Report: Saints met with Senior Bowl QBs Mac Jones, Jamie Newman

The New Orleans Saints met with 2021 NFL draft prospects Mac Jones, from Alabama, and Jamie Newman, of Wake Forest, at the Senior Bowl.

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Let’s start this off with a disclaimer: every team meets with every prospect at some point before the annual NFL draft. A facility visit or conversation between a player and team scout doesn’t mean they’ll end up being picked by that team. So don’t read too deeply into these reports, even during an offseason with so much limited access due to COVID-19 restrictions.

So with that said, the New Orleans Saints have met with two quarterbacks at this year’s Senior Bowl: Alabama’s Mac Jones and Wake Forest’s Jamie Newman, per Canal Street Chronicles’ Ross Jackson (who went into further detail on his conversation with Jones on the Locked on Saints podcast). Both prospects are being coached by the Carolina Panthers staff this week.

Jones told Jackson that he was optimistic about his meeting with the Saints and what he was able to deliver in a question-and-answer session, noting that the shared DNA in Panthers coordinator Joe Brady’s offense and the New Orleans system (where Brady came up in the NFL) helped him draw some similarities between what the Saints were looking for and what he’s done in Senior Bowl practices.

Though he only started a full year in his final season with the Crimson Tide, Jones finished his college career with a ratio of 56 touchdowns thrown against just 7 interceptions, with a career completion percentage of 74.3%. He’s built a reputation as someone who can get the most out of his talented teammates, and reports from the Senior Bowl suggest he’s carried that over despite working with an unfamiliar roster.

As for Newman; he transferred to Georgia in 2019 but opted out of his senior season. He brings a very different skills set compared to Jones, having logged 245 rushing attempts for 826 yards on the ground with 10 touchdown runs in his Demon Deacons career. He also completed 60.5% of his passes with a career ratio of 35 touchdown passes to 16 interceptions.

So it’s clear the Saints are considering all options as April’s draft inches closer. Even if it’s not reported that they’ve visited with a specific prospect, it’s likely that they’ll touch base in some fashion — probably over a Zoom or Skype video call.