Charlie Weis Loves the Idea of the Pats Drafting Mac Jones. This is a Big Deal.
MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images. Getty Images.In the high stakes, pressure-packed, dog-eat-dog world of draft punditry, you've got to choose carefully whose opinions you're going to pay attention to. As I've said before, mock drafts - which I look at as much as the next guy - are an exercise in futility, even coming from your apex draft gurus. The world is full of Charlie Casserlys, pulling opinions out of their asses. And few if any insiders are insidery enough to have the first clue what goes on inside teams' personnel department meetings as they sift through the college talent pool, make assessments and strategize. So when one of them actually might not only have insight, but actual influence when it comes to talent evaluation speaks, you better listen.
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Which brings us to Patriots former offensive coordinator and member of the Three Ring Club Charlie Weis, and who he'd like to see his boy Bill Belichick and Good Boy Nike do about their quarterback situation.
Source - In his trademark blunt way, he characterized it this way: "I don't want to be one of those people telling them how they are dumbasses if they don't do that."
With that context, Weis, who coached in the team's first three Super Bowl championships, is high on Alabama's Mac Jones as a great fit.
"What are the two most important components of a star quarterback? They have the 'it' factor. And they're accurate. That's who he was," Weis said.
Weis … initially shared his viewpoint during an interview on his Sirius XM NFL Radio program with co-host Bill Lekas. He was asked to expound on it in a follow-up conversation with ESPN.com.
One of the knocks on Jones is he was surrounded by an all-star level cast at Alabama, but Weis sees that as more of a positive factor.
"You talk about being around good players. Yeah, he was around good players. But playing on a team with a bunch of stars, who is the leader of the offense?" Weis said. "He also had to make all those throws. I think the kid is an excellent quarterback. He has less holes than just about anybody." …
"If you're looking for a guy that's going to be running for 30 yards on a regular basis, that's not your guy. But he can move in the pocket, and from the pocket, and run the ball when he absolutely needs to.
"When you talk about Trevor Lawrence, what makes him so special is that he can do everything Mac Jones can and he's athletic. [Justin] Fields, really good player. Zach Wilson, really good player. The kid from North Dakota State [Trey Lance], really good player.
"But this guy, [Jones], he's the one making all the plays. All he does is win and throw completions."
Weis made a comparison to New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees when he was coming out of Purdue in 2001.
"He went in the second round because everyone said, 'He doesn't take any snaps under center and his arm is not strong enough.' All he did was play great at Purdue, and complete almost every pass," Weis said. "How has that worked out?"
Weis' opinion matters for several reasons which I probably don't have to elaborate on, but I will anyway. Not only was he in on the ground floor of building the Bradichick Dynasty, he was essential to it. He introduced the Erhardt-Perkins offense in 2000. When Dick Rehbein went to QB Coach Valhalla unexpectedly in 2001, Weis took over the duty and guided a young, inexperienced and 70% less handsome Tom Brady into history. He stayed in Belichick's inner circle long after he left for Notre Dame. And he was, along with Bill Parcells, a huge promoter of Jacoby Brissett in the lead up to the 2016 draft. And say what you will about Brissett, Belichick agreed enough to take him 91st overall. And five years later he's still in the league and has 32 starts on his curriculum vitae. So if you'll pardon my verbiage since I'm talking about a guy who gets around in a handifat scooter, but Charlie Weis' opinion carries weight in Foxboro.
More to the point, Weis understands as well as anybody what the Patriots offense prioritizes at the position. What their quarterback "type" is. And everything he says about Mac Jones lines up perfectly with that Belichick internal memo from the early '90s that NFL Network's draft guy Daniel Jeremiah found last year:
When you're top priorities are good decisions, then arm, size, and intangibles like toughness, leadership and competitiveness, as well as accuracy over a "cannon" arm, then it seems to me you can't do much better at No. 15 than Jones. Yes, the game has evolved some in 30 years and you can't ignore all the Patrick Mahomeses and Deshaun Watsons leaving the pocket and completing passes on second reaction plays. And in a perfect world your quarterback will do that. But it's impossible to ignore the guy who's won every other Super Bowl for the last seven years running the very system Weis taught him - rarely if ever does that. And that system puts more of a premium on the QB1 being a true Alpha. So Weis' point about Jones having to take the lead in a huddle surrounded by future NFL talent is well taken.
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Most of the mocks seem to think Jones is a product of the talent around him in Nick Saban's Industrial National Title Complex and would be a reach at 15. And yet, Tua Tagovailoa was taken at No. 5 last year and here's a great comparison between the two:
Listening to Charlie Weis on this one would be a bold move, indeed. It would indicate a long haul build is underway, not a quick fix to get back to the top. But it is utterly doable. We're all talking about how the Pats have the third most cap space this year and can spend their way to a fast rebuild. I myself can't shut up about it. But we've been sort of ignoring the fact that, according to Over the Cap, in 2022 they have the second most space. In 2023 they go up to No. 1. And in 2024 they're second again. Meaning they are positioned to be very good for a very long time, provided they land a quality quarterback they can build around. And I'm agreeing with Weis, Jones would be a hell of a choice. He'd know.