The views and opinions written in this article are those of the author and do not represent WMSC or Montclair State University.
The San Francisco 49ers recently traded for the third overall pick in this year’s draft. This has in part led to the rise in the draft stock of University of Alabama Quarterback Mac Jones as many presume that the 49ers will use this pick to draft a replacement for the injury prone Jimmy Garoppolo. Before the trade the New England Patriots seemed like the perfect landing spot for the National championship winning QB as the Patriots have a decent foundation for him to work around. However Bill Belicheck decided that Cam Newton is the one to lead the Patriots back to the dynasty years. Mac Jones has a lot of upside of course he has the national championship game where he threw four touchdown passes but he also has great accuracy and can read opposing defensive schemes well, this is crucial to prevent interceptions and ultimately drive the ball down the field and score. However the one main concern with him that scouts will point to is that he is not the most mobile or athletic quarterback . If he were to be drafted by the San Francisco 49ers I believe that it would not be a good fit for him as according to sports illustrated the 49ers offensive line “ gave up 83 quarterback hits in 2020 — more than any other offensive line in the NFL”. While this can be attributed to injuries there is definitely a need for improvement on the line , they have somewhat addressed this need by signing center Alex Mack in free agency however there is still a need for a sturdy offensive line. In college Mac Jones played for a team that gave him every tool possible he was guarded by many future first and second round linemen, he was throwing to a heisman winning wide receiver and he had arguably the best coach in college football right now. As stated before Mac Jones is not exactly the most mobile quarterback and this is not a good trait for two reasons first the NFL is slowly fading away from the pocket passer era and are ushering in a new era of mobile quarterbacks such as Lamar Jackson, Russel Wilson, and Patrick Mahomes. The other reason is as previously stated the 49ers offensive line is nowhere near the caliber line that Mac Jones played under in college and thus he will have to run out of the pocket more often and improvise on plays more playing under center for the 49ers, on the rare occasions that the Alabama lineman would make mistakes we saw that Mac Jones could not adjust to the pressure or improvise on the play. The University of Alabama product has a lot of upside however if the 49ers want him to be their quarterback of the future and lead them back to the days of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice then they need to adapt to his skill sets and give him a better all around team to work with especially on the offensive line.
Article By Thomas Tarter
Photo by Wesley Hitt from Getty Images
