2021 NFL Draft: Know the Quarterbacks

Everyone who played QB in the NFL has Mac Jones over Justin Fields

2021 NFL Draft Thoughts

I’ll continue adding posts to this blog that detail why I believe Mac Jones is going to the 49ers. And it’s not even questionable to me if that’s the truth. There are a lot of people chattering that Justin Fields will ultimately end up in San Francisco. I’ve seen no evidence to support this and here’s my latest reason for expecting Jones to be Kyle Shanahan’s 2021 quarterback.

On Thursday, Hall of Fame QB Kurt Warner posted on his YouTube channel that Fields is his number four QB in this class, ahead of Trey Lance. It is safe to assume then that Jones is third and Zach Wilson will be second. Warner said that the way he sees the game is what makes him rank Wilson and Jones ahead of Fields, and the way he sees quarterbacking is that the player must be able to “process” the game quickly. He says that because he wasn’t an athletic quarterback or a read-option quarterback, that’s not the basis for how he’d evaluate draft quarterbacks. Maybe for somebody else, who played or coached QB differently, it would be equally justifiable to rank Fields as high as second. But Warner was a pocket QB who processed the game extraordinarily fast and got the ball out lightning quick.

Which is also exactly what Kyle Shanahan wants in a quarterback.

So far, everybody that I know of who used to play quarterback in the NFL has ranked Mac Jones ahead of Fields and Lance. Kurt Warner. Chris Simms. J.T. O’Sullivan. Simms even had Kellen Mond fourth, Fields fifth, and Lance sixth.

I’m not saying that list is comprehensive, but I also don’t know which NFL quarterbacks I’m leaving off of it. If you know of any, please add it to the comments. I’ll continue scouring the internet. I didn’t even know Warner had a YouTube channel. Nobody does. That video has a couple hundred views. (I guess I am not doing as bad as I thought.)

I’m also not saying that the opinion of former NFL quarterbacks is absolute and important. What I am saying is that if you’re looking for more reasons as to why Shanahan — who has worked with Matt Ryan, Jimmy Garoppolo, and reportedly pushed hard for Washington to take Kirk Cousins in 2012 even after selecting RGIII — will pick Mac Jones, then the opinion of three former NFL quarterbacks who likely have some genuinely valuable insight on what the 49ers are going to do could be yet another reason for it.

Shanahan wants Mac Jones. John Lynch isn’t going to stop him and Jones will probably prove them to be correct in this decision.

UPDATE: Louis Riddick said “QB tutors and offensive coordinators … told me they believe Mac Jones is the BEST quarterback in this draft.”