June Jones thinks Mac Jones is a better prospect than Trevor Lawrence

quote:

---

June Jones, the former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and San Diego Chargers, has watched many of the top quarterbacks available for the 2021 NFL draft. He hasn't seen them all. But he's seen enough of Lawrence to be less smitten with the overwhelming favorite for the No. 1 overall pick to know that if it was Jones' pick at that spot, he'd be cooking up some other plans.

"Hey, I do like him. But I would not take him with the first pick, though," Jones told Yahoo Sports by phone from his home in Honolulu. "Everyone is saying that’s the guy at 1. But I would trade that pick and take one of these other quarterbacks down the line."

The two quarterbacks he prefers? Well, one is by now nearly a household name — at least among those dialed into the NFL draft process. BYU's Zach Wilson, who could be the second overall choice to the New York Jets, is higher on his pecking order than Lawrence.

But Wilson isn't Jones' No. 1 QB prospect this year. He's got Alabama's Mac Jones up top.

---

quote:

---

We asked Jones: Why is he so (relatively) low on Lawrence?

"He’s a very talented kid, don’t get me wrong, and I think he’s a winner," Jones said. "He can do things that other quarterbacks can’t do, such as run.

"But what I’ve noticed is, when you see him drop back and throw, let’s say, a 9-route down the field, on those completions that he had over 20 yards, a lot of times his receivers make great plays on those balls. And they weren’t right on the money, they weren’t right in stride. The receivers sometimes had to work for the deep ball with him than what (you’d expect from) a great quarterback."

---

quote:

---

Why so high on Mac Jones?

No, it's not just a surname thing. June Jones believes Mac Jones — who started a mere 17 games at Alabama — is the best quarterback prospect in this class because of his downfield accuracy.

Many evaluators Yahoo Sports have talked to have lamented Mac Jones' lack of dual-threat ability. He's simply not a scrambler of any note, and his athletic traits (including raw arm strength) almost certainly will grade as average to below-average compared to other prospects in this class and the NFL's upper-tier QBs.

But June Jones doesn't see it that way.
"Mac's deep-ball accuracy is probably the best that I have graded in my years of coaching quarterbacks," June Jones said. "He’s almost at 55 percent at over 20 yards, which is unbelievable."

---

quote:

---

"(Mac Jones) is a receiver watcher," June Jones said. "I could tell watching him on television when they had the right camera angle. And I really think that is huge for him. It's how he naturally throws the deep ball."
With this level of hot take, June Jones understands he's going to be very much in the minority on his Mac-over-Trevor take. But ask him if he cares.

"Some people are going to have a problem with me saying that because he’s only done it one year, yadda yadda ya," June Jones said. "But I saw enough in one year where you say, if that’s his only year, wow, that guy is going to be something else."

---