac Jones, he had the opportunity — I think the best way you can learn is to watch,” Jalen Hurts explained in a recent interview with WVTM 13 in Birmingham, Alabama. “Watch, take note of those around you, kind of learn the lay of the land if you will, and learn that way.

“Mac had a very unique college career where he had to stay patient and it worked out for him,” Hurts noted. “And I’m happy it did. He was able to watch me and Tua go through that, get him some burn here and there, and ultimately when it was his time, he took off with it. And now he has a great opportunity for his future.”

Jones enters Patriots training camp behind Cam Newton on the depth chart, but could compete for a starting job quickly in his NFL career.