When it comes to who will be selected with the first overall pick, there aren’t many seasons that include less speculation than this one. Almost certainly, Jacksonville will take former Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence with the selection.
Almost exclusively, draft prognosticators have Lawrence as the top passer in this class, usually followed by either Zach Wilson from BYU or Justin Fields from Ohio State.
But June Jones, a former NFL coach for the San Diego Chargers and Atlanta Falcons and college coach for Hawaii and Southern Methodist, has a bit of an… unorthodox take.
His top quarterback isn’t Lawrence. Nor is it Fields. Nor Wilson. It’s not even Trey Lance, the mysterious but intriguing prospect from North Dakota State who only got to play one game this season. According to Jones, the best quarterback in the draft as national championship-winning Alabama quarterback and 2020 Heisman finalist Mac Jones.
“Mac’s deep-ball accuracy is probably the best that I have graded in my years of coaching quarterbacks,” Jones said. “He’s almost at 55 percent at over 20 yards, which is unbelievable.
“(Mac Jones) is a receiver watcher. 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.”
Jones’ take is interesting, but it certainly runs counter to most draft experts, who have Mac closer to No. 5 or 6 on the quarterback rankings. And though the former coach may think he’s better than Lawrence, the odds that the Jaguars pull the trigger on him are basically negligible.
Most draft analysts see Jones coming off the board as a mid or late first-rounder, so his projections aren’t really close to Lawrence’s right now.