Patriots OC Josh McDaniels explains what he saw in Mac Jones during draft process

As everyone at Alabama’s Pro Day studied how Mac Jones was throwing, from his footwork up to his follow-through, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was eyeing something else.

McDaniels wanted to see how Jones carried himself. How he commanded the workout. How he treated the teammates around him, who were also busy performing for dozens of NFL evaluators.

Sure, McDaniels’ cared about Jones’ mechanics, as any good offensive coach would. But even without an obvious quarterback of the future, as the Pats were back in March, McDaniels wanted to know more about Jones’ head and heart than his arm.

“You have to watch them interact with people,” McDaniels said Thursday. “Are they ready for this kind of a situation? There’s been a lot of people at a lot of these Pro Days this year, so big crowd. Can they handle that? It’s not a game like environment, but you know there’s some pressure there, and they want to do well. And you just want to kind of pick up how they handle those kinds of events.”

After mentioning presence and command, McDaniels said essentially what he liked about Jones coming out were three things: how Jones won big games, protected the football and ran the Tide’s offense at a high level. The two later met over video conference, when McDaniels picked the young quarterback’s brain. He taught Jones a few of the team’s passing concepts and had him spit them back.

McDaniels’ objective was to determine how Jones learns and to test whether he could learn fast enough for the Patriots’ liking. This knowledge would help round out the team’s evaluation of his personal makeup, which the Pro Day had already informed.

Clearly, the kid passed.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2SbG1U5